Wasabi (2001)

Director:

Gérard Krawczyk

Writer:

Luc Besson (writer)

Release Date:

31 October 2001 (Belgium)

Genre:

Action | Drama | Comedy | Crime | Thriller

Tagline:

Quite Possibly The Greatest French-Language, English-Subtitled, Japanese Action-Comedy Of All Time.

Plot:

Hubert is a French policeman with very sharp methods. After being forced to take 2 months off by his boss...

Plot Keywords:

Japan | Yakuza | Shinkansen | Fight | Coffin

Cast

Jean Reno	...	Hubert Fiorentini
Ryoko Hirosue	...	Yumi Yoshimido
Michel Muller	...	Maurice 'Momo'
Carole Bouquet	...	Sofia
Yoshi Oida	...	Takanawa
Christian Sinniger	...	Le Squale
Alexandre Brik	...	Irène
Jean-Marc Montalto	...	Olivier (as Jean Marc Montalto)
Véronique Balme	...	Betty
Fabio Zenoni	...	Josy
Haruhiko Hirata	...	Ishibashi
Michel Scourneau	...	Van Eyck (as Mikhel Scourneau)
Jacques Bondoux	...	Del Rio
Osamu Tsuruya	...	Douanier 1
Akihiko Nishida	...	Douanier 2

Also Known As:

La petite moutarde qui monte au nez (France) (subtitle)
The Professional II (South Africa: English title) (DVD box title)
Wasabi - The Japanese Dip That Kicks Like a Mule (France)

MPAA:

Rated R for some violence.

Runtime:

94 min

Country:

France | Japan

Language:

French | Japanese

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | DTS

Certification:

UK:15 | Finland:K-15 | Iceland:12 | Netherlands:16 | Argentina:13 | Canada:14A | France:U | Germany:16 | Hong Kong:IIB | Norway:15 | South Korea:15 | Spain:13 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | USA:R | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Japan

Company:

Europa Corp.

Trivia:

In the arcade, the game that all the young characters convince Hubert ('Jean Reno') to play is "Dance Dance Revolution". Before you see the DDR machine (it's a 5th Mix), many of the other music-related games that are shown are also part of the Bemani series, including Beatmania and many others. The song that the characters play is 'Dive' by BeForU, and Jean Reno's character does fail on the easiest difficulty level (Basic Mode, known in more recent generations of the game as Light Mode).

Goofs:

Plot holes: The name of the movie itself is the biggest plot hole. Hubert has spent 8 months in Japan, yet almost 3/4 into the movie he eats Wasabi and asks Momo: "What is this stuff?" It is near impossible for someone to live in Japan for 8 months and cook Japanese cuisine without being introduced to wasabi.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Taxi 3 (2003)

Soundtrack:

Real Funky Time

not as cool as it wants to be but Reno is wonderful

`Wasabi' is a high-spirited French action comedy with a Japanese name. This Luc Besson production stars Jean Reno in a wonderful performance as a tough-guy French cop who is as quick to use his tongue as his overeager fists. One day, out of the blue, Detective Fiorentino discovers that he has a 19 year-old daughter by a Japanese woman who left him almost 20 years ago, breaking his heart in the process. The girl, Yumi, turns out to be an orange-haired free spirit who hates cops and has been led to believe that her father raped her mother. Much of the film is spent with Hubert and Yumi getting to know one another, as they uncover secrets about her mother's past that seem to have made the young woman the target of some rather unsavory characters.

The plot is the least of the matter in this film. As directed by Gerard Krawczyk, `Wasabi' is really all about style. Besson's screenplay is fitfully amusing, doling out cleverness and cutesyness in roughly equal measure. Cinematographer Gerard Sterin brings out the colorful richness of the urban Japanese landscape and editor Yanne Herve doesn't linger longer on the jokes and sight gags than is absolutely necessary. These elements help to compensate for the somewhat desperate air that afflicts the screenplay from time to time.

The prime asset of `Wasabi' is Jean Reno's performance. Reno perfectly mines the comic potential inherent in the material through the tone of weary cynicism and superiority to all around him that he conveys throughout. As an actor who has played this type of rogue-cop character many times in his career, Reno obviously relishes this opportunity for a little good-natured self-ribbing. And he does a splendid job.

`Wasabi' is little more than a piffle when all is said and done, but Reno makes it worth seeing.