Yamakasi - Les samouraïs des temps modernes (2001)

User Rating:

5.6/10   

Directors:

Ariel Zeitoun
Julien Seri

Writers:

Luc Besson (scenario) &
Philippe Lyon (scenario) ...

Release Date:

4 April 2001 (Belgium)

Genre:

Action | Drama | Crime

Plot:

Gravity or Police, these guys don't believe in any law. Idolised by the youth of Paris as much as they're hated by the police...

Plot Keywords:

Roof | Police | Paris | Youth | Hospital

Cast

Châu Belle Dinh	...	Les Yamakasi - Baseball (Oliver Chen)
Williams Belle	...	Les Yamakasi - L'Araignée (Bruno Duris)
Malik Diouf	...	Les Yamakasi - La Belette (Malik N'Diaye)
Yann Hnautra	...	Les Yamakasi - Zicmu (Ousmane Dadjacan)
Guylain N'Guba-Boyeke	...	Les Yamakasi - Rocket (Abdou N'Goto)
Charles Perrière	...	Les Yamakasi - Sitting Bull (Ousmane Bana)
Laurent Piemontesi	...	Les Yamakasi - Tango (Michel Lucas)
Maher Kamoun	...	Vincent
Bruno Flender	...	Michelin
Amel Djemel	...	Aila
Afida Tahri	...	Fatima
Abdelkrim Bahloul
Nassim Faid	...	Djamel (as Nassim Faïd)
Pascal Léger	...	Commissaire Orsini
Frédéric Pellegeay	...	Fretin

Also Known As:

Yamakasi (France) (short title)

Runtime:

90 min | Denmark:91 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Iceland:12 | South Korea:15 | Denmark:11 | Finland:K-7 | France:U | Germany:6 | Hong Kong:IIB | Norway:11 | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:PG | Spain:7 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud)

Filming Locations:

Paris, France

Company:

Europa Corp.

Trivia:

Often mistaken for Japanese, the word yamakasi is actually taken from the Lingala language, which is spoken in the two Congos. Ya makási can mean "strong body, strong spirit, strong person", though in French usage its meaning is closer to "high energy".

Goofs:

Continuity: During the pursuit on the roofs after two Yamakasi steal the painting in the lady's apartment, their masks are repeatedly on and off between shots.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Troldspejlet: (#29.6)" (2003)

Here's a story about globalization...

I saw this movie in Hong Kong in October 2001 DUBBED by a famous (the only one in Hong Kong???) local Cantonese hip-hop collective called LMF (Lazy Muthaf*ckas) in Cantonese and I have never laughed so hard in my life. It was a brilliant move on the part of the distributers to wide-release it with an entirely redone script and was extremely popular for weeks. There were brilliant rhyme sequences on the part of the ensemble that could only be replicated in Cantonese. They also had a dubbed Mandarin version out in theatres but I don't think it could've measured up at all. My friend and I were curious to see how it was in French, and it sounds like it was really crap. Occasionally French films get wide release in Hong Kong, like The Crimson Rivers (Les rivières pourpres), but it's very badly dubbed in English and people are quite used to seeing subtitles at the bottom of the screen as it is. The dubbing for Yamakasi made a so-so movie into one of the must-sees that year, definitely the best comedy I saw all year.