The Fast and the
Furious: Tokyo Drift
2006
Director: Justin Lin
Starring: Lucas Black, Bow Wow, Nathalie Kelley, Sung Kang,
Sonny Chiba, Vin Diesel
Rated PG-13
I’ve got nothin’ but
time
~Dominic
Toretto
Oops, so yeah…spoiler alert…but the movie is 7 years old and
3 sequels ago.
Three years following 2
Fast 2 Furious, we get what appears to be an attempt at a reboot or a
one-off. The film appears to be
completely free of the universe and events of the first film until the final
seconds tick down and we are given a shocking connection. This film was apparently originally written
for Paul Walker to return, but when he was busy, they reworked it to have the
character of Shawn Boswell. And boy, do
we actually kinda wish Paul Walker was back (look what this series is doing to
me! Haha).
Tokyo Drift gives
us the fish out of water story of a reckless, race addicted, unlikeable kid
named Shawn, who is kicked out of one too many schools and is shipped to stay
with is dad in…yes…Tokyo. When in Tokyo,
we get a whole lot of “What does that mean” moments to establish our plot and
background. He discovers the underground
world of above ground parking garage racing.
Shawn meets a bunch of equally unlikable people to learn to add finesse
to his speed crazy driving. He is helped
by Han, the only enjoyable character in the entire film, who is killed off due
to mob ties and pissing off the boss and his dad/uncle (sorry, can’t
remember). To avenge Han’s death, Shawn
puts the stakes to racing. Shawn wins,
and in the end, through all his experience and education he has become a
reckless, race addicted unlikable kid who beat the #1 racer in the parking
garage. So…yeah, there’s a lot of
progress made in 104 minutes.
But WAIT, as I spoiled, a massive cameo appears at the ass
end of this movie. Vin “I don’t do
sequels unless its Riddick and I’m done with The Fast & The Furious” Diesel shows up. He claims that Han (I remind you, the ONLY
likable being in this) and him used to run together. I KNEW there was a reason I liked Han! Toretto is the person I wished the first
sequel would have focused on, so I’m happy he’s here. It leaves this mediocre to bad movie on a
very high note.
Getting back to Tokyo
Drift, what was the point? I dunno,
to keep the franchise going? It’s a
pretty basic, seeing every twist and turn coming in the plot. Most of the characters are kinda dumb dumb or
degrading or annoying and it’s a little tough to get on board with the cast. But,
unlike the last one, it was trying to be a good film. It never spun out of control and really tried
to ground itself. It also tried to flesh
out its characters and let them breathe more.
The only real crime against it is that it was paint buy numbers and
maybe not the characters, but some of the cast they chose for this just wasn’t
likable.
I’m gonna give Justin Lin a lot of credit. He was handed a steaming pile and did his
best to turn it into something good. The
car races are all well done and aren’t pretty like we’ve been seeing. Cars bump, cars go out of control when
they’re too fast. The cars in this movie
get damaged and need good driving to accompany them. Its all spelled out in a silly, ridiculous
but incredibly fun to watch opening race in which Shawn takes on Tim the “Tool
Man” Taylor’s son Brad in the race for a low morals self degrading woman
(massive strike to scoring it with Kid Rock, though). If Lin has done one thing his predecessors
haven’t, its making the races and car chases look and feel dangerous, even if
we could care less for who’s in the car.
There’s great potential here with him and I guess we get the chance to
see it flesh out as he directs the next 3 movies after this as well.
So, three movies and this franchise and where is this
franchise. The films were making money
at the box office, but looking like it would soon be running fumes. As for story, there’s fancy cars and they
race and get chased, but is there anything else to offer? This is almost the equivalent of a slasher
franchise but with cars (please note that I LOVE slasher movies), but it comes
down to who does the formula best. And
sadly, the franchise just delivered its most solid all around player with Tokyo Drift, but I don’t think many
people were interested. Aside from an
unlikeable lead character who learns zilch in his journey through this film,
this is a pretty solid film overall.
But I know what’s coming. Next time brings some excitement
for me. The gang is back. However, I do realize that this is coming to
fruition after all the cast members basically have no choice but to go back to
this well. Will it work? Am I getting a little bit excited for
something that is merely going to be slightly better than what’s come previous? We’ll see.
I’m looking for anything here really.
Are we done with the beating and ready to start the healing process? Justin Lin’s return is a big plus for me
going in.
Next Up: Fast & Furious
Ahh, clever, take out the “The”s and its not quite the same
title, but looks like a fresh new movie for those who won’t realize this is a
sequel. Clever! /sarcasm
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