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The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift

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The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
Directed byJustin Lin
Written byAlfredo Botello
Chris Morgan
Kario Salem
Produced byNeal H. Moritz
StarringLucas Black
Bow Wow
Sung Kang
Brian Tee
Jason Tobin
Nathalie Kelley
CinematographyJan Kiesser
Stephen F. Windon
Edited byDallas Puett
Fred Raskin
Music byBrian Tyler
Distributed byUniversal Studios
Release dates
June 16, 2006
Running time
104 min
LanguageEnglish

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift is the 2006 spin-off to car-racing movies The Fast and the Furious and 2 Fast 2 Furious. The film focuses on a new cast of characters and a different setting (Tokyo, Japan) from previous films in the series.

Plot outline

Template:Spoilers Sean Boswell is an outsider who attempts to define himself as a hot-headed, underdog street racer. Although racing provides a temporary escape from an unhappy home and the superficial world around him, it has also made Sean unpopular with the local authorities. To avoid jail time, Sean is sent to live with his gruff, estranged father, a career military-man stationed in Tokyo. Now officially a gaijin (outsider), Sean feels even more shut out in a land of foreign customs and codes of honor. But it doesn't take long for him to find some action when a fellow American buddy, Twinkie (Bow Wow), introduces him to the underground world of drifting. Sean's simple drag racing gets replaced by a rubber-burning, automotive art form with an exhilarating balance of speeding and gliding through a heart-stopping course of hairpin turns and switchbacks. On his first time out drifting, Sean unknowingly takes on D.K., the "Drift King," a local champion with ties to the Japanese crime machine Yakuza. Sean's loss comes at a high price tag when he's forced to work off the debt under the thumb of expat, Han. Han soon welcomes Sean into this family of misfits and introduces him to the real principles of drifting. But when Sean falls for D.K.'s girlfriend, Neela, an explosive series of events is set into motion, climaxing with a high stakes face off.

Story

Template:Spoilers Shaun Boswell (Lucas Black) is a college student in Kansas City. He has only one passion in life, cars, cars and more cars, and his passion gets the better of him when he races a jock student through a building site. After the race ends in a serious crash, destroying both cars and injuring the two racers, Shaun is facing a lengthy prison sentence, but his mother works out a deal with the local P.D. to send Shaun to Tokyo to live with his father, and ex navy captain. Once arriving in Tokyo, Shaun soon discovers he doesn't fit in, living in a room no bigger than a couple of phone booths, going to a high school where very few people speak English, and worse, he doesn't have a car. he soon befriends Twinkie (Bow Wow), a local student who lives off of his back pack sales. Twinkie introduces Shaun to the Tokyo street racing sub culture, a course of sharp hairpins and switch-backs that can only be called one thing...Drift. In Shaun's first unsuccessful attempt at drift, he unknowingly takes on 'Drift King' Takashi (DK) (Brian Tee), Tokyo's most dangerous racer, who is tied into the Yakuza via his uncle, Japans most illusive crime organization. After this attempt, he befriends (read: is indebted to) a local racer named Han, (Sung Kang, who is one of DK's friends and associates, who starts to teach him the subtle art of drift racing while also using his services to regain the money to repair the car Shaun wrecked. During this period, Shaun begins to fall for DK's girlfriend, one of his classmates, Neela (Nathalie Kelley), which naturally invokes the wrath of D.K, leading to Neela leaving D.K and moving in with Shaun. Once D.K. finds out that Han has been stealing from him, a violent race through the streets of Tokyo begins, resulting in the death of Han. In order to exact his revenge, Shaun returns the stolen money and challenges D.K to a race, the loser leaving town forever. There remains one problem though: Shaun still doesn't have a car. He and Han’s old crew manage to erect one of Han's old engines from a Nissan Silvia (the car Shaun wrecked, ironically)into his dads Ford Mustang. The race takes place on a mountain with the most dangerous drift courses ever found. Shaun and D.K risk their lives in this race, and nearly both are lost as DK's Nissan 350z barrels over the mountain's edge, nearly crushing Shaun's car, but Shaun prevailed, and as a result, D.K. can never set foot in Tokyo again. Shaun is now on top of the World as the new Drift King, and closes out with a challenge to Shaun from a man who knew Han years before, a man who once was the top racer in Los Angeles, Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) (Uncredited)

Rating

The film sports a PG-13 rating for "Reckless and Illegal Behavior Involving Teens, Violence, Language, and Sexual Content."

Cast

Rumors & Information Leaked Prior to Release

Given the nature of the movie, fans of the Import and Drifting Scene have cast a wary and sometimes critical eye on any information that leaks concerning the movie. Already, a few key pieces of info have leaked.

  • Modified Magazine pictured in their October 2005 editorial that two of the cars in the film were a Veilside RX-7 and a 1960's Ford Mustang Fastback with an engine swap from a Nissan Skyline GT-R. The article also mentioned possible appearances of other show cars from the various Tuning firms.
  • The website MovieCarZ was one of several car locating firms that posted a list of wanted cars for the film, mainly background and set cars. According to the Modified Magazine editorial, most of the "Star Cars" were ones from Tuning firms and already filled. Among some of the wanted cars on their list were the Toyota Corolla AE86 (a possible homage to the anime Initial D); mainstays in the tuning world like the track dominating Toyota Supra, Mazda RX-7, Nissan Silvia, and Honda Civic; Luxury and Exotic Cars (possibly Japanese luxury cars like the Toyota Celsior/Lexus LS400 and the Nissan Cefiro/Infiniti I30), RHD (Right-Hand-Drive) cars, and even Japanese Classics.
  • On the website Streetfire.net, spy footage from a Fast and Furious 3 set shoot shows a Nissan 350Z and a Ford Mustang Fastback in what appears to be Touge action.
  • The forums at Toyota Nation had a posting where the set of F&F: Tokyo Drift took over a portion of downtown LA. In the spy shots, a fleet of modified RX-7's, Nissan 350Z's, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolutions, and a fleet of Keicars were stored in a lot, while other shots showed the set crew putting up Japanese signs over existing signs and setting up shots.[1]
  • Sport Compact Car tested the cars of the film, and noted that the cars in Tokyo Drift were slightly faster in an acceleration matchup with the cars from 2 Fast 2 Furious.[2]
  • Hot Rod Magazine reviewed the domestic cars of the film (The RB26 equipped Mustang, the Monte Carlo, and the Dodge Viper) and noted that most of the drifting action done by the Mustang were handled by Mustangs equipped with the Windsor Engine. They also lamented the possibility that tuners might swap in Japanese motors into American cars.[3]

