Tokyo Drift

A must-see movie for any car enthusiasts, the fast and the furious: Tokyo drift is the 3rd installment of the Fast and Furious franchise that started it all with Vin Diesel and Paul Walker in The Fast and the Furious (2001) , and Paul Walker with Tyrese in 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003). I caught the film at the theater on opening day.

In order to avoid a jail sentence, Sean Boswell heads to Tokyo to live with his military officer father. In a low-rent section of the city, Sean gets caught up in the underground world of drift racing.

From the synopsis, you can pretty much guess that the story is expected to be pretty thin. Then again, anyone who is familiar with the franchise knows that this film is not about story, acting, or even realistic racing. In little less than two hours, though, you can expect lotsa phat cars and hot babes. Only this time the setting is in Tokyo, and instead of quarter mile drags, we have drifts ala Initial-D.

RX-7 drifting through busy Tokyo streets

The featured cars include a Nissan 350Z, Mazda RX7, Mitsubishi Evolution, Nissan Silvia S15, and a 67 Ford Mustang fitted with a Nissan engine (don’t ask). The racings were every bit as unrealistic as the previous two installments, however, the cinematography was excellent and the drivers displayed some amazing drifting skills. Watch out for the drift up the parking ramp that leaves only maybe 6 inches between the car and the wall both front and back.

same hot Japanese babes

Other than cars, there were plenty of babes. Not that most of them matters at all in the story, they’re just there mainly for eye candy, suits most of the audience fine. Keiko Kitagawa, though not doing much in the film besides hanging around in every other scene, was cute as a button. The leading actress, Nathalie Kelley, doesn’t hurt the eyes either. There were a tonne of mostly Japanese girls in the movie in various racing and party scenes.

Tokyo underground racing scene

As for acting, Lucas Black was quite a dissapointing choice as the leader actor. Bow Wow wasn’t much of an actor either. There were some attempts on character development, and a half effort on having a believable story, but at the end it didn’t matter. The movie was a treat for car enthusiasts and it ended well with the ultimate battle between the Mustang and the 350Z.

The battle between 67 Mustang and Nissan 350Z

As a bonus, Vin Diesel made an apperance at the end. Lets hope they can bring him back in a more involving role on the next installment.