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The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006) More at IMDbPro »

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311 comments in total

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139 out of 232 people found the following comment useful :-
Much better than the others., 13 June 2006

Author: la-fashionista from United States

Got a free screening pass to see it 6-12, saw it with some car buddies, the dork I am took notes.

This movie had more semblance of a plot than the rest of the franchise, the action stayed fresh and actually flowed with the plot, and the characters actually had motivation this time! There weren't any HUGE glaring inaccuracies (other than daddy throwing sonny the keys to a car with NO ENGINE in it...) The three cameos in the film were well placed, though a bit campy at the very end. The cars and action sequences were amazingly choreographed, one even leaving my whole theatre clapping for the protagonist.

I give 8/10 because of low expectations, and being totally blown away when it was much better than I expected.

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83 out of 127 people found the following comment useful :-
The Cars do the talking., 23 June 2006
Author: Tan Meng Yoe from Malaysia

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift Directed by Justin Lin Starring: Mitsubishi Evo 9, Nissan Silva, Ford Mustang, RX 7, Toyota Chaser, Lucas Black, Bow Wow, Nathalie Kelly, Sung Kang, Sonny Chiba

I think the Mitsubishi should get a best actor nomination for next year's Oscars.

Nice cars. Nice music. Nice bodies. Nice cityscape.

Brainless story. But that's what I watched it for, to have my brains parked outside the cinema and let the brainlessness drive me through a two hour entertainment.

The RX7 has more expression than all the actors.

C - Because it served its purpose in entertaining me with awesome drifts, over-sized exhaust pipes, and kick butt photography for a car racing film.

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55 out of 80 people found the following comment useful :-
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift is far better than I expected - but I had low expectations. Enjoyable but not critically appealing, 21 June 2006

Author: DaRick89 from Australia

I was quite surprised by The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift. Of course, I expected it to be a pile of steaming garbage, particularly with the formula of increasingly dodgy sequels. So when I went to see it with some friends, I had obvious misgivings. These misgivings, or at least the worst ones, such as the movie being unbearable to even look at, were fortunately unfounded. I kept my eyes on the movie the whole time, mainly because of the souped cars, but the fact that I went through the movie without flinching (a lot, except at some of the bad dialogue that was prevalent), says quite a lot. Maybe my view of The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift is heightened by the fact that I cracked a few jokes during the movie.

Now down to business. Sean, a 'dude' who loves to race at high speeds for no apparent reason, is sent to Tokyo to live with his military dad and ends up being drawn to the racing circuit again, witnessing a new style of race called 'drift' (as seen in Need For Speed Underground, to those that don't know). Sounds stupid? Well, it is, the casual viewer can detect a plothole or two from even reading those two lines. To go on, except to state that Sean ends up making friends with a guy named Han, is pointless. I will admit that no-one looks for a good plot in a Fast and the Furious movie, but still, the less said, the better.

The dialogue, as I stated, can be funny - because of its stupidity. This is shown by one piece of dialogue where some guy asks Sean: "You know what DK stands for?" and Sean replies "Donkey Kong". At least its original, I guess.

The acting is OK - far from turgid, which I expected it to be in the first place. The guy who plays Han is surprisingly good, going through the movie without looking as if he was hired from a nearby sushi bar. Brian Tee as DK is a bit of a joke, he is more comedic than menacing. Lucas Black is OK as Sean, but his Southern accent makes his character more irritating to watch. The love interest does well as eye candy. That's about all that matters I guess.

The most important part of The Fast and the Furious is inarguably the racing sequences and their overall effectiveness. I will admit that the sequences themselves are well-filmed and eye catching, highlighting the cars, as they should. However, except in a few fleeting moments, they are not as enthralling as they should be and this is one of the most disappointing aspects of The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift. The final confrontation, for me, is pretty good to watch, but only arouses the senses once in a while.

Time didn't drag though, which is a clear sign that The Fast and Furious is indeed quite watchable, despite its other pre-eminent faults. I admit that I didn't really get bored during the film, which may lead to my rose-tinted view of it (compared to my original perception of what it would be like).

