Han: I have money. It's trust and character I need around me. You know, who you choose to be around you lets you know who you are. And one car in exchange for knowing what a man's made of, that's a price I can live with. Look at all those people down there. They follow the rules, for what? They're letting fear lead them.
Shawn: What happens if they don't?
Han: Life's simple. You make choices and you don't look back.
Once upon a time before the franchise became silly and just plain dumb. Fast and Furious focused on illegal street racing. The cars were the stars that happened to be driven by Paul Walker, Vin Diesel, Sung Kang, and Bow Wow (that’s a name I haven’t heard of in a very long time). The first three films in the long drawn out franchise actually dealt with cars and racing, which is hard to believe now seeing the trailer for the new film. Cars are occasionally in the films like when a submarine is chasing them or they drive off an airplane. When I saw the trailer for the newest film I shook my head at how ridiculous it was and thought to myself, “how the hell does this franchise make so much money?”
I actually liked the first three films a lot, but out of the three my favorite is the one that is hated by most. That’s right it’s Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift. Fans of the franchise mostly hate it because there was no Paul Walker and very little of Vin Diesel. Tokyo Drift is probably the most street-race focused film in the entire series aside from the first one of course. It’s the purest film in the series too with a promise of adrenaline and nitrous-fuelled attitude not seen before and since.
So the protagonist is played by Lucas Black who is supposed to be a teenager, but looks about 40. Looking back he’s actually the only character in the series that just wanted to race cars and not become a super criminal with a heart of gold. I’m sure the franchise will bring him back though and change that, but back to the 40 year old teenager. He gets caught up in the Yakuza cause ya know Japan and all then racing, drifting, cars, and all that! And it somehow becomes the Romeo and Juliet of the Fast and Furious franchise.
Now onto what I liked about the film. The film actually has real engine sounds unlike the rest of the films that involve heavily edited engine sounds. There was actual drifting and no CGI. It’s more authentic, better-shot, and it's damn rewatchable for the drifts, skids, and slides. Hardly anything cringe worthy. The dialogue is actually pretty decent. LIKABLE CHARACTERS! Not a spy thriller. No outrageous CGI moments. The film is actually about racing. The real drift king Keiichi Tsuchiya had a cameo in the film, which brings us to the last thing I liked about the film and that is the respect of car culture.
Tokyo Drift did well at the box office, but opened up at number three behind Nacho Libre and another film dealing with cars… Pixar’s animated film Cars. Tokyo Drift is the financially least successful film of the franchise though, which is sad considering it’s the best. It’s not the best film of all time, just the best film in the franchise, which again isn’t saying much. If you hated the film when it first came out. Give it another chance. It may be a breath of fresh air compared to what you get now.
4 out of 5
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