Wasabi (2001)
November 29th, 2003 at 8:21 am (2 - Just OK)
While on a Jean Reno (La Femme Nikita (1990), Les Visiteurs (1993), The Professional (1994), Ronin (1998), The Crimson Rivers (2000), Film Roar: Rollerball (2002)) movie watching binge I realized that I had never seen the recent release Wasabi (2001) and even better that the local library had a copy of it. As much as I enjoy the movies of both Reno and Luc Besson (who wrote Wasabi) I am very glad that I did not pay any money to watch this rather pointless bit of action-comedy fluff. In the movie Reno plays (common, take a guess.. which will it be this time, a French policeman or a French assassin?), yes you guessed it, a French policeman who is surprised to find out that his relationship with a Japanese secret police agent produced a child. The 19 year old girl, played by Ryoko Hirosue seems to have inherited her father’s rebelliousness as well as a whole lot of money. What follows is a sequence of fistfights, gunfights, car chases and. of course, heart warming moments as father and child learn to trust and love each other. The Killer / young girl with spunk dynamic felt like a poor attempt to cash in on the success of the earlier hit The Professional where Reno is successfully paired with a twelve year old Natalie Portman and the action is unsatisfying throughout. If you should feel the need to watch most of Jean Reno’s movies, I suggest you skip Wasabi. You won’t miss much.
Clint said,
July 9, 2004 at 12:38 am
Let us fans of Jean Reno hope that he accepts the part of Leon again in the “Professional 2″. Natalie Portman has already signed on to do this movie which is due out in late 2005.
Clint
zeb said,
December 14, 2005 at 1:47 am
he can’t be in the sequel. his character leon died in the first movie….
richie said,
November 12, 2007 at 11:57 am
Wasabi was just a fun movie, not to be taken seriously. I was impressed, however when I found out that Miss Hirosue speaks NO FRENCH, but read her lines in phonetic Japanese (whatever that is).
Has anyone seen a movie with Jean Reno as the main star where he does NOT lift the female co-star off the floor ?
brent said,
May 8, 2008 at 1:15 am
yea he was in ronin and didnt pick up a girl in that movie….
boysaint said,
July 1, 2008 at 3:50 am
this discussion has been long time ago, right? but may i still add… in LEON THE PROFESSIONAL…. yes he pulled the pin on the grenade, and they show an explosion- but they didn’t show any of the character- Leon or the corrupt DEA… being in the explosion. i mean- both could’ve rolled and escaped the grenade blast, just so there could be a sequel (you know they do that!). and then when Natalie Portman is already in her teens- she would have read in the papers that a certain professional assasin is still doing his work, and then Portman has the urge the hunt down the assasin because she has gut feelings that it is Leon… it is definitely his signature work, she observed. from that intro the writers can improvise from there. anything can happen afterwards that intro. “part-two” indeed!