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

In the wonderful world of the well fed children who have nothing to fear but taxes when it comes to having to deal with the state there grows the fairy tale of the Yamakasi. It's fake. It lacks imagination unless for the idea of the tall building climbers. But that thing is going to be done far better in New Police Story three years later.

Probably the worse thing in this production is the scenario and the political goals. In a world where young people of low qualification and of foreign descent hardly gets any employment, in a world where most young people of that region can't find steady jobs even with good genes and an education, well, all the Yamakasi are employed if they don't have anything better to do. In this fantasy dimension the police knows them, wants them, yet they can't get them at home as they do in real life France.

And if the prototype of the idiot is the cop in most bad taste jokes, the maghrebin cop has no contact with the outside world. He's precisely the virgin who's trying, hard, to run a brothel.

Really, if there wasn't the purpose of propaganda nobody would have produced such junk. But, hey, the whole nation can see the darkies have it all: a fair chance for transplant, friendly police and jobs to choose from. It's only their evil nature that stands in the ways of friendship between the white majority and the others. And to keep things simple for the target audience to be able to follow the simple ideas they are fed all the targets live in the area of the same police district and the same cops are on duty on each event.

Myself, I'm disgusted.

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I honestly don't understand why so many people complain about this movie. It doesn't take itself that seriously, so why should you?

A few examples you ask? To the people who have been b*tching in earlier comments, and to those who agree, here goes:

• Wrong message/example? What the f*ck about Robin Hood? That story is regarded classic and rightly so, modern times - modern solutions...

• Weak story/plot? True, true, but that is not what this movie is about. It's lighthearted and humorous. Look at it that way.

• Threatening people with guns? Please, have you even watched the movie? They use a gun, which they obtained from someone who was shooting them, once and they're not aiming at a person.

I don't even wanna elaborate on everything else. Why not? I enjoyed the movie because of the fast pace, good soundtrack and the seemingly (try it yourself and find out!) easy stunts. Add the fact that only one of the seven main characters (Yann Hnautre) has ever played in more than one movie, they're not doing a bad job.

If you're looking for a fun way to spend 90 minutes, go see it, if you only expect to pay for good movies (hint: read some of the other comments for this movie), go and see it anyway. If you wanna nitpick about everything that does or doesn't occur in a movie, see it and go b*tch about it.

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.

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.