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14th
July 2001 : Hong Kong and Japan premieres
As you all know, Jet went to
Hong Kong last week and to Japan this week to promote Kiss of
the Dragon. There are sites where you can find many pics about
these two events, which both seemed very cool !
About the HK premiere: http://www2u.biglobe.ne.jp/~feifon/
This site provides many pics of Jet and Nina, as well as pics with
Jet, Luc Besson and many HK actors, plus you can view a lot of videos
related to the promotion, like interviews of Jet and so on.
About Japan's premiere:www.jetli.com/japan
(hosted by Kaori)
and http://www.hi-ho.ne.jp/tasato/2001.htm
(hosted by Kimie)
20th
June 2001 : Kiss of the Dragon again
The Kiss of the Dragon
French site is also available and quite different from the US one
: check it out ! http://www.lebaiserdudragon.com
(thanks to Rafaël for the info !)
We also posted a new pic from the movie on the Official French Site...
www.jetli.com/france/index.php
16th
June 2001 : Kiss of the Dragon site
The Kiss of the Dragon
site is now really available and nicely packed with awesome flash
animation... click there to go ! http://www.kissofthedragon.com/kod.html
29th
May 2001 : another Cannes pic
Here is a pic we found in a
famous French TV magazine...
16th
May 2001 : New KOD pic !
Here is a pic a fan found on
the Internet... This movie really looks great !
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Click on thumbnail
to view larger image
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4th
May 2001 : Karate-Bushido article on Cyril Raffaelli
March 2001 issue of Karate-Bushido
magazine allows us to meet one of Jet's opponents in Kiss of
the Dragon, Cyril Raffaelli (the scary blond fighter we can
briefly see in the trailer).
This stuntman started his training at home when he was 6 with nunchaku
and Full-Contact, and started Karate Shotokan at the age of 11 when
he had the opportunity to take lessons, then Kung Fu Wushu (with Paul
Charroy and Sierhan Djezzar), and he was the winner in this last discipline
at the technical World Cup in 1997 (IKFF)... He became a stuntman
on several movies such as Dobermann (Jan Kounen), Double
Team (where he was Jean-Claude Van Damme's double), Ronin,
Jeanne d'Arc-The Messenger (Luc Besson),
Taxi 2 (produced by Luc Besson) and of course Kiss
of the Dragon (Chris Nahon) where he was chosen by Luc Besson
and Jet Li...
Here is what he says about Jet Li and Corey Yuen :
(...)Karaté-Bushido : "In addition
to Jet Jet Li, you worked with the excellent Chinese choreographer
Corey Yuen on the set of Kiss of the Dragon. Certainly a dream
for you..
Cyril Raffaelli : Exactly,
it is all the more a dream since Corey is a very friendly person.
He is an image fanatic whose humility only equals his great talent.
Karaté-Bushido : How were your days with Jet Li?
Cyril Raffaelli : They were quite difficult because of the
high level if his requirements. For example, he insists a lot on the
movements' execution
speed during the fights, and this brings a lot of energy to the action
scenes. Aesthetism is also one of his requirements, and the result
will certainly be visible on screen."
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Here
is the second exclusive pic of Kiss of the Dragon...
(click on the thumbnail to see a larger picture)
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2nd
May 2001 : Kiss of the Dragon trailer
Kiss
of the Dragon's trailer is finally
available on the net, and it rocks !
Here is the link : http://216.133.243.58
26th April 2001 : Kiss
of Dragon pics
Stanley's site, The Jet Lee Homepage, provides
us new pics of Kiss of Dragon, among them one seems
to take place on the bateau-mouche scene, on the Seine river. The
other one is slightly different from the one we posted on our site,
where Jet is kicking a guy in what looks like a hospital...
Here is the link : http://www.netasia.net/users/sgc_wdi/news.htm
16th
April 2001 : some little more about Kiss of Dragon
Found
on a French site, some little news which take us back to January 2001,
at the time they shot again a scene on the Alexandre III bridge at
the end of January (and which Rafaël had informed us about at
the time)... We have the opportunity to discover the names of the
crew members, as well as a few pictures...
Link : http://www.tournages-lesite.com/pages/essaicam2/essai.html
(Thanks to Masato for the info !)
18th March 2001 : Kiss
of Dragon casting
For those who are wondering who Jet's opponents are
in Kiss of Dragon, Karate Bushido magazine in
its January issue had mentioned the presence of Hoang Nghi and Didier
Beddar. We've been seeking for some information in our brother's Karate
Bushido pile, and here is what we've gathered, in order to bring
you up a more precise idea of Kiss of Dragon's ambition.
The simple fact that Hoang Nghi and Didier Beddar are in the movie
and that Pascal Gentil has been auditioned (his presence in the movie
is unconfirmed) shows indeed that the producers have targetted high...
