The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift Information

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (alternatively known as Fast & Furious: Tokyo Drift) is a 2006 American action film directed by Justin Lin, produced by Neal H. Moritz and written by Chris Morgan. The third installment of The Fast and the Furious franchise, it takes place chronologically between the events of the sixth and seventh films. The film stars Lucas Black, Nathalie Kelley, Sung Kang, Bow Wow and Brian Tee. The film was shot in Tokyo and parts of Los Angeles, the latter often covered with props and lights to create the illusion of the Tokyo style.

Paul Walker is absent from the film, making it the first film in the series (and only film in the series during his lifetime) not to feature him. It was followed by Fast & Furious in 2009.

Plot

This film's story occurs sometime after Fast & Furious 6 with a scene that was later made concurrent with events in Furious 7.

In Oro Valley, Arizona, 17-year-old high school students Sean Boswell and Clay race their cars to win the affections of Clay's girlfriend Cindy. When Sean cuts through a structure and catches up to Clay, Clay hits Sean's car repeatedly until they reach a high-speed turn, which causes both cars to crash; Sean's car is totaled. Clay's wealthy family helps him escape punishment, but Sean is sent to live in Tokyo, Japan, with his father, a U.S. Navy officer, in order to avoid juvie or even jail.

While in school, Sean befriends Twinkie, a military brat who introduces him to the world of drift racing in Japan. Sean has a confrontation with Takashi"?aka D.K. (Drift King)"?over Sean talking to Takashi's girlfriend Neela. Though forbidden to drive, Sean decides to race against Takashi, who has ties to the Yakuza. He borrows a Nissan Silvia from Han Lue, now a business partner to Takashi, and loses, totaling the car because of his lack of knowledge of drifting"?racing that involves dangerous hairpin turns.

To repay his debt for the car he destroyed, Sean must work for Han. Later on, Han becomes friends with Sean and teaches the young racer how to drift. He also loans him another car for future races. Han explains that he is helping him because he is the only person willing to stand up to Takashi. Sean moves in with Han and soon masters drifting, gaining some repute after defeating DK's right-hand man, Morimoto. Sean soon asks Neela out on a date, and learns that after her mother died she moved in with Takashi's grandmother, resulting in her hooking up with him. Takashi beats up Sean the next day, telling him to stay away from Neela; Neela subsequently leaves Takashi and moves in with Sean and Han.

Takashi's uncle Kamata (the head of the Yakuza) reprimands Takashi for allowing Han to steal from him. Takashi and Morimoto confront Han, Sean, and Neela about the thefts. Twinkie causes a distraction, allowing Han, Sean, and Neela to flee, pursued by Takashi and Morimoto. During the chase, Morimoto is killed in a crash, leaving Takashi to pursue Han, Sean, and Neela on his own. Han allows Sean to overtake him in order to hold him off, but the chase ends when Sean and Neela crash. Meanwhile, moments after escaping from Takashi, Han is critically injured when his Veilside Mazda RX-7 is rammed by another car. Han's car explodes, killing him just seconds before Sean has a chance to save him.

Takashi, Sean, and his father become involved in an armed standoff which is resolved by Neela agreeing to leave with Takashi. Twinkie gives his money to Sean to replace the money Han stole, which Sean then returns to Kamata. Sean proposes a race against Takashi to determine who must leave Tokyo. Kamata agrees to the challenge but on the condition that the race take place on DK's mountain. With all of Han's cars impounded, Sean and Han's friends then build a '67 Ford Mustang that Sean's father was working on, with a Nissan Skyline GT-R RB26DETT engine salvaged from Han's Silvia that was totaled by Sean in his first drift race, and other spare parts.

That night, on the mountain, crowds gather to see the race; Takashi takes the lead initially, but Sean's training allows him to catch up. Determined to win, Takashi resorts to ramming Sean's car, eventually missing and driving off the mountain while Sean crosses the finish line. Kamata keeps his word and lets Sean remain in Tokyo.

The next night, Sean, the new "Drift King," is challenged by a new driver who claims Han was family: Dominic Toretto.

Cast

• Lucas Black as Sean Boswell, a 17-year-old social outcast interested in illegal street racing. He drove a 1971 Chevrolet Monte Carlo in