Movies
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Wide Releases
Now In Theaters
76
(500) Days of Summer
49
2012
60
9
17
All About Steve
37
Amelia
53
Astro Boy
70
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
52
Blind Side
47
Box, The
61
Capitalism: A Love Story
55
Christmas Carol, A
43
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
66
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
23
Couples Retreat
39
Fame
30
Final Destination, The
34
Fourth Kind, The
41
G-Force
46
Halloween II
73
Hangover, The
78
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
66
Informant!, The
69
Inglourious Basterds
58
Invention of Lying, The
47
Jennifer's Body
66
Julie & Julia
34
Law Abiding Citizen
54
Men Who Stare At Goats, The
67
Michael Jackson's This Is It
28
Pandorum
58
Pirate Radio
39
Planet 51
30
Saw VI
53
Shorts
33
Stepfather, The
45
Surrogates
46
Twilight Saga: New Moon, The
71
Where the Wild Things Are
67
Whip It
28
Whiteout
73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Limited Releases
Now In Theaters
58
(Untitled)
96
35 Shots of Rum![]()
56
Adam
39
Adventures of Power
66
Afterschool
73
Amreeka
49
Antichrist
76
Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86
Beaches of Agnes, The![]()
71
Big Fan
65
Black Dynamite
76
Bliss
26
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
44
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81
Bright Star![]()
76
Broken Embraces
70
Bronson
62
Cloud 9
65
Coco Before Chanel
69
Cold Souls
60
Collapse
82
Cove, The![]()
75
Crude
82
Damned United, The![]()
53
Dare
50
Defamation
67
Departures
70
Earth Days
85
Education, An![]()
55
Endgame
88
Fantastic Mr. Fox![]()
31
Fix
49
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80
Food, Inc.
xx
From Mexico with Love
28
Gentlemen Broncos
72
Good Hair
89
Goodbye Solo![]()
63
Horse Boy, The
74
House of the Devil, The
xx
How to Seduce Difficult Women
26
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
70
It Might Get Loud
46
Killing Kasztner
43
Little Traitor, The
34
Looking for Palladin
80
Lorna's Silence
46
Love Hurts
84
Maid, The![]()
45
Mammoth
75
Messenger, The
55
Missing Person, The
59
More Than a Game
34
Motherhood
62
My One and Only
48
New York, I Love You
66
No Impact Man
26
Oh My God
68
Paranormal Activity
68
Paris
79
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
73
Red Cliff
69
September Issue, The
79
Serious Man, A
65
Skin
41
Splinterheads
42
Staten Island
50
Stoning of Soraya M., The
58
Storm
82
Sun, The![]()
49
Ten9Eight: Shoot for the Moon
73
That Evening Sun
61
Trucker
49
Turning Green
83
U2 3D![]()
45
Uncertainty
67
Visual Acoustics
32
War on Kids
67
Way We Get By, The
65
Wedding Song, The
xx
White on Rice
59
William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe
74
Woman in Berlin, A
43
Women in Trouble
69
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Wasabi

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 15 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 11 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama
Written by: Luc Besson
Directed by: Gérard Krawczyk
Release Date:
Theatrical: September 27, 2002
DVD: February 11, 2003
Running Time: 94 minutes, Color
Origin: France / Japan
Summary
RATING: R for some violence
Starring Jean Reno, Ryoko Hirosue, Michel Muller, Carole Bouquet, Ludovic Berthillot, Yan Epstein, Michel Scourneau, and Christian Sinniger
A French police inspector (Reno) with a tender heart and a tough manner pursues the killer of an old flame in Tokyo.
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
New Times (L.A.) Andy Klein
This nearly perfect confection never takes its action more seriously than its comedy.
New York Daily News Jami Bernard
Like a Hollywood buddy-cop movie gone through a multi-culti blender. It holds up a funhouse mirror to that familiar scenario in which a maverick cop breaks the rules.
Read Full Review >New York Post Megan Lehmann
The spaniel-eyed Jean Reno ("Ronin") infuses Hubert with a mixture of deadpan cool, wry humor and just the measure of tenderness required to give this comic slugfest some heart.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
Enjoyable action comedy from the Clint Eastwood mold, though the comic elements are more fun than the action.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Paul Malcolm
The film lapses too often into sugary sentiment and withholds delivery on the pell-mell pyrotechnics its punchy style promises.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray
Offers watchable light entertainment, even though the prospect of the most respected national cinema indulging clunky cop-movie stereotypes is, if not scandalous, then at least disappointing.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Laura Sinagra
The real charm of this trifle is the deadpan comic face of its star, Jean Reno, who resembles Sly Stallone in a hot sake half-sleep.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
Does its job colorfully and entertainingly, as long as you don't lean too hard on such niggling details as logic, legality and the laws of physics.
Read Full Review >Variety Lisa Nesselson
An acceptably entertaining but borderline bland vehicle for Jean Reno.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Jonathan Curiel
A silly, cross-cultural shoot-'em-up -- the sort of movie that will work for those with some time to kill (no pun intended).
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
At least Reno is around -- and he's the only spice in this stale, slick stew
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Driven by sheer enthusiam (much of it for the worst excesses of Hollywood filmmaking), which makes it fun to watch in spite of its fundamental ridiculousness.
Read Full Review >The New York Times A.O. Scott
Culinary purists have observed that much of what passes for the spicy Japanese condiment wasabi at American restaurants is an ersatz concoction of horseradish and green food coloring. The French-language action comedy Wasabi is just as artificial, pumped with horseradish to give it heat in lieu of actual spice.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Manohla Dargis
Wasabi dawdles and drags when it should pop; it doesn't even have the virtue of enough mindless violence to break up the tedium of all its generational bonding.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
It is a thriller trapped inside a pop comedy set in Japan, and gives Reno a chirpy young co-star who bounces around him like a puppy on visiting day at the drunk tank.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.5 (out of 10) based on 11 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Xerxes K. gave it a10:
The best movie i've seen! High fun & perfect story line. It's worth it see.
Jose C. gave it a3:
This movie was horrible. I can't believe the other reviews below. It is not funny and you keep hoping it ends soon. Stay away from this, especially if you like Jean Reno -- your opinion may change after this.
Thomas L. gave it a 7:
Wasabi had a lot of heart. Reno and hirosue were great together. This is a refreshing comedy that has a human element that I enjoyed very much. Besides, movies aren't supposed to obey the laws of physics... if they did there would be no Hollywood.
Mazena gave it a 10:
I juust loved it! Maybe the fact that I'm crazy about Japan and I study french helped a little, but still... The soundtracks good too, it didn't have the ddr song though (it was 'dive' btw) nor the song Yumi played at her room. Well.. The movie deserved 10. The only downside of the movie was the english dub... thank god you could turn it off ^^
Joshua W. gave it a 10:
This is the kind of movie where plausibility has no place, and that's perfect. I saw it twice in one day and enjoyed it even more the second time. I had more fun watching this movie than I've had in quite a while. I wish more movies could be this entertaining and true to themselves.
Phat man gave it a 10:
This is great. rent it. great music and great fighting. ryoko hirosue is also hot.
[Anonymous] gave it an 8:
Pretty good comedy, if you know how to set aside some things like logic and the laws of physics :-)
