Written by Chris Morgan and directed by Justin Lin Tokyo Drift was the third film released under the “Fast and Furious” name back in June 2006.

This review is based on a television showing a couple of weeks ago and not the DVD, therefore I cannot comment on the additional or bonus features, whether it is a single or double DVD, what the cover of the DVD looks like, who is credited on the cover of the DVD or anything else that the DVD contains. I am not bothered about the actual DVD and will watch the feature length only, therefore this is a review of the film only.

Plot

Sean Boswell (“Lucas Black”) is an American high school student with a healthy passion for cars, but an unhealthy passion for illegal street racing. Sean is one of the kids that can disappear in to the background since he is a loner that is looked down on by his peers.

This movie commences with Sean doing what he does best, or what he thinks he does best, racing. An illegal street race goes terribly wrong and after totalling his pride and joy Sean faces the prospect of jail, purely because Ms Boswell (“Lynda Boyd”), his mother, does not have the social status to get him off. Ms Boswell is at the end of her tether and through despair she ships Sean off to live with Major Boswell (“Brian Goodman”), his father, in Japan.

Major Boswell attempts to discipline his son and in order to make Sean grow up and see the error of his ways, he forbids him from driving. Sean quickly befriends Twinkie (“Bow Wow”), whose dad is also in the forces, who introduces Sean to a new form of street racing. This new kind of racing doesn’t involve quarter mile dashes in vehicles with large engines that kick out hundreds of horsepower. Instead this form of racing involves smaller and more delicate cars with rear wheel drive and a ferocious turbo (or two) and the new form of racing is drifting.

Sean manages to befriend Han (“Sung Kang”), a rich car enthusiast in the drifting world and a series of events sees Sean become Han’s driver. Han is in deep with DK (“Brian Tee”) and once Sean finds out the true extent he makes it his mission to help his new friend get out. However, DK only knows one way and Sean must master the art of drifting, and fast.

Will Sean ever curb his passion for illegal racing? Does Han manage to sever the ties with DK? Will Twinkie’s business ever get over the embarrassment of giving a replacement?

Other characters

This movie has a huge cast list, most of which play smaller roles and are, therefore, un-credited. All the cast play acceptable supporting roles but I can’t think of anything memorable or outstanding, since all I can really recall are the excellent action scenes. This really is a movie of unknowns and ‘Z’ listers.

Opinion

The release of the “Fast and Furious” was not only a great success but also a revelation. It had taken a while but at last produced a movie that demonstrated what the cruising culture was and what it was like, although it did have the ridiculous, glamorous and far-fetched Hollywood fantasy that is incumbent in most movies. Like all sequels “Too Fast Too Furious” was hyped up before release and, in my opinion, cinema going audience’s expectations were far too high, not least because the first movie had raised the bar so high. Many critics slated it, and whilst it was a good movie it was nowhere near as good as the first due to a massive change in cast and a change in emphasis on the story line from one about the cruising scene to one that included just cars found in the cruising scene. Despite being a bit of a disappointment, it was still a good movie and an entertaining watch on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

Then came “Fast and Furious – Tokyo Drift”. This movie was a bit of a disaster as it was slated by the critics and didn’t do well at the Box Office. In my opinion the first mistake, and perhaps the biggest, was calling it “Fast and Furious – Tokyo Drift”. If it was just called Tokyo Drift then no one would have associated it with the Fast and Furious ‘brand’ and I very much doubt it would have been compared to those films, the first of which is much, much better. I must admit that the first time I saw this film I too was guilty of comparing it to the “Fast and Furious” so I was very disappointed and dismissed it after one viewing, however, since catching “Fast and Furious – Tokyo Drift” on TV the other night I have had a slight change of opinion.

The story line is way over the top and absolutely ridiculous. In reality there is no way this would ever happen, come on I mean a young American going to Japan to live in effective squalor with his estranged father that manages to become a driver for a rich Japanese ‘gangster’ wannabe and makes an enemy of the Japanese mafia. Is this ever going to happen? I think not.

For a start, the Eastern/Western culture is so disparate that a Westerner would never be accepted so quickly. Despite this unrealistic storyline, I still found myself dragged in to it and was captivated. It’s strange but it was so out there I just had to watch to see what happened, it’s a bit like watching those programmes on surgery and the like, you know the ones that are so gross your stomach is turning but you still carry on watching. It’s weird.

In addition, this movie has a smaller side story of a love interest that adds nothing to the overall movie and, personally, I think it should have been cut but most Hollywood movies seem to have these pointless love interest parts. That said the gorgeous Nathalie Kelley and even more stunning Keiko Kitagawa add a welcome bit of eye candy.

