Word: dragone
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Kiss of the Dragon, a brooding, bustling action film that premiered in the U.S. a few weeks ago and opens in Hong Kong and other Asian outposts next week, is Li's surprising detour de France. It imagines that Liujian (Li), a detective from the PRC, has come to Paris to track down some very bad folks. He soon learns that the worst baddies are in the Paris police force. Inspecteur Richard (TchEky Karyo)?who kills for profit, for revenge and, sometimes, just for fun?frames Liujian for murder, then realizes that his patsy has a copy of a videotape...
...film is that rare bird: a true tricontinental production. Li and his favorite collaborator, action choreographer Corey Yuen, represent Asia; Fonda and screenwriter Robert Mark Kamen fly the Stars and Stripes. But the secret ingredient is Luc Besson, the French auteur (Nikita, The Fifth Element) who produced Dragon, wrote the story, set the dark, violent tone, signed French music-video ace Chris Nahon to direct and chose Karyo, the angular menacer who shone in Nikita, to play the spuming villain. The film's other star is Paris. Like any self-respecting thriller set in a famous city, Dragon stages action...
...which stars China's Ge You (known for To Live), Hong Kong's Rosamund Kwan (Once Upon a Time in China) and Hollywood's gravel-voiced perennial Donald Sutherland. Backed by the might of Columbia Pictures Film Production Asia, Big Shot will try to do a Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon without kung fu, swirling costumes or any of the standard chinoiserie?and on a measly $5 million budget...
...That route, up through the Indian Ocean, closely followed Zheng He's voyages. A purist, the first preparation Cuthbert made for his trip was to rip out the wheelhouse. "You have to feel the elements," he says. Once, off Sri Lanka, more than 100 dolphins swam alongside the Precious Dragon, taking turns surfing the bow wave. When sailing in the junk, he says, "you feel that time's stopped. She moves very gracefully, silently...
...After Cuthbert's success sailing the Precious Dragon to Britain, he received a phone call from a fellow Englishman, a maritime adventurer named Rex Warner, who wanted to borrow the ship to recreate one of Zheng He's trips. Cuthbert happily agreed. The Precious Dragon was loaded onto a freighter, shipped back to Hong Kong and prepared for its new journey. Warner was anxious to set off in the autumn, catching the strong west winds, as Zheng He had done...