So let me summarise my thoughts: "Didn't expect much, got more than I bargained for." The acting is satisfactory (for a racing film, otherwise it would more or less suck), the plot and the dialogue are predictably terrible, the racing sequences are satisfactory and the cinematography is somewhat effective, with frequent close-ups of the cars. What compels me to give The Fast and The Furious a (relatively) favourable rating is the fact that it is, like I said, quite watchable. However, it is still little more than satisfactory, so it's rating cannot therefore rise above:

3/5 stars (If you don't like cars the rating is obviously much lower)

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60 out of 90 people found the following comment useful :-
Surprisingly good - Sung Kang steals the show, 14 June 2006

Author: spiderland from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I'm getting the feeling that the majority of reviews here as of June 14th are bogus. Why write a review if you've only seen the trailer for the film? Anyway, I had the opportunity to see this movie yesterday. Yeah, this is the one of those film series people will hate before seeing. It's over the top, has cheesy dialogue, and has an unlikeable protagonist. With that said, it's actually pretty entertaining, and isn't all that bad.

We are introduced to Sean Boswell (Lucas Black), a high school kid who can't seem to find his niche in life. He's moved from town to town with his divorced mother, and getting into problems with the law, before finding himself in Southern California. The California scenes pay homage to Justin Lin's earlier film, Better Luck Tomorrow, almost feeling like an extension of that film. We see the crowds of students in the courtyard, almost peripheral to a particular point in time. Moving to California doesn't change anything, and Sean, the outsider, finds himself racing Clay (Zachery Ty Bryan, from Home Improvement), a rich kid who has it all, including a brand new Dodge Viper.

In trouble with the law yet again, Sean finds himself moving to Japan, for reasons that aren't particularly clear. We don't know exactly why he *had* to move; however, it doesn't really matter anyway.

Sean continues to find himself as an outsider. From his distant father, to his language barrier, to being unfamiliar with traditional customs. Unlike other particular American films, the culture of Japan was portrayed in a positive light. This was particularly refreshing, as the food jokes, Engrish jokes, height jokes, etc. have become very tiresome over the years.

Sean meets Twinkie (Lil Bow Wow), and Han (Sung Kang), the latter of which appears to be the same character from Better Luck Tomorrow. Both Twinkie and Han serve as guides or mentors to Sean, as he becomes more familiar with Japan, school, drifting, and its associated group. In retrospect, Twinkie seems like an unnecessary character, and quickly gets shelved to Sung Kang's Han, who steals the show like a pimp.

Sean also meets, and is attracted to Neela (Nathalie Kelley), who is the girlfriend of DK (Brian Tee). DK is a nickname for "Drift King." Sean quickly realizes this as he loses badly to him in his first race in Japan (and smashing up Han's S15 badly). The altercation between Sean and DK heats up leading to the climax of the film.

Sean Boswell is an unlikeable character. His mannerism is interesting during the California scenes and you actually do get to like him, however he quickly outwears his welcome. From his unjustified temper, to his grating southern accent, Han becomes more of the likable protagonist.

The dialogue was cheesy as hell too (remember the "I'm free" line from the first one? This is worse - the moonlight drifting scene is embarrassingly bad).

Character development is too hurried at times, much like this review.

As with Kill Bill, Sonny Chiba is as charming as ever, this time playing a Yakuza boss, who happens to be the uncle of DK.

Now, the racing scenes were actually not that bad. Compared to the outlandish effects of the first two FF films, Tokyo Drift is pretty understated.

Racing-wise, this was a vendor-fest. 350Z's (VERY prominently displayed), RX-8's, and an EVO. Other than that, there was an R34 GT-R, S15, and the Veilside RX-7. That's really about it (with the obvious exception of the Mustang). I think I saw a glimpse of an AE86 hatch.

Will it make people drift in the parking lot leaving the theatre? Yes. In fact, I saw some guy in a Camry attempting to do so.

Will it spark interest in the vendor-sponsored cars? Probably.

Will it increase resale value of your S13 or AE86? Probably not.

Finally, there are two notable cameos in this film (among others). The first cameo has to do with "DK" (not the film character). The second cameo ties the film to its predecessor. Both appearances were pretty well done and drew laughter from the crowd.

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39 out of 58 people found the following comment useful :-
Rebel Without a Cause: Asian American Style, 3 January 2007

Author: James J. Kim-2 from Home is where the heart is...

I don't care what everyone else says. For those of you with HDTV's and a fancy DVD/HD-DVD/Blu ray and a kicking sound system, "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift" is one thrilling ride from start to finish. I own this film on DVD, and along with the main feature, there are a lot of cool features that show you what went into the making of this film including the stunts and director Justin Lin's insights and expertise into film-making.

