Chau Belle Dinh Movies
A multicultural band of acrobatic do-gooders take on gangsters of three great nations in this action-packed sequel to the French box-office smash Yamakasi. The Yamakasi are a team of crime fighters who can scale buildings and urban towers with the ease of a fly walking up the wall; after leaving their home base in Paris to set up operations in England, the men decide to set up a satellite facility in Thailand to teach their techniques to the local youth in the name of self-defense. But when major crime waves hit both London and Bangkok, the Yamakasi discover they may not be welcome everywhere they go, and when an impromptu exhibition of their skills at a building site angers a consortium of Asian and European criminals, they must face off against the British Mafia, the Japanese yakusa, and the Chinese Triads all at once. Julien Seri, who directed Yamakasi, returned to do the honors once again for this sequel. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- 2001
The Yamakasi are a real-life group of French daredevils who can scramble up the side of tall buildings and other urban structures as easily as most people can climb a flight of stairs; filmmaker Luc Besson saw a television report on the Yamakasi and was so impressed that he wrote and produced this project as a vehicle for putting their unusual talents onscreen. A nine-year-old boy named Jamel (Nassim Faid) has a weak heart, and after he tries to climb a tree with his friends, he has an attack and his parents are told he'll need a heart transplant within a few days or else the boy will die. The operation will cost over 400,000 francs, money the boy's parents don't have, but the Heart Transplant Corporation, the company who can provide the boy with a fresh heart, are not willing to negotiate on the price. When the Yamakasi hear about Jamel's plight, they swing into action, planning a daring raid in which they'll raise the money for the surgery by staging split-second robberies of the homes of seven of the wealthiest men in Paris -- all of whom happen to work for the Heart Transplant Corporation. Shortly before Yamakasi was to premiere, director Julien Seri and screenwriter Philippe Lyon filed suit against Luc Besson and his production company, claiming their work had been unfairly tampered with; the suit didn't prevent the film from becoming an immediate box-office success in France. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Chau Belle Dinh
