The final words of Tomorrow Never Dies are spoken by James Bond and try to sell us on Bond and Wai Lin’s romantic relationship. Sorry, but they just don’t have great chemistry and some I would consider the weakest of any Bond movie. Perhaps it’s because so much of the movie is spent with Wai Lin proving she can operate independently from Bond that the romance never fully clicks.

This is also one of the early examples of the shift away from the traditional “damsel in distress” Bond girl toward women who can completely hold their own and don’t need Bond to save them. There’s a balance to strike: I don’t want a completely helpless character (Molly Goodhead), but I also cringe when a Bond girl tries too hard to be Bond’s equal simply for the hell of it (Jinx).

Wai Lin actually works better as a partner in an action movie than as a romantic match for Bond. The movie seems more interested in showing that she can out-Bond Bond than in building a genuine attraction, which is probably why the final kiss feels more contrived than organic.