* HOANG NGHI
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Huang Nghi is the son of Hoang Nam who is pionneer of the introduction
of Kung Fu in France. He has been ranked many times in international
podiums. He also participated to several French movies using
martial arts, such as Taxi 2 (Luc Besson production,
1999), Le Pacte des Loups (Christophe Gans, 2000
- Hoang Nghi worked on this movie with Mark Dacascos) and of
course lots of us remember his superb demonstration in Augustin
Roi du Kung-fu (Anne Fontaine, 1998). But he devotes
most of his time to teaching : thus his school is the first
in France as for the number of graduated students.
Having studied numerous styles apart from Wushu, he has already
been proposed a post as national trainer, in Taekwondo for example...
Source : Karate Bushido n° 279, May 2000.
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* DIDIER BEDDAR
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Didier Beddar started his training in 1977 at the age of 14
with traditional Kung Fu Wushu. In order to complement his training,
he studied Wing Chun (Southern Style) a few years later. Before
getting his graduation in 1991 he stayed many times in Australia
where he followed the teaching of Master William Cheung and
of his young brother David Cheung. With these two Masters he
worked on a very large range of internal and external techniques.
At the same period, he studied Tai Chi, Chen style, and some
traditional Chinese weapons with Master Liang Chang Xing.
Didier Beddar is considered today one of the highest graduates
of Master William Cheung's Academy and is also considered one
of the most reliable autorities in Wing Chun style. In 1993,
he created in Paris the first and biggest Wing Chun Academy
in France, and soon opened other Academies outside Paris and
abroad.
Source : Karate Bushido n°287, February 2001
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8th March 2001 : KISS
OF DRAGON, synopsis...
Here is the synopsis of KOD found on the unifrance
site
"A man coming from Hong Kong arrives in Paris.
The same evening, he is part of a mission consisting in catching a
corrupted Chinese high dignitary red-handed.
The mission turns bad. The high-dignitary gets murdered and our hero
falls into the trap that has been settled for him. He takes the full
responsability for the murder.
So our hero is tracked down in Paris, which he doens't know at all,
and will have much difficulty to prove his innocence."
(Thanks to Rafaël)
10th February 2001 :
KISS OF DRAGON, teaser...
Here is the
teaser of Kiss of Dragon ...
(Click on to view larger) |
(Many
thanks to Rafael)
6th February 2001 : KISS
OF DRAGON, last shots...
On Sunday 28th January,
between 8.00 am and 9.00 am, like a weel-trained military commando
and with extreme efficiency, the crew of the movie produced by Luc
Besson was finishing the last shots to be edited on the Alexandre
III bridge.
But this time without Jet Li.
* 8:00 am : the sun is rising, the area is deserted except for the
presence of a few courageous joggers and a late merry-maker. Further,
on the middle of the bridge on the left pavement looking in direction
of Les Invalides, a group of people seem to be discussing.
We understand later that it is the directing, the technicians (assistants,
stunts, ...) who are having a look at the set to take their marks
so that everything runs allright. Down below, on the bank, some trucks
and cars are parked. About twenty people are coming out. They are
preparing the two cameras -one on Steadycam, the other by hand, and
in a few minutes everything is ready.
(click on to view
larger) |
* 8:15 am : the Alexandre
III bridge is deserted again. Has the little group of
people disappeared?
* 8:20 am : the sun has almost risen and there should be enough
diaphragm for a 500 ASA film.
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* 8:25 am : Suddenly appearing
in a hurry from the left stairs of the quay, all the technicians invade
the bridge. Production director, steadycam operator, cameraman, operator
assistants, assistant director, location manager and his assistants,
and so on... The traffic on the right lane gets soon interrupted.
Courteously but firmly, the bridge is obstructed on both sides. Two
police cars suddenly step quickly onto the road towards Les Invalides,
then stop in the middle of the bridge, and a few minutes later, three
other cars driven by stuntmen brust on opposite to them. Ready and...
action! The steadycam operator crosses the bridge from right to left,
following the main actor. The scene runs as planned., but we will
voluntarily not develop its plot. Two takes only. The traffic gets
normal again. Everybody vanishes.
* 8:30 am : The Alexandre III is deserted again. The re-shooting
of this shot has lasted only ten minutes. There is still one left
on the bateau-mouche, which will probably be done just as fast.
Great efficiency, no useless talk, no bother for Parisian people who
are still asleep at this early hour of Sunday. And at noon, everyone
will be gone home. Believe me, Luc Besson can be proud of his crew.
(Thanks to à Rafaël for those
informations)
28th January 2001 : New
article from KARATE BUSHIDO
The January 2001 issue of Karaté
Bushido proposes us some "stolen information" about
Kiss of Dragon... We advise you to take these little
revelations with much carefulness, since we don't know what the source
is, particularly those which tell about the scenes themselves.
There are obviously spies everywehere !
