Peter's Japan blog

As a first film in this new section of my blog, I chose Wasabi with Jean Reno. I've seen many other foreign films that take place in Japan, but this is the last one I saw, the rest will follow later.

General info
Title: Wasabi
Year: 2001
Languages: French and some Japanese
Actors: Jean Reno as Hubert Fiorentini
Hirosue Ryoko as Yoshimido Yumi

Follow up:

Short synopsis:
Hubert Fiorentini (Jean Reno) is a good cop but his methods are kind of harsh and are not appreciated by his superiors. He is not married, but he's had an affair with a Japanese girl when he was in Japan 19 years ago and he can't forget about her. One day he gets a phone call from a Japanese lawyer who tells him that she died and left everything to him, including a daughter of 19, which he has to take care of until she is adult. But there are some suspicious facts around the death of her mother. So Hubert starts to investigate.

Personal opinion:
I like watching Jean Reno in his kind of super-cop attitude. He fits that picture perfectly. He actually shows some emotion even though it may not appear so.
Hirosue Ryoko plays the modern & energetic Tokyo girl very well. The movie shows a typical image of a girl who likes shopping and hangs out with friends in the arcade hall.
The movie itself is quite straight forward, but it contains some humorous moments and shows a few nice sights of Japan.

Mistakes (intentional or not)
- when he asks his old collegue to bring him to Shinjuku, he actually drops him off in Akihabara, which is supposed to be Shinjuku.
- Jean Reno is walking through the street while looking at a little paper with an address on it. You can't find an address in Japan like this, he's probably looking for the name.

I'm quite pleased with the depiction of Japan in this movie.

Otaku references
- some scenes in Akihabara (which is supposed to be Shinjuku)
- games arcade and Jean Reno actually tries a DDR game, which he fails even in the lowest difficulty

Picture of Japan
- Narita International Airport
- Akihabara
- Ginza
- A 700-series Shinkansen (with Mount Fuji in the background and arriving at Kyoto station)
- Kiyomizudera temples in Kyoto

Some personal notes
- Features a nice remix of Voodoo People of the Prodigy ;p
- Hirosue Ryoko looks very nice ^^;
- Strange that many Japanese speak such good French ;p
- nice touch to end the movie with a Japanese song

Personal score: 8.5/10
Real score: 7/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0281364/

Some pictures: