Yamakasi : Les Samouraïs des temps modernes

Yamakasi is a refreshing change from Hollywood style films. It's not Besson's masterpiece, the story is not THAT original, but the music, the cool "action" and the fresh style makes it a worthwhile experience.

The story itself is about 7 modern samurai, "yamakasi", that try to help a dying boy by stealing money from rich people in order to buy a donor-heart.

The action, although there isn't as much in it as the trailer would led you to believe, mostly consists of the yamakasi running away, climbing buildings, doing crazy jumps, and other stunts involving pedestrians.

Rating: 7/10

The YAMAKASI are a bunch of kids who practise what is variously known as Parkour and Free Running, a sort of sport/art/philosophy involving the development of skills for the traversal of urban environments in interesting ways (http://www.parkour.com/).

YAMAKASI the film is a Luc Besson production that basically provides a vehicle for 7 of these kids to show their stuff, in the pretence of helping a young kid who needs a heart transplant. It actually feels rather like a kids film, with larger than life characters (a bit of a keystone cops thing going on) and a message about being a bit rebellious but in a good way, or something.

The group are real life practitioners of Parkour, not professional actors - which kind of shows, though not in a particularly bad way - they're not wooden, but don't exactly express deep or complicated emotions.

Given that the film is basically a vehicle for Parkour, it's somewhat disappointing that not all that much of it is shown. There's some building scaling which is impressive but not particularly cinematic, then a bunch of antics where very little "free running" is shown - there are just a couple of scenes which show the potential the film could have had, towards the end. That potential has recently been realised much more dramatically in the film BANLIEUE 13, where one of the founders of Parkour is teamed up with martial artist Cyril Raffaelli for some truly original and sometimes incredible action sequences which show how Parkour could really be the foundation of a whole new action style. It's a shame that YAMAKASI, for whatever reason, didn't seem to know what to do with it. I'm hoping that the semi-sequel LES FILS DU VENT will put the group's talents to better use.

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.

The action was fun to see, the stunts were interesting, especially after reading that they were supposed to be real... but it's a movie not really made for thinking people, since there are terrible flaws in the plot that renders the whole process ridiculous and casts a shadow on the hero's self righteous deeds.

Why is everyone (audience included) expected to blame the doctor for the price of the new heart! The movie attempts to show it as his fault! Or the fault of his social class! That's rediculous. He is simply stating the market price of the donor heart. It's probably being sold on the black market anyway, since I believe there are laws against such organ trading. It's then up to those RESPONSIBLE (and involved) to come up with the cash, if they want the transaction to go through. He does not make up this price, he is simply stating how much the people have to pay. - Think about it. What would happen if every doctor was made (forced / coerced) to pay the bill for patients requiring treatment? The price he quotes is the price that must be payed by those RESPONSIBLE for the boy's condition. Among those responsible were the terrible building climbing role models the boy was imitating in the first place. Which is why they got involved, right?

Also, all this intimidation and threats made to others is very much against the, apparently very superficial, chivalrous code that these climbers are supposed to embrace. They are made to appear hypocrites and their eventual deeds lower them below the status of the lower class, to the status of thieves, extortionists, and criminals. Which, I believe the film was not intended to do. What great role models they became to save the boy! Do they still want him to grow up to be just like them? Apparently.

Still there were some good suspense parts, like when they were stuck in the house and had to escape from the roof. One was left wondering how they were going to pull that off. Hopefully they didn't give too many burglars ideas. We don't need any more of that, thanks.

Similar movies include: Robin Hood and the Pink Panther, although these are both much more heroic thieves than the Yamakasi. Perhaps Kamakasi would have been a better name, given the film's great number of negative reviews.

Statement andrew Jakobs,Holland:

"Well the ending really sucked. It didn't leave me with good feeling, Hmmm cop pointing gun at the doctor (who only drew the gun because he was being threathed by the gang, And I think he was in his right),"

I offer a quite different opinion:

The doctor was a arrogant,self-centred imbecile(high class), who had no regard for other peoples life than his own kind. He deserved to be reminded that all life is sacred regardless of race & class. And the cop quit his job in protest of a system that represses the weak in society. So the ending gave us a piece of moral justice, which sometimes is better than what the law can offer.

All in all the movie is good entertainment,nothing more or less.......