Wasabi (2001)
When his former lover dies, a French policeman travels to Tokyo to take care of his estranged daughter. There he eventually finds out why his girlfriend left him and the reason becomes his and his new daughters problem.
14 May 1960
2 July 1974, Gunma Prefecture, Japan
1967, Paris, France
18 August 1957, Neuilly-sur-Seine, Seine [now Hauts-de-Seine], France
1933, Kobe, Japan
24 April 1969, Roanne, Loire, France
18 July 1980, Kochi, Japan
10 November 1948, Tokyo, Japan
1983
November 11, 2003
Action star (and fine dramatic actor) Jean Reno has fallen prey to the Action Comedy conceit and the result is the periodically entertaining, generally tiresome Wasabi.November 09, 2003
A moronic action/comedy film.October 15, 2003
A bubbly international cocktail.May 26, 2004
I keep renting Jean Reno films and I'm beginning to forget why I started doing so.October 17, 2002
Like being trapped inside a huge video game, where exciting, inane images keep popping past your head and the same illogical things keep happening over and over again.December 28, 2008
There's little tension as Reno's character is one of those invincible heroes that we haven't seen much of since the '80s.October 07, 2002
One scarcely needs the subtitles to enjoy this colorful action farce.November 14, 2002
The film is a contrivance, as artificial as the video games Japanese teens play in a nightclub sequence, but it's an enjoyable one.January 04, 2004
...as far as action flicks go, you could do worse.October 20, 2002
Reno does what he can in a thankless situation, the film ricochets from humor to violence and back again, and Ryoko Hirosue makes us wonder if she is always like that.October 04, 2002
Wasabi is slight fare indeed, with the entire project having the feel of something tossed off quickly (like one of Hubert's punches), but it should go down smoothly enough with popcorn.February 05, 2003
The movie fails to live up to the sum of its parts.