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Fast And The Furious (The): Tokyo Drift
R1 - America - Universal Pictures Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak/Stevie McCleary (23rd October 2006). |
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The Film
 This movie is a hard thing for me to judge as, quite frankly, I couldn't care less about underground car racing and the people that are obsessed with it. It just doesn't do anything for me. I haven't seen the first two movies either but was told this one was separate anyway. I was holding out some small hope that this movie would help change my views on this type of film but sadly it did not. That's not to say that it's all bad. The film isn't completely without merit. Although at best, "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift" is merely a competent movie that never seems concerned with breaking from its clichéd pattern. The movie follows Sean (Lucas Black) who seems to get in regular trouble when around cars, which has forced him & his mother to move towns more than once. Faced with the prospect of jail-time or moving across the world to live with his dad (because the police are so fond of sending people to Tokyo instead of paying for their crimes) Sean is soon on a plane. Naturally it takes him three minutes to get involved with the Japanese underworld. He gets a painful lesson into what 'drifting' is, followed by some important life lessons. Like racing cars to better yourself and your friends. And don't hit on the girlfriend of someone who drifts better than you. Because then you may have to have a race over it. A race where you need to drift (shocking, isn't it?). Right from the get-go the film lets you know how hip it is. The music, the MTV style jump-cuts, people watching the races on their cell phones and the 28 year-old schoolkids at the schools all tell you exactly type of film you're watching. And to be fair, the first ten minutes are pretty fun. But it all gets pretty formulaic from there on. When Sean meets the pretty girl we have typical stilted and overly structured dialogue. It's just paint-by-numbers. You can stop the film at any point and guess what the characters will say and do, and chances are you'll be right. Not that "Tokyo Drift" was ever going to be Shakespeare, but it doesn't even try to deviate off the beaten path. Sean even learns the style of driving that he's unfamiliar with in a hackneyed montage sequence. Why fix what they feel isn't broken, I guess. Of course the dialogue was never going to be what brought people in. It's all about the cars and the chase. Now I knew what drifting was, because I'd seen it in a racing game. Unfortunately, as I was watching this using my PS2, I keep grabbing my controller to turn the corners better because many of the special effects resembled the aforementioned game. Also a problem is that, for most of the races, they could have recycled the same fifteen seconds of footage over and over and it wouldn't have been that noticeable. It always seemed to a shot of a driver changing gears, followed by an extreme close up of the car with a whizzing background, and back to the gear changing. Rinse, repeat. For a movie about car racing I expected a bit more variety in the shots and angles depicting said activity. Instead I found myself wishing that something-anything-else would happen. While this movie was not really entertaining to me, I can see that it would appeal to certain groups. However I just didn't find it at all engaging (the scenes with Sean and his Dad seem to be lacking, as if parts were either cut out or just not bothered with. Towards the end his Dad even seems to have complete knowledge of the problems Sean has to deal with-without needing to be told what they are) and I felt the big pull factor for the film-the racing-was a letdown as well. At the end of the day, it's by no means the worst movie I've seen, but it needed to be more than it was. Probably good for a rental if you count yourself as a fan of the underground/boy-racer crowd, or need a brainless flick to pass the time. Otherwise it will probably be a total bore.
Video
Presented in the film's original theatrical ratio of 2.35:1 this anamorphic transfer is a great effort. The image is sharp and crisp, especially in night scenes. The colors are vivid and pop off the screen especially the neon's of Tokyo. The print is clean of imperfections but I did spot some minor edge-enhancement as well as some shimmer in a few scenes but these were never an annoyance. Overall this is a great transfer that will likely please most DVD fans and fans of this film.
Audio
Three audio tracks are included in English, French and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 surround. For the purposes of this review I chose to view the film with its English soundtrack. This is an action packed film and the soundtrack delivers that in spades. This is one aggressive sound track that makes total and harmonious use of all surround channels to its benefit. The race scenes are exciting and chaotic, the music is rendered throughout the space to immerse the viewer in the action, the sub channel also roars into effect over the numerous engine sounds. This Dolby track is certainly reference quality and one of the best 5.1 surround mixes released this year. Optional subtitles are also included in English for the hearing impaired, French and Spanish.
