Movie Review: The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift

by By John P. Meyer

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift

An American drummed out of the U.S. because of his passion for street racing moves to Tokyo and soon learns about "drift racing," where cars accelerate into turns and then spin out of them, leading to hairpin, hair-raising races around city blocks. The youth runs afoul of the top drift racer.

Source: Cinema Source

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As a street racer with a lot at stake, you might consider it a bad sign when the official starter raises his hands to give the "GO!" signal and you note he's - ahem - missing some fingers.

Which brings us to the first lesson to be learned from the story of The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift, and that is: don't drift with the Yakuza. If you lose, you lose; and if you win, well, you might lose something else, like for instance the ability to piss without passing blood.

This is an appropriate tie-in, because - just like the previous two films in the F & F series - this flick is basically one big Hollywood-produced action-packed over-revved nitrous-injected pissing contest. So, as Boss Hogg might have said if he were a real guy who you could quote and not just some fictional character from another movie about guys in fast cars and the fine babes who rub their toned butts up against them (the cars; not - sadly - the guys): "If you don't appreciate pissing, then you'd best steer clear of the pot." Or in this case, the movie theater.

It's just like Neela (Nathalie Kelley) complains to Sean (Lucas Black) when he advises her she should replace her auto's li'l six-banger with a big ol' V-8: "You guys are so hung up on the size of your engines." How true. Of course, as Sean replies, "it's a guy thing - it's in my DNA." And you may be amazed at this point in the drama to discover that our protagonist actually has a clue as to what DNA might be, because judging by the minimal amount of time he spends in school (most of which is in shop class) and the maximal amount of time he spends making bad decisions on roadways (and parking lots, and construction sites), molecular biology has pretty much got to be low on his agenda.

See, Sean has just been "expelled" from the U.S. to take up residence with his estranged father in Japan, which was the alternative to his spending time in juvie detention. The poor guy just can't keep his hands off the steering wheel, or his right foot off the accelerator, the criminal results of which have turned him and his Mom into virtual gypsies as they move from burg to burg to escape the consequences of Sean's driving (and crashing) addiction. So it's sayonara Arizona and hello Tokyo, where he's first exposed to the racing technique known as "drifting."

For those of you clueless on the subject (girlfriends), drifting is a style of racing whereby the slippage of the rear wheels in a tight corner is utilized to the advantage of the racer, such that countersteer is applied during the slippage itself and then acceleration is reapplied with vigor once the nose of the car points out of the turn. Which is kind of a long-winded way of saying, "YEEE HAA, DARLIN', LET 'ER RIP!!"

The technique has been employed by dirt track racers for years, where the traction provided by pavement is absent and there's no alternative BUT to drift around a curve. Recently, though, drifting for drifting's sake has gained widespread popularity, notably in Japan. Many people's first exposure to the thrill of drifting has been through a series of mangas (created by Shuichi Shigeno), animes and most recently a live-action film titled Initial D. It's clear that the producers of F&F: TD were well-versed in the Initial D milieu, and were mindful of the history of the characters involved as they went about making this film.

So when the heavy of our story appears in the guise of DK (short for "Drift King", played with appropriate bad-guy sneer by Brian Tee), those familiar with the genre are having their antennae tweaked, since Drift King was the moniker bestowed upon Keiichi Tsuchiya, the actual guy who inspired the story of Initial D while learning his chops drifting around the mountain roads of Japan as a delivery driver.

In the grand tradition of pissing contest cinema, Sean takes a severe and suicidal liking to Neela, who happens to be DK's girlfriend. And did I mention that DK's uncle is a Yakuza boss? Well, I have now. In yet another example of Sean's impeccably bad decision-making, he challenges DK to a race on their first meeting, inside a closed-to-the-public multi-story parking garage. Which brings us to the second lesson to be learned from this story: in a parking garage race, you don't need no steenkin' spoiler. Or, to put it another way, acceleration on the straightaway will get you nowhere after you've slammed into the concrete wall on the curve.

Fortunately, an ally skilled in the art of drifting appears in the person of Han (Sung Kang). Han takes Sean under his wing and agrees to teach him the slides if Sean will do some collecting of overdue debts. Which is how we're introduced to the sumo wrestler in the steambath. (But let's just skip that action for now, shall we?)

The racing sequences are the core of the film, and they are nail-bitingly thrilling and ably directed, with Dolby-enhanced howling engine revs and plenty of smoking tires. Kudos to auteur Justin Lin, whose previous films include Better Luck Tomorrow and Spotlighting. In the scariest action sequence of the movie, Sean is engaged in a high-speed life-and-death getaway in the streets of downtown Tokyo, and realizes in a panic that he's approaching a crowded pedestrian crossing at 100 kph (remember, this is JAPAN). If he slows down, he'll be shot dead. If he doesn't, he stands to mow down more Tokyoites than Godzilla did in his last abortive stroll through town.

In homage to Initial D, the climactic race takes place on a winding mountain road that bears a strong resemblance to the one up and down which Keiichi Tsuchiya must have wended his way while delivering tofu.

For you ladies out there (girlfriends!), I'm obligated to report that Lucas Black does at one point in the film strip off his shirt. Furthermore, he maintains a broodingly-handsome screen presence to rival that of any current leading man. Until, of course, he opens his mouth, at which point corn pone twang is certain to be emitted, such as "Ah dyad thyas, an' ah cain't run away." Kind of destroys the moment, don't it?

Nathalie Kelley, as the Neela of contention, looks remarkably like a young, buff version of Paula Abdul, which is not a bad thing, speaking purely from a personal standpoint; and Bow Wow portrays Sean's other new comrade-in-arms, Twinkie, a street hustler with the uncanny ability to comfortably precede Japanisms with "Yo". There's a cameo appearance by Vin Diesel, paying homage to the first F&F; and the legendary Sonny Chiba ably fills the tailored suit of Uncle Kamata, Yakuza boss.

MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT: the floating Tabasco Sauce bottle in the slow-motion rollover sequence.

MOST TEDIOUS DIALOGUE (subtitled English from Japanese): the convoluted parable of the lost nail, told to DK by his pissed-off Uncle Kamata as a way to demonstrate that no amount of shortage in the cash column is to be overlooked. Let's just say that the Chinese have it all over the Japanese when it comes to succinct and pithy sayings.

In the realm of pissing contest action cinema, F&F: TD rates four out of five stars.

For lots more on drifting itself, check out sites here, here, here, here and (whew) here.