The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift

OK we’re back and now we have a totally different cast in a totally different setting - Lucas Black heads up the film and is sent to Japan, getting involved in the Tokyo drifting scene.

Immediately we see the hallmarks of the franchise though. The tone deaf script, the bad acting, the fact that Black is supposed to be 17 and in school but looks more like 35. The music is loud, the cars are louder.

However, the action scenes are probably the best we’ve seen so far. Drifting is a solid choice for a movie because it’s completely style over substance. On tarmac it is a completely pointless skill to have as it will always be slower than just taking a racing line, but in a Hollywood film it’s dead fun to watch. It also seems to allow for some solid shots of highly skilled driving, which we’ve been starved of until now in lieu of flashy shaky camera work.

We’ve still got the stupid gear changes, but fewer of them, and there’s little to no use of the magic NOS button which is refreshing.

Tokyo Drift is noteworthy for being Justin Lin’s first film of the series; he went on to direct loads of them afterwards and probably made it what it is today.

I’m still struggling to see how this is coming together as a franchise, especially given that this film is pretty much a total outlier. But, they’ve all made piles and piles of money at the box office, and that’s probably all it takes.

Buckle up I think I’m gonna watch all 10 plus the spinoff.