Kiss of the Dragon

For Hong Kong superstar Jet Li — eager to make an even bigger splash in America after last year’s ”Romeo Must Die” — Hollywood moves too slowly. ”In the Hong Kong film industry,” he explains, ”it’s like a small family. They decide what to do and do it right away. In the States? It takes two years, because your family is so big!” Li’s solution: Go to France and produce your own $25 million star vehicle with filmmaker Luc Besson (”The Fifth Element”).

Li plays a Chinese agent embroiled in a Parisian conspiracy — like you care about plot. The actor used his website to poll fans on the action they wanted to see, and the survey said: the street fighting of his 1994 favorite ”Fist of Legend.” Although in one scene he battles 25 cops, Li says his biggest challenge was playing a mean machine who’s really an average Joe. ”Like me,” Li insists. ”If some guys come up to me with a gun, even I give up. Because what’s the point?”

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