Reaction to the film

Fans’ Response

Despite negative reviews, Tokyo Drift was able to bring in over 24 million dollars on its opening weekend. Although, it’s impact on pop culture was not nearly as great as the first film’s was, it is credited by many fans for resurrecting the series' original novelty.

Critics' Response

Michael Medved gave Tokyo Drift one and a half stars (out of four) saying, "There’s no discernable plot...or emotion, or humor.." Medved further stated that the movie "..feels feckless and feeble.."[4] James Berardinelli from Reelviews also gave it one and a half stars out of four, saying that "There's something odd about Tokyo Drift. It fetishizes cars in a way that's almost unhealthy. When the vehicles appear in the same scene as a bunch of scantily clad Asian babes, the camera is drawn not to cleavage but to carburetors."

Trivia

Cameos

  • Vin Diesel makes an uncredited appearance as Dominic Toretto (his character from the original the Fast and the Furious film), claiming to be a friend of Han's.
  • Real life "Drift King," and drift pioneer Keiichi Tsuchiya also makes an appearance during the scenes where Lucas Black's character (Sean Boswell) is learning how to drift. He appears as an old fisherman who makes snide comments on Sean's lack of proper drift technique.
  • Rhys Millen, the primary stunt driver in the film, has a cameo appearance as one of the passengers in the airplane scene.
  • Former sumo wrestler Konishiki makes an apperance in the bathhouse scence as one of the collection marks that owes money to Han.
  • Japanese pop superstars Ayumi Hamasaki and Mika Nakashima can be seen in background pans around Tokyo.
  • Import Models Verena Mei and Mari Jaramillo are in the Skyline drifted around in circles by Han.
  • During the start lines near the begining and at the end of the movie, Import Models Aiko Tanaka (Seto) and Kaila Yu (Ready) flank the start line. Satoshi Tsumabuki (Go) starts off the first race in the parking garage.

Technical

  • The RB26DETT powered Mustang in the film has been subject to much criticism by fans of both US domestic cars and JDM cars. The criticism grew when it was revealed that the car itself barely had any screen time and regular, V8 powered Mustangs were used instead for most of the drift scenes.[5]
    • According to SCC, 1 Mustang recieved the RB26 swap, while 5 other Mustangs were created for drifting purposes. 2 were destroyed in the process.[6]
    • In addition, the RB26 Mustang was shown to be extremely faster than it's V8 powered kin, with times of 0-60 in 5.38 seconds, and the quarter mile in 13.36 seconds at 109.83 MPH.[7]
  • The S15 Silvia which Black's character trashes in his first race in Japan is depicted as having an RB26DETT engine swap which itself is donated to the Mustang. However, the car used was actually powered by the S15's base SR20DET engine[8].
  • The Veilside Fortune body-kitted RX-7 driven by Sung Kang's character was originally built by Veilside for the 2005 Auto Salon but was later bought by Universal and repainted for the film(the original was dark red and not orange and black like in the film)[9].

Inside References

Soundtrack

  • 1. Teriyaki Boyz - "Tokyo Drift (Fast & Furious)"
  • 2. DJ Shadow feat. Mos Def - "Six Days The Remix"
  • 3. 5,6,7, 8's - "The Barracuda"
  • 4. Evil Nine - "Restless"
  • 5. Far East Movement - "Round And Round"
  • 6. N.E.R.D. - "She Wants To Move"
  • 7. Teriyaki Boyz - "Cho Large"
  • 8. Dragon Ash - "Resound"
  • 9. Atari Teenage Riot - "Speed"
  • 10. Don Omar - "Bandoleros"
  • 11. Don Omar - "Conteo"
  • 12. Brian Tyler feat. Slash - "Mustang Nismo"

References

  1. ^ "Toyota Nation Forums Posting." Toyotanation.com. Accessed 24 February 2006
  2. ^ Sport Compact Car "Fast, Furious, & Drifting" By John Pearley Huffman July 2006 Pg. 56-92
  3. ^ Hot Rod Magazine "Build Fast. Fabricate Furiously." By John Pearley Huffman July 2006 Pg. 56-64
  4. ^ "Michael Medved's Eye On Entertainment." MichaelMedved.com. Accessed 21 June 2006
  5. ^ Hot Rod Magazine "Build Fast. Fabricate Furiously." By John Pearley Huffman July 2006 Pg. 59 Sidebar
  6. ^ Sport Compact Car "Tokyo Drift by the Numbers" By John Pearley Huffman July 2006 Pg. 92
  7. ^ Sport Compact Car "Ford Mustang GT-R; Pony with a Skyline's Heart" By John Pearley Huffman July 2006 Pg. 84-86
  8. ^ "IGN Cars: The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift Car of the Day: Han's S15." IGN Cars Accessed 19 June 2006
  9. ^ "IGN Cars: The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift Car of the Day: VeilSide RX-7." IGN Cars Accessed 19 June 2006
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