Wasabi

`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.

The goal of this film is to entertain. And it works. Leave your brain at the door and enjoy. The soundtrack is appropriate and good. Jean Reno is at the apex of coolness and Ryoko Hirosue is hip and refreshing. One could say the movie is some kind of techno-cop film that takes some aspects of the traditional French cop movies and push it to the limit during a crazy few days in Tokyo. Great to see the mega-city by the way. The movie is a cross between your typical James Bond and a modern Japanese action flick. Seen at home, in Toronto, on April 4th, 2006.

74/100 (**½)

As others have commented, this is certainly light entertainment, not heavy on elaborate plot lines. I actually saw this movie today on a flight from Japan, and found it delightful. It certainly is a film that was pitched to a French Audience, tossing in simplified bits of Japanese pop culture (Witness: I have never encountered so many Japanese that could speak French, as in this movie). Nevertheless this is what I liked about the movie:

1. The interplay between Fiorentino (Jean Reno) and his sidekick Momo (Michel Muller) was consistently humorous throughout, with Muller delivering the punchline, and nearly upstaging Reno throughout. My favorite scene is when Fiorentino is eating generous gobs of Wasabi (hence the name of the film), and Momo, not wanting to be outdone by his mentor, nearly gags to death on the stuff. I was laughing out loud -- maybe because it reminds me too vividly of the first time I ever ate sushi, and nearly died doing the same thing as Momo!!

2. Ryoko Hirosue, who plays Yumi, the previously unknown daughter to Fiorentini, is one of the current hot young faces in Japan, and has appeared in many TV dramas and movies. She certainly provides all the eye candy I could ever wish for in this film. But I must admit a certain new found-respect for her acting abilities, as she pulled off her lines in French flawlessly, while maintaining her trademark cuteness and capturing the carefree attitude of today's Japanese youth. She provided a foil of a different sort for Reno, her bright colors (pink hair, pink everything) offering a striking contrast to Reno's darker, demure look.

The Yakuza were portrayed as mindless goons in this film, and there are certainly better films out there if you want to know more about Yakuza, but it appeared that they played their role, which was to showcase Reno's machismo, in a humorous way, something along the lines of Jackie Chan films -- they are more like props in the film than anything else.

All in all, I was entertained by this film, which is all I was looking for during my 11 hours crossing the Pacific.

Negative comments sort of miss the point, as this movie wasn't designed to be anything more than harmlessly amusing. To say anything bad about it is rather like kicking a puppy. You wouldn't kick a puppy, would you?

I needn't go into the plot, which you can click a few links to find, but I sought this movie out because Jean Reno is fun in anything he's in, and oh lookit that, Luc Besson wrote the screenplay-- can't go wrong with that, can you? (unless it's an American remake, which luckily this is not).

This movie is FUNNY, at times a little cheesy (which we can also call FRENCH), and the action is over-the-top enough to be cartoonish (when Hubert punches someone, they fly back 20 feet). This is essentially a wacky comedy with some action, something Americans aren't used to seeing, but well worth a look. It's harmless fun, but still more original than your average paint-by-numbers American romantic comedy. Or action film.

In France, Hubert Fiorentini (Jean Reno) is a tough, violent, but very effective detective, who has been missing the great love of his life, a Japanese woman, for nineteen years. While capturing a criminal drag-queen, Hubert hurts the son of his chief and is "licenceed" for a couple of months. Meanwhile, he is called from Tokyo by the lawyer of his former girlfriend, who died and left of her possessions to him. When he arrives in Tokyo, he meets his former partner Momo (Michel Muller) and is informed by the lawyer about his inheritance: 200 millions of Euros and a teenager daughter, Yumi Yoshimido (Ryoko Hirosue). Sooner he realizes that the Yakuza is chasing him, looking for the huge amount of money. "Wasabi" is a great and very funny adventure, recalling the confusions of "Lethal Weapon". Jean Reno is excellent, as usual, in the role of a tough but very sentimental man. Ryoko Hirosue gives charm to the story, and Michel Muller is the clumsy and quite dumb partner of Hubert. This movie made my family and I laugh a lot, being an excellent entertainment. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Wasabi"