After hopitalising the wrong person, Hubert is suspended from duty and told to chill out a bit. This does not make Hubert isn't happy since he has zero life outside of policing.
It's while sitting at home moping that our hero gets a blast from the past. 19 years ago Miko (Yuki Sakai) , the love of his life, abruptly disappeared leaving Hubert devastated. Now Miko is dead and Hubert is the sole legatee of her will.
When he arrives in Tokyo he discovers that the main condition of Miko's will is that Hubert take care of her daughter Yumi (Ryoko Hirosue) - an insanely lively 19 year old with a fondness for eyewatering fashion choices and a strong dislike of cops.
Yumi is 19. She doesn't know who her father is. Work it out.
Now Paris's very own Dirty Harry not only has to play guardian to a manic teenager, he has to find out why the Yakuza are apparently so keen on young Yumi. And at some point he's going to have to tell her who her father is....
I was headed home with a bag of KFC (Ken's Fried Chicken) when I decided to nip into a charity shop and pick up a DVD to watch. Since my tea was growing cold and the middle-aged women browsing for cardigans were beginning to wonder why the shop stank of battered chicken, I was in a bit of a hurry.
Then I spotted this particular DVD and my mind was made up.
Jean Reno is one of those actors you can always rely on so I knew that even if "Wasabi" sucked, he'd still be worth watching. I was not disappointed. A character that should come across as a psychotic bully is given extra dimension by Reno's performance as he switches between badass and, bemused at the drop of a hat. During one scene he punches a handcuffed prisoner - then three minutes later a little bit of opening up has got us feeling sympathetic again.
Co-star Ryoko Hirosue seemingly spends the bulk of the film on a massive sugar-rush, being insanely perky with occasional lapses into bratty. I can see that annoying people who don't watch a lot of anime but personally I liked Yumi and I thought that Hirosue held her own when it came to the more emotional moments. There's some really touching scenes between Hubert and Yumi in this film. I liked that.
The story is fairly straighforward without many twists but that's Ok. It works just fine.
What doesn't work so well is Hubert's inept sidekick Momo (Michel Muller) who adds little beyond giving Hubert a gofer and some laboured comedy relief. . Luckily it doesn't spoil the movie but I can't see why they needed to make him such a muppet. Maybe it's a Gallic thing
Speaking of comedy, I was honestly not expecting this film to crack me up. My favourite scene has Hubert escorting Yumi on a shopping trip while simultaneously picking off Yakuza. Once again Reno gets to show off how good he is at both comedy and snacking people.
How much did I pay for this: £1
Was It Worth it? An unqualified yes. I enjoyed "Wasabi" a lot.
Here's the trailer:
This does look good, I like Reno. You're right about the sidekick, though, he annoyed me just watching the trailer.
ReplyDeleteHe wasn't necessary, was he?. Jean Reno is always good value though.
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