Paradise Reel

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift

Synopsis: Sean Boswell (Lucas Black) is your typical American teenager who rebels against social norm and buck authority. To avoid a jail sentence, he is sent to Japan to live with his father and there discovers the world of underground (ie. illegal) drift racing.

To be honest, I went into the theater with bottom of the barrel expectations of the third installment of the “Fast and the Furious” franchise. I lauded the first one and would not have caught the second one if it were not the only thing on cable at that god-forsaken hour in the morning. Now here we have American born Korean Justin Lin’s (“Better luck Tomorrow”) first Hollywood effort, “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift”. Although it does not raise the bar in terms of storytelling or plot, it definitely does showcase the best chase car sequences of any of the other films in the series.

The story is basically your typical redemption story line. A young white American nobody travels to a foreign land, inflict his culture onto the unsuspecting natives and becomes a god amongst insects. This is kind of the main gist of what “The Last Samurai” tried to do and failed. But we did not really come to this film to fuss over the plot did we? At the bottom line, we bought our ticket for one of two things, the first, to oogle at some of the most beautiful things on 4 wheels. The second, the edge of your seatbelt race car sequences with said beautiful things on 4 wheels. This film is a car enthusiast wet dream, and they filmmakers exploit it so.

This movie will probably not go too well with American audiences than the Asian ones as this form of street racing is intrinsic to our region. ‘Drifiting’ is a driving technique that many professional racers employ to make high speed turns while racing. That technique has been used heavily by the street racers on the mountain roads of Japan. This film is a very romanticized version of the Japanese street racing culture as you will find some aspects of the film highly improbable. With that said, one also has to note that most of the drift races in the movie were accomplished without the use of computer generated imagery. What you see on screen is the real deal which is something that the first two films failed to preserve.

No one is going to win an Oscar for their acting capabilities here. Lucas Black (“The War” and “Jarhead”) plays the run-of-the-mill Yankee troublemaker, Sean Boswell, with gusto. Nathalie Kelley is the half Japanese/half something else love interest who gets Sean into spots of trouble with all the wrong people. I must admit though, everyone in the film certainly looks the part they play. The film is basically a lineup of stereotypes, it has everyone from the rich dumb American jock to the wise but reserved Asian mentor. You will, however, quickly forget about it because of all the pretty girls that populate the film and the even prettier cars. Word of revelation to those females who are coerce into watching said film with their respective boyfriends, the guys are only drooling at the CARS.

This film will definitely draw comparison to the recent “Initial D” movie by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak (the team behind the insanely famous “Infernal Affairs”). In terms of pure adrenalin rushes, I felt that this film exceeds that of what the recent “Initial D” film tried to do. Justin Lin keeps the action fresh by introducing new angles and tight camera shots that bring you right into the passenger seat. This film is highly recommended to all you Initial D fanatics out there and anyone who has a car fetish. Just check your brain at the ticket counter and enjoy the ride. There are a bunch of “Initial D” references throughout the film which is a nice touch as that was probably what propelled drifting’s popularity throughout Asia and the rest of the world. Also be on the lookout for a certain Toyota Corolla ’86 hiding in the background during one of the races. Blink and you will miss it.