None of the cast from the “Fast and Furious”, or “Too Fast Too Furious” appears in this movie. This is another reason why I am astounded the producers called it “Fast and Furious – Tokyo Drift”. As the whole cast had been changed it was a prime opportunity to leave the Fast and Furious name with the reputation it had so rightly earned and move on to something else. Instead, the producers decided to stick with the Fast and Furious name and risk damaging it, which unfortunately is what has happened.

This is a film in a genre that doesn’t require amazing, meaningful and charismatic acting abilities or performance worthy of an Oscar yet despite this the acting is very poor, I would even go as far to say as diabolical. As far as lead actors goes Lucas Black has to be the worst I have ever witnessed. Lucas has brash and redneck accent that just doesn’t fit. His attempts at saying anything deep and meaningful is just a joke and he looks totally gormless throughout the whole movie. It makes for cringe worthy viewing I was embarrassed for him.

The rest of the main cast aren’t much better and I would say that many British soap actors act better, and that is saying something. There are no solid or believable performances, which I find this strange since there is usually one bright button in the bunch. But this is not the case with this movie. Whilst watching this movie I did not recognise any of the main cast but it didn’t need any big names hogging the limelight.

After slating the storyline and the actors I guess the fact that me really liking this movie is strange. This movie is so good because it doesn’t try to be clever. “Too Fast Too Furious” moved away from the cruising scene, an attempt to be clever I think, and diversified to appeal to the wider audience. This sequel totally left the cruising scene, which was the very reason why “The Fast and the Furious” was such a huge success. This movie drags it right back to the cruising scene – the ridiculous looking cars with huge body kits and garish paint jobs, the 20 inch alloys and tyres so wide they scrub the wheel arches, exhausts that are so large you can fit your head inside them, stereo and speaker systems that kick out so many decibels it makes your ears bleed, in car entertainment systems consisting of monitors and Xboxes, nitrus oxide canisters for those instant squirts of power, turbos that reduce the fuel economy to single figures per gallon and gorgeous young ladies in check skirts, hold ups, high heels and midriff tops that like nothing more than to dance to the music kicked out by the cars. I’m sure you get the picture.

The stunt drivers are absolutely fantastic and the skill these guys must have is incredible. I appreciate that drag racers have skill in getting a car off the line quickly but once the car is actually moving what more is there to do other than keep your foot flat on the floor and stay away from the brakes? Anyone can drive fast in a straight line, but to actually drift and power slide a car round a series of tight bends, as well as flicking it from left to right and not hit anything. Now that takes real skill and a perfect balance between power and control. Some believe that power is everything, but it is pretty meaningless without control. I find these drift races fascinating to watch, although it does start to wear thin by the end of the movie so I was glad when it ended as there was a risk I was going to lose interest.

This movie is action packed, as you’d expect, and knocks along at a fair pace, which kept my interest throughout almost the entire movie. I say almost all as I find car races can get ‘samey’ and boring after a while, even for a self confessed petrol head like me, and 104 minutes starts to get to that point. Despite this I didn’t clock watch at all.

In my opinion audio plays a major part in virtually all movies and it can ‘make or break’ the viewing. The cruising scene is renowned for audio with ear-drum bursting bass, a feature that the rap and hip hop scene appears to use in abundance, and unsurprisingly this movie is rammed full of such music, combined with the girls grinding and gyrating like they do in 50 cent, Eminem, Dr Dre and all the other rapper’s videos. I appreciate this is not everyone’s cup of tea but it does make for easy viewing.

The censors awarded this movie a 12 certificate, which I think is a fair rating. There is little foul language (there is just no need for it), no sex scenes or any suggestive scenes (other than scantily clad girls gyrating to the music) and very little violence. I wouldn’t recommend it for younger children but for early teens I think it makes for great viewing.

Conclusion

This movie is a pure petrol head’s delight. It has an unrealistic story line and awful acting but this doesn’t matter in a ‘cruising’ movie. The stunt drivers are awesome, there is loads of action, loads of highly modified cars, loads of ridiculous in car entertainment systems and lost of gorgeous Asian girls. This is what cruising is all about.

If you forget about the previous 2 Fast and Furious movies and watch this in isolation then it is a very good movie. It will never be a classic, and I doubt it will be a movie that you will want to watch over and over again but it does provide some great entertainment.

Other

Run time – 104 minutes
Certificate – 12
4 nominations but no awards