I realize that DVD/HD-DVD/Bly ray offer far superior image quality than VHS tapes, but besides being able to offer clearer pictures rarely did I see any of the early films that took full advantage of how exciting films can appear on an HDTV. Regardless of the quality, from a visual aesthetic sense "Tokyo Drift" is definitely the first to capture that for me.

Also, I generally do not like "popcorn films" like these, but there is something very appealing about "Tokyo Drift" in the fact that it has a cast of Asian American character actors (Sung Kang, Brian Tee, Leonardo Nam) who are portrayed in a non-stereotypical light, and a white American character who actually embraces (rather than begrudgingly accepts) the Japanese culture. The guy actually goes with the flow, and makes every effort to fit in, whether it is learning at school, trying Japanese food, or getting into drifting.

Directed by Justin Lin ("Better Luck Tomorrow"), he really gave us a product that Asian Americans can be real proud of. The fact that you see confident Asian characters portrayed by talented Asian American actors, while smoothly giving the audience the feel of what it is like for an outsider to visit Japan (I've been to Japan, and this film recaptures the feel of what it is like being there as a visitor or a tourist.). Also, the racing sequences are really awesome and thrilling on your home theatre system. This film simply rocks! I also liked this update on 1955's "Rebel Without a Cause," where actor Lucas Black portrays an American southern teenager who is forced to move from town to town because he has trouble fitting in. Nathalie Kelley assumes the Natalie Wood role here, and Bow Wow assumes the Sal Mineo role. Brian Tee portrays the sexy main villain of the film. Even Sung Kang is on hand portraying an Asian American who helps Black's character of Sean Boswell adapt to Japanese society. Best of all, for all you "Street Fighter" fans out there, keep your eyes peeled for a cameo by the legendary Sonny Chiba whose presence adds gravitas to "Tokyo Drift." All in all, you do not have to be a fan of the previous "Fast and the Furious" installments to enjoy this film. Enjoy this film for the thrilling ride, the exciting visuals, and awesome sounds.

I would also like to add that it was actually Lin himself who volunteered to take on this project when he realized that it was the only major Hollywood theatrical film to predominantly feature an Asian American cast in 2006. Lin read the script, realized it was riddled with stereotypes that would have made Rosie O'Donnell's "Ching, chong, chong" tame by comparison. Lin just could not bare to see the fact that a film with this much exposure around the world was going to misrepresent Asians and Asian Americans, so he bit the bullet and took one for the team, and decided to take this on as his next Hollywood directorial assignment.

Although Lin could not get his way in casting Sung Kang as the lead for "Tokyo Drift," because the studio specifically wanted a white actor for the lead role, Kang was still given a prominent role as the non-stereotypical Asian American mentor for the male lead (He is to drifting, what Mr. Miyagi is to karate.) Lucas Black as the male lead was unassuming, and this worked well in maintaining the cast as a true ensemble where all the principal roles were equally important.

I really loved this film on a pure visceral level for the reasons I mentioned above. Justin Lin is one filmmaker who is truly in touch with the Asian American ethos. I plan to go back and watch the first 2 films in this franchise sometime in the near future. I initially took a pass on those 2 films in the theatres, because I thought those tricked-out films could never compete with the stunts and camera work, as well as the plots and character developments of George Miller's Australian motor classics "Mad Max" and "The Road Warrior."

This film is one cool thrill ride after another. If you are looking for that rush, this film definitely delivers the adrenaline!

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28 out of 39 people found the following comment useful :-
Not a bad film considering it was a Part 3, 2 November 2006

Author: Andrew Limtiaco from United States

Usually when a film has a Part III, it leaves you with, "Why did they make a third film?" Case in point, "Smokey & The Bandit". Now I am dating myself if that's the only film I can come up with when it comes to trilogies. But car movies are seldomly done in trilogies. Star Wars, The Godfather, Lord of the Rings and Back to the Future are the only exceptions that have worked in the past because there's an on-going story line.

Tokyo Drift was a good film. Good plot line (if you disagree, then you're a "Too much to think" film-goer, stay with chick-flicks then). Good action. And of course, cool cars. The fact that it strayed away from Part I & II was a good idea. And film director, Justin Lin did an great job getting his vision to film. The mounted camera on a super-fast go-cart gave some spectacular shots.