Extras
Universal have released this film with a series of extras that includes an audio commentary, a collection of deleted scenes, a series of featurettes, a music video plus a handful of bonus trailers. Below is a closer look at these supplements. First up is the feature-length audio commentary by the film's director Justin Lin. Lin remains mainly screen-specific but does occasionally veir into other territory, he comments on the themes and social commentaries he tried to make with the film as well as comments on his cast on numerous occasions as he shares his experience in working with them. He briefly covers technical aspects such as the photography but mainly is resigned to commenting on how the scenes were set up and sharing stories from the set. One particularly amusing story was how some of his crew were arrested in Japan for shooting without a permit. He covers the musical cues and his choices for music, the challenges of shooting in Japan and car culture among other things. Fans of the film will likely get something out of this track but frankly I was bored by it. The disc also includes a series of 11 deleted scenes. These scenes can be viewed individually or with a 'play all' option and can also be viewed with optional audio commentary by the film's director Justin Lin as he discusses why the scenes were omitted and also spends his time telling us why it was hard to drop the scenes in the first place as he liked many of them. The scenes included are: - "Cabbie Wants Yen" which runs for 55 seconds, Sean is dropped off at his Dad's place in Tokyo and cabbie requests payment in Yen. - "Crowded Subway" runs for 1 minute 54 seconds and is an extension to an already existing scene, where Sean is making his way through a busy subway and meets Neela and is confronted by Morimoto. - "Where's My Fizz?" runs for 2 minutes 2 seconds, Twinkie explains the significance of his ride at a gas station and gets angry at the attendants when his cola has no fizz. - "Han, DK, Alden & Egghead" runs for 1 minute 51 seconds, Twinkie explains the rules of the racing world in Japan in this extended scene. - "Yak's Girls" runs for 44 seconds, Sean has his eye on some girls, but they belong to the yakuza. - "The Night Before The Morning After" runs for 1 minute 10 seconds, the guy;s hang out with some ladies in this scene. - "One In Six Billion" runs for 2 minutes 14 seconds, Sean and DK face off in his office. - "Wasabi, Dad Sees Sean's Evo" runs for 1 minute 53 seconds. Twinkie looses a bet when Sean eats a mouthful of wasabi, later Sean arrives home with his new car. - "Golf Drifting" runs for 1 minute 9 seconds, Earl bags on everyone's cars and is taught a lesson when Twinkie takes his car out for a joy ride with him strapped to the roof. - "Happy Birthday To Han" runs for 2 minutes 4 seconds, Han celebrates his birthday with a bunch of hot girls, Neela visits Sean while he's tuning his car. - "A Kiss Before Kamata" runs for 2 minutes 17 seconds, Neela kisses Sean and DK is taken away. The disc also includes a series of 6 featurettes the first of which is entitled "Drifting School" and runs for 7 minutes 39 seconds. This is a closer look at the preparation the actors and the stunt drivers went through in order to perform the drift stunts in the film. We are granted access to the cast learning to drift and maintaining control of the vehicle as well as a look behind-the-scenes of the filming of those sequences. "Cast Cam" is the next featurette and runs for 4 minutes 23 seconds. During the production the cast shot some footage of them on set, fooling around and having fun as well this is a montage sequence of the footage. It's moderately interesting but doesn't warrant repeated viewing. Next up is "The Big Breakdown: Han's Last Ride" which runs for 8 minutes 30 seconds this is a closer look at the Tokyo chase sequence and how it was planned, photographed and executed in L.A. (because they couldn't shoot in Tokyo for this scene) so we get a look at the Tokyo streets set as well as the filming of the scene in various stages that includes stunt driving on the actual set and the cast close-up in front of a green screen. "Tricked Out To Drift" is the next featurette and runs for 11 minutes 4 seconds. This clip is focused on the custom cars for the main characters and the modifications made to them for this film. There were several of each vehicle and each one had a purpose, such as one for driving, one for jumping, one for wrecking etc. The design team take us through the research process and take us in for a closer look at the uniqueness of each of the cars and how it related to the character's personality. Following that is "The Real Drift King" which runs for 3 minutes 42 seconds, this takes a look a drift legend Keiichi Tsuchiya who worked with the second unit. We get a sense of the level of skill involved in drift racing from this clip. The final featurette is "The Japanese Way" which runs for 9 minutes 48 seconds. This takes a look at how Tokyo inspired and influenced the filmmakers and the cast as they reflect on their time spent there. It also looks at the fashions both on the streets of Tokyo and as seen in the film and the challenges of shooting in Tokyo that led the filmmakers to take a guerrilla approach to filming as well as what it was like working with the Japanese crew. Next up is "Conteo" a music video performed by 'Don Omar' that runs for 3 minutes 35 seconds, this clip is basically a spanish rap, which seems a little out of place considering the film takes place in Japan. And directly following that video is a short promo for the soundtrack album which runs for 18 seconds. Rounding out the extras are a collection of bonus trailers, these are all start-up previews and can all be skipped. The previews included are for: - "Scarface: Platinum Edition" which runs for 54 seconds. - "Friday Night Lights" TV series spot which runs for 31 seconds. - "Waste Deep" which runs for 33 seconds. - "Slither" which runs for 32 seconds. Overall, these extras will inform and entertain the fans of this film, they mostly feature some cool behind-the-scenes material that doesn't feel like a chore to get through. While I could care less about the content of the commentary personally I'm sure there's enough there to keep most people listening. These extras are well produced and more importantly do not contain any EPK-style fluff, which is always a good thing.
Packaging
This DVD comes packaged in a amaray case that is housed in a cardboard slip-cover.
Overall
This film has been reviewed by Stevie McCleary. The DVD specifications and extras have been reviewed by Downunder.
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