The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006) Review

 

Director: Justin Lin

Cast: Lucas Black, Sung Kang, Bow Wow, Nathalie Kelley, Brian Tee, Sonny Chiba, Jason Tobin

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006) which is in my opinion I think is a solid good action sequel, a very bashed and hated in the series. Which I don't think this movie is bad. I always loved this movie, I think it is a good movie, but in the series is not the worst one, I think it was a different solid, good sequel in the series and I love it for an action film. The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift is a fun movie to watch: it accomplishes what it set out to do and that's provide the most realistic yet gravity-defying racing sequences, backed with the eye-catching background of the electrifying, neon Tokyo. Plot-wise it suffers a bit and the acting isn't top-notch, otherwise the loud music, import cars, cityscape Tokyo, and Japanese pop culture more than make up for the flaws of the film that you'll watch it again and again. This will is directed by Justin Lin who go on to direct the 4^th, 5^th,6^th and soon-to-be 9^th, 10^th and 11^th installments. This does not feature any of the main established Fast & Furious characters and feature a different cast in the form of Lucas Black, Shad Moss aka Bow Wow, Sung Kang, who would play an integral role later on the series, Nathalie Kelley, Brian Tee, Jason Tobin, Brian Goodman and Sonny Chiba.

The plot revolves around an American teenager, Sean Boswell (Lucas Black), he gets the final strike from the U.S. authorities for street racing and is forced to move to Tokyo, Japan to live with his dad (Brian Goodman). There he makes fast friends with Twinkie (Bow Wow), who introduces him to the world of drifting. There he meets Neela (Nathalie Kelley), but he annoys her boyfriend Takashi (Brian Tee), the “Drift King” of Tokyo who challenges Sean. One of Takashi’s associates Han Lue (Sung Kang) gives his Nissan Silvia, in which he demolishes and loses the race to Takashi humiliating himself in front of everyone. But Han gives him a second chance and teaches him in which he gradually improves upon. What I like about this plot is that the races are an improvement because the cars have to turn and aren’t CGI all the time but are practical which is way cooler. Also in the first two movies, characters like Brian, Dom and Roman were highly-skilled drivers, but Sean does not know how to drift which is why he sucks at first, but he has to learn and there are training montages where he gets better, this a basically a high-school sports movie-combined with a martial arts movie.

I know people were not fans of Lucas Black as Sean, but I liked his character because he had flaws in which he overcomes throughout the movie. I didn’t mind Bow Wow in this, Nathalie Kelley lights up the screen and I would welcome her back to the franchise after 9, even if she doesn’t appear in 9. Sung Kang stole the movie as Han and it was a shame they killed him off in this one, but at least we got back in the next three movies which were prequels to this one and can’t wait to see him again in 9. But keep in mind, this is not Han’s first appearance, because Lin’s first film “Better Luck Tomorrow”, which is meant to a really good indie movie about Asian-American teenagers in California and the movie, Han is this really cool supporting character so when Lin signed on to make “Tokyo Drift”, he just brought the same character played by the same actor over to that.

 Takashi was a bit of an asshole and deserved a comeuppance and then there’s Sonny Chiba as Takashi’s uncle and head of the Yakuza which is the winning recipe to his movie.

Lastly, Vin Diesel makes a cameo appearance as Dominic Toretto which was a great surprise.

Overall, I personally like “Tokyo Drift”, I know people put it as there least favourite but to me, it is a great movie and I’m glad the series kept going after this one.

Rating: 8/10