Article : The secret shooting
of Luc Besson
19th January 2001 : pics
of the hotel of Montreux...
The website "Le Monde
de Méliès" (French site dedicated to Luc Besson)
has put online two pics of the Montreux Palace hotel, where the team
of Kiss of Dragon rent a whole stair to shoot a scene
of the movie last December...
(Le Monde de Méliès
: http://www.besson.qc.ca/fr/news.html)
30th
December 2000 : Kiss of the Dragon, end of shooting...
The shooting of Kiss
of the dragon is coming to its end, Jet Li and Yuen Kwai's
team just flew over back to the United States. The French team still
has much to do but should end the shooting around 12th January.
However, Jet Li's schedule is already filled in the next months since
he should start the shooting of The One at the end of
January...
11th
Dec 2000
Article
in the Swiss daily magazine La Presse about Kiss of the dragon's
shooting in Montreux : "The
dragon stays at the Montreux Palace"
29th
Nov 2000
Like
his friend Thang, Raymond Bramwell accepted to talk about his experience
in the metro scene of Kiss of the Dragon.
Click here ...
26th
Nov 2000
Thang
Nguyen accepted to share with us his experience as an extra on the
shooting of Kiss of the Dragon. Click here
for this exclusive interview...
16th
Nov 2000
This
time both of us were here on the Bir-Hakeim bridge to watch the crew
on the bateau-mouche... It was about 12:30pm when we arrived,
the weather was cold and rainy and all the people from the crew were
waiting inside until the rain stops...
Later they started to shoot a scene. There were several extras on
the top and some men were dressed in GIGN uniform (some special French
anti-terrorist unit). It seemed that the GIGN men had to run through
the scared people... everyone was shouting. The funny detail for those
who regurlarly go on Jet's Official site's Yang Message Board was
that Xavier, known as Leepifer, was among the extras on the boat...
What a lucky guy!
We took some pics so that you can see how it looked like... You can
even see the Eiffel Tower on one of them.
15th
Nov 2000
I
(Elodie) just saw a bit of the shooting taking place on the Seine
river today on a bateau-mouche (a kind of specific boat for
tourists on the Seine river). When I arrived on the Bir-Hakeim
bridge (near to Eiffel Tower), the boat was stopped and about to pass
under. I walked on the bridge just over it, looking at the people
busy on the boat, when I noticed a man sitting by himself at the front,
waiting. It was Jet. I hadn't recognized him first because he was
wearing a hood : it was actually very cold. Somebody talked to him
and he stood up, put off his coat and the bateau-mouche started
to move under the bridge. When I saw them again on the other side
of the bridge, the stunt or whatever he had to do was finished! I
didn't stay that long since I had to go back to work but when I left
they were starting again the same, and I noticed a few men dressed
in uniforms who were warming up, and others preparing mattresses (I
guess it was for stunts...).
12th
Nov 2000
We
just learnt that Jet was shooting this morning at Plazza de
la Concorde from about 7:00am to 10:00am. He was just supposed
to rinse out his face at the Fountain of the famous Plazza... No action
here, but cold and rainy weather on this Paris Sunday...
We
heard about some locations in famous Paris places such as Hotel Regina
and Sacré Coeur. There are also some locations like Gare de
L'Est metro station for an action scene, and there seem to be a scene
happening in a metro train starting from Nationale station (near Paris'
Chinatown) to Madeleine station...
24th
Oct 2000
We
had the chance to watch a whole scene of the shooting in late October.
This scene was taking place at Quai de Valmy (Quay of Valmy),
Paris 10th district and was involving Jet Li in a dramatic scene with
Bridget Fonda... We saw Producer Luc Besson and Director Chris Nahon.
Tcheky Karyo was also here though not acting in the scene.
Jet
was dressed with what seemed like a black trenchcoat and had to walk
a bit along the quay with Bridget Fonda while they were talking lively.
They seemed like in a dramatic argument in the beginning and then
he soon had to take her by the arm but she was resisting and shouting
at him. At the end of the scene he seemed like trying to comfort her...
She was obviously dressed like a prostitute and we could see she had
a lot of make-up on her face. The scene didn't seem to last more than
4 or 5 minutes but they did it hundred times. We stood here for almost
three hours but they had not even finished when we finally left at
midnight!
The
two of us were here with our friend Masato and it was our first time
seeing Jet in real... Even if we saw him from quite a little distance,
we have to say that we were struck by his professionalism: between
every take, he kept repeating his lines with intense concentration,
and from one time to another his acting was still so convincing. Even
from this distance we could feel how charismatic he actually is...
This was an amazing experience!
The
funny thing was that some Chinese tourists were walking by this quay
by chance and as soon as they saw him they called all their touristic
group : they couldn't believe it was actually Li Lian Jie shooting
in Paris!
We'll
try to keep you informed as soon as we have some more information....
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