It's a good escape film with the "new kid in town, gets beat up or loses in some sort of competition, learns from a local to be better then wins in the end." But for a trilogy film it's excellent compared to other Part III films that have been released.

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49 out of 83 people found the following comment useful :-
The Slow and The Stupid: Part III, 30 July 2006

Author: Laurel (Laurel962@worldnetoh.com) from Cleveland Heights

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I enjoyed the first two films, which were better than average popcorn flicks, but this (almost) completely unrelated crapfest is a complete waste of your filmgoing dollars. It's ridiculous and it's boring.

The main character, Sean, is a 34 year old street racer who has apparently been held back in school....for seventeen years. He's the oldest high school student on Planet Earth. In fact, in a remarkable feat of human biology, he is about the same age as his mother and father! He also has the most improbable and unconvincing Southern US accent imaginable.

After smashing up some cars and destroying an entire housing development, he is sent to live in Japan with his Navy dad (who apparently fathered him at the age of about 9). For reasons never explained, his father is not allowed to live on the Naval base, but has to reside in a minuscule Japanese slum and Sean (yup, still in high school, despite middle age) doesn't go to the Navy base school, where instruction would be in English, but instead is enrolled at a private Japanese academy despite the fact that he knows not a single word of Japanese. Apparently no one, not even his teachers there, seem to think this will be a problem.

Naturally, the first girl he sees in class is the only Caucasian student in the entire school, if not the entire city, and so she becomes the (very boring) love interest. He also meets the only African American student. Obviously these two must be his best friend and girlfriend since they are the only non-Asians around.

Subsequently, he gets into "drift racing", something I never heard of before and I can see why. It's not very interesting to watch. Apparently it consists of taking a small import vehicle with front wheel drive, and while going fast through a sharp turn, allowing the car to fishtail. While this seems possible enough (for a skilled stunt driver on a closed track, per the credits), I do wonder if it is possible to do this continuously while driving, i.e., to essentially drive sideways almost the entire time. Seriously, I doubt this. It's also not especially fast, which makes it fairly dull to watch.

Also, the big "final race" occurs, and the hero's dad (amazingly) has the body of a classic 60s Mustang in his garage (a somewhat unlikely situation in Japan -- not just the car, but the idea that he has a entire garage for this purpose in one of the world's most expensive and crowded cities). So Sean and his friends take the engine out of one of the Japanese cars he has wrecked earlier in the film, and in a few hours they manage to install this into the 60s muscle car. HELLO? Is this possible? I admit I am not a mechanic or specialist, but it does not seem logical that you could retrofit a Japanese front wheel drive engine into a vintage 60s American rear wheel drive car....if it could be done AT ALL, it seems to me that it would take a long time and involve a lot of custom parts. That's not even considering that they drive on the opposite side of the road in Japan, or that a 60s era car would be much heavier than a current model Japanese car.

There are too many other absurdities to list, along with the inclusion of the Yakuza (Japanese mafia). I wish I could say that "Toyko Drift" was campy, or that you could have a good time just laughing at the many absurdities, but actually its fatal flaw is that it is extremely dull. The least you would expect from it, title- wise, is that there would be lots of exciting racing -- and there isn't -- and that the hero would probably have a hot, sexy Japanese girlfriend and sexy love scenes -- and there is absolutely nothing in this regard (as he's barely hooked up with the only Caucasian woman in his high school). The film is entirely devoid of sex appeal, you could show it to a convention of Mormons.

SPOILER ALERT Because it's so dumb and utterly lame, I am alerting anyone (who has seen the TV ads) that Vin Diesel does appear, in his role from the first film, for a few seconds at the very end. It's stupid and it's gratuitous, and it says something terribly sad about both this film, and Mr. Diesel's career (that he was able to be compelled to appear, even uncredited). This is a franchise with every ounce of the life juice sucked out.

Here is hoping that they never, ever consider making "Fast & Furious IV".

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43 out of 72 people found the following comment useful :-
Enjoyable, much better than first two, 15 June 2006

Author: bekimdine from Melbourne, Australia

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I just came home from the drive in, i was looking forward to this movie since i have read some good reviews about it and also that I'm a car freak. A lot of people have been bashing this movie without even seeing it and bashing the idea of putting a RB26DETT Motor into a Mustang, i agree its not right, but it is just a movie and if you can get past that then you will enjoy it...anyone who loves the sound of a tuned skyline will love it. Keiichi Tsuchiya makes an appearance in this movie and so does Sonny Chiba, but i wont spoil the other cameo.

Justin Lin does a good job, the movie itself has great action scenes, awesome drifting and car choreography/stunts, the cars look and sound awesome, there are a couple of one liners that make me laugh ("Can i have a copy of that?") you will know what this means when you see it and the babes....the babes are just gorgeous. Overall its a fun and enjoyable movie, far better than the first two.

Car lovers will like the movie but for everyone else....don't bash it till you've seen it, you might be pleasantly surprised.

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20 out of 32 people found the following comment useful :-
What?!??!?!, 26 June 2006

Author: k j from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Whoever voted for this so highly needs to be educated. The plot was absolutely horrible. How is a race going to settle the conflict? How did a busy Tokyo street completely clear up because he honked his horn. How did he learn to be the best at drifting in a few days when he was no where near a good racer as is. The whole crowd was outraged and laughing at the idiocy of the writers at this part, among many others. There was no depth to any of the characters. We barely saw any nice cars, although the drifting was nice. The whole movie was not tied together at all. I don't want to spoil anything so I'll just leave it at this. Don't pay to see this movie. You will feel gipped.

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21 out of 34 people found the following comment useful :-
Slightly Entertaining Movie with bad actors and worst story, 24 June 2006

Author: kok_warlock from Antarctica

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

This movie starts as expected and pretty entertaining, involving some street racing, and some 17yo who obviously doesn't fit in 'Sport America' and the whole high-school thing.

I gotta say, from the first time I saw the main actor, and he going through the metal detectors, I tried to imagine he was going to an airport, then a university, even with cheerleaders, football teams and all the cliché that comes with movies presenting high schools, I thought that, because they casted a 23yo guy that looks like a 32yo, I'm still actually having trouble believing that the actor is only 23 years old.

Sean 17 years old, played by Lucas Black, age 23, but looks 32, is the average American, with a slightly heavy, bad and annoying southern accent with a cowboy style goes to Tokyo after a race ends badly, there he meets with another bunch of 17yo who also look like in their late 20's, early 30's, and all have money, cars and lots of girls, including the main one, Neela, played by Nathalie Kelley, who obviously, gets disputed by both Sean, and his comic-book 'arch-villain' D.K..

The problem with the cast was with the choice for Sean and Neela, the first for being a bad actor and all of the reasons listed above, the latter because I think they injected her with so much botox, that except her mouth moving and eyes blinking and shedding some fake tears, you don't see any kind of facial expression whatsoever, the rest of the cast was good, even the Japanese playing the badly made character, D.K..

The story gets ridiculous from the minute Sean arrives in Tokyo, after school, he meets his demographically chosen friend and goes see the 'underground world of car racing', there he sees Neela again and from the start gets entangled in a love triangle involving the yakuza bad boy D.K., so, Sean challenges him for a race, oh wait, he doesn't have a car, no problem, some guy who never saw Sean before, or even knows his name, lends his 100k car, well, Sean trashes the car during the race, and that way, hey he made a new powerful friend, Han the Zen, all he did was trash his car.

Anyway, some scenes of Sean learning how to drift happen, over and over and over and over and over again, some flirting with Neela, anyway, he end up winning a race from one of D.K.'s drivers, after that some news happen, Han is stealing from D.K., so some fighting ensues, Hans gets f-cked and then Sean decides to go talk with the Yakuza master of the region, D.K.'s uncle, he gives the uncle some money and propose some peaceful solution, a race between D.K. and Sean, nevermind that the fight was already over, Hans was dead and Sean had nothing to offer, or was any kind of threat to anyone, but hey, this is a sequel, so, 3 Fast and 3 Furious, some racing ensues with a predictable ending.

One thing that was very enjoyable in this movie, was the street racing, those scenes were made in such a professional way, that one can only wish that the rest of the crew had the same competence, also those scenes remembered me a lot of Need for Speed, specially in the initial sequence, when some shortcut is taken, doesn't really try to distant itself when it puts some of the same soundtrack, which is also the only other positive point of the movie, of course, the producers had to ruin that also, the final street racing is by far the poorest, with all the curves looking the same, in the mountains, and some cellphones videos for some street racing fans.

Any, this was a very bad movie, with a terrible story and even worst main cast, but with some decent supporting cast, good soundtrack and excellent street racing scenes, but I still don't recommend.

Rating: 3/10

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