The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift

Name	The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift
Caption	Theatrical release poster
Director	Justin Lin
Producer	Neal H. Moritz
Writer	Chris Morgan
Based on
Starring	Lucas BlackBow WowSung Kang
Music	Brian Tyler
Cinematography	Stephen F. Windon
Editing	Kelly MatsumotoDallas PuettFred Raskin
Studio	Relativity MediaOriginal FilmMunich Pape Filmproductions
Distributor	Universal Pictures
Released
Runtime	104 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English Japanese
Gross	$158,401,402

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (aka "The Fast And The Furious 3 ") is a 2006 street racing action film directed by Justin Lin. It is the third installment in the The Fast and the Furious film series and currently the fifth in terms of series chronology. The film, featuring an all-new cast, was shot in Tokyo and parts of Los Angeles, the latter often covered with props and lights to create the illusion of the Tokyo style. While Paul Walker is not in the film, Vin Diesel reprises his role as Dominic Toretto in a cameo appearance.

Plot

Sean Boswell (Lucas Black) is involved in a crash during a local street race. Because of his numerous brushes with the law in the past, his mother sends him to Tokyo, Japan, to live with his father, who is stationed as a U.S. Naval officer. Upon arriving at his father's home in Tokyo, he is warned by his father not to stir up any trouble, or he will return to the U.S. to serve jail time.

Sean meets Twinkie (Bow Wow), a fellow American, who introduces him to the drift racing scene. Sean has a verbal confrontation with Takashi (Brian Tee) - also known as DK (short for Drift King) and nephew to a local yakuza boss - because he was talking to DK's girlfriend, Neela (Nathalie Kelley). They race and Sean is defeated and destroys the car lent to him by Han (Sung Kang), DK's business partner. The next day, Han meets Sean after school and tells Sean that he must work for him to repay the damage done to his car.

Han becomes Sean's friend, and teaches him to drift. Han does this because Sean is the only one unafraid of DK (calling him DK's "kryptonite"). Neela and Sean go on a date which precipitates DK to beat him up. Angry after seeing Sean's bruises, Neela leaves DK to be with Sean.

DK's uncle Kamata (Sonny Chiba), a Yakuza, admonishes DK for allowing Han to steal from him. DK confronts Han, Sean and Neela whereupon they flee. The resulting car chase results in the death of Han in a fatal collision. DK, Sean, and Sean's father become involved in an armed standoff which is resolved by Neela agreeing to leave with DK. With the help of Twinkie, Sean returns Kamata's stolen money, proposing a race against DK to determine who must leave Tokyo. Sean and Han's friends then build a car from various spare parts. During the race, DK drives off the cliff and becomes disqualified.

Later, Sean, now the Drift King, is challenged to a race in the parking lot by Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel), a good friend of Han.

Cast

Lucas Black as Sean Boswell, a young man interested in street racing.

Bow Wow as Twinkie, Sean's first friend he meets in Tokyo and who sells various consumer goods and catastrophically introduces Sean to drift racing.

Sung Kang as Han, Takashi's business partner (and old friend of Dominic Toretto) who befriends Sean and teaches him how to drift.

Brian Tee as Takashi, Sean's enemy. He is acknowledged as the best drift racer and given the title "DK" (Drift King).

Nathalie Kelley as Neela, an Australian who is Takashi's girlfriend, but later on falls for Sean.

Jason Tobin as Earl, one of Han's friends.

Keiko Kitagawa as Reiko, Earl's friend.

Sonny Chiba as Kamata, Takashi's uncle who is a Yakuza head.

Leonardo Nam as Morimoto, Takashi's closest friend and right hand man.

Brian Goodman as Lieutenant Boswell, Sean's father.

Lynda Boyd as Ms. Boswell, Sean's mother, who, fed up with moving Sean around, sends him to Tokyo, Japan to live with his father.

Zachery Ty Bryan as Clay, the quarterback of Sean's school whom Sean races at the beginning of the film.

Nikki Griffin as Cindy, Clay's girlfriend, who suggests that Clay and Sean race to win her.

Vin Diesel as Dominic Toretto, who makes a cameo appearance at the end of the film (uncredited).

Reception

Box office

Despite mixed reviews, Tokyo Drift brought in over $24 million on its opening weekend. The movie itself was in limited release in Japan (released under the name Wild Speed 3). As of January 28, 2007, the domestic box office take has totalled $62,514,415 with another $95,886,987 from the foreign box office, resulting in total receipts of $158,401,402. Tokyo Drift grossed lower than its predecessor films.

Critical reaction

The film received largely mixed reviews from the critics. The film holds a rating of 34% on Rotten Tomatoes and a score of 46 out of 100 on Metacritic. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times praised the film, giving it three out of four stars, saying that director Justin Lin "takes an established franchise and makes it surprisingly fresh and intriguing," adding that Tokyo Drift is "more observant than we expect" and that "the story [is] about something more than fast cars." Michael Sragow of the Baltimore Sun felt that "the opening half-hour may prove to be a disreputable classic of pedal-to-the-metal filmmaking." Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter said that "it's not much of a movie, but a hell of a ride."

Michael Medved gave Tokyo Drift one and a half stars out of four, saying: "There’s no discernible plot [...] or emotion or humor." James Berardinelli from Reel Views also gave it one and a half stars out of four, saying: "I expect a racing film to be derivative. That goes with the territory. No one is seeing a Fast and the Furious movie for the plot. When it comes to eye candy, the film is on solid ground—it offers plenty of babes and cars (with the latter being more lovingly photographed than the former). However, it is unacceptable that the movie's action scenes (races and chases) are boring and incoherent. If the movie can't deliver on its most important asset, what's the point?"

Richard Roeper strongly criticized of the film saying, "The whole thing is preposterous. The acting is so awful, some of the worst performances I've seen in a long, long time." Similarly, Peter Travers of Rolling Stone said that Tokyo Drift "suffers from blurred vision, motor drag and a plot that's running on fumes. Look out for a star cameo—it’s the only surprise you'll get from this heap." Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle said: "[The main character] has no plan and no direction, just a blind desire to smash up automobiles and steal a mobster's girlfriend. [...] As for the racing scenes, who cares about the finesse move of drifting, compared to going fast? And who wants to watch guys race in a parking lot? For that matter, who wants to watch guys race down a mountain, with lots of turns?"

Cameos

Vin Diesel reprises his role as Dominic Toretto, claiming to be a friend of Han. In the 2009 film Fast & Furious, the opening scene shows Toretto and Han working together to hijack fuel tankers in the Dominican Republic. Also, in the 2011 film "Fast Five" Han reappears as a member of their crew along with many other former cast members. "Tokyo Drift" is supposed to take place after the "Fast Five" movie and possible after future movies in the series as well.

Paul Walker was asked to star but he turned it down due to other projects and Universal decided to get a new cast and a new script.

Real-life "Drift King" and drift pioneer Keiichi Tsuchiya also makes an appearance during the scenes where Lucas Black (Sean Boswell) is learning how to drift. He appears as an old fisherman who makes a side comment on Sean's lack of proper drift technique, which is obviously an inside joke. Drift driver Rhys Millen can be seen talking to a Japanese couple during the transition from America to Japan.

Keiko Kitagawa (Kitagawa Keiko) also makes an appearance in the film when she play's Earl's friend. Kitagawa, know primarily for her role in Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (a live action "Sailor Moon" series from 2003,2004) where she played Rei Hino a.k.a Sailor Mars, makes her first appearance in an "American" action film.

This is the second movie in the franchise not to star Vin Diesel, and the only one not to star Paul Walker. Diesel's cameo appearance was uncredited.

Technical

The RB26DETT motor found in the Nissan Skyline GTR, which powered the Mustang and Nissan Silvia S15 in the film, has been subject to much criticism by automotive enthusiasts. The criticism grew when it was revealed that the car itself barely had any screen time, and regular stunt Mustangs used for the drifting scenes were powered by 351cid Windsor V8 engines. Hot Rod magazine lamented the possibility that tuners might swap in Japanese motors into American cars. In addition, the RB26 Mustang was shown to be faster than its V8 powered kin, with times of 0-60 in 5.38 seconds, and the quarter mile in 13.36 seconds at 109.83 MPH.

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 was actually powered by the S15's base SR20DET engine. The Veilside Fortune body-kitted RX-7 driven by Sung Kang's character was originally built by Veilside for the 2005 Tokyo Auto Salon but was later bought by Universal and repainted (the original was dark red, not orange and black like in the film).

SCC tested the cars of the film, and noted that the cars in Tokyo Drift were slightly faster in an acceleration match up with the cars from 2 Fast 2 Furious.

Notable drifting personalities Keiichi Tsuchiya, Rhys Millen, and Samuel Hubinette were consulted and employed by the movie to provide and execute the drifting and driving stunts in the film. Tanner Foust, Rich Rutherford, Calvin Wan, and Alex Pfeiffer were also brought in when it was revealed that none of Universal's own stunt drivers could drift. Some racing events were filmed within the Hawthorne Mall parking lot in Los Angeles.

Toshi Hayama was also brought in to keep elements of the film portrayed correctly after being contacted by Roger Fan, an old high school friend that starred in Justin Lin's Better Luck Tomorrow, the organizers of the Japanese series, and his former boss at A'PEXi. Among them are keeping certain references in check (the usage of nitrous oxide in straights but not in turns, keeping the usage of references from sponsors to a minimum, etc.). Hayama also jokes that a prop car was "stolen" by some of the action stars who took the car for an impromptu "Drift Session" from which the car never returned.

Soundtrack

References

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External links

Official site

* 03 Category:2006 films Category:2000s action films Category:American action thriller films Category:Crime thriller films Category:Auto racing films Category:Yakuza films Category:Asian American films Category:English-language films Category:Films set in Arizona Category:Films shot in Los Angeles, California Category:Foreign films shot in Japan Category:Relativity Media films Category:Sequel films Category:Universal Pictures films Category:2000s crime films Category:2000s thriller films Category:Films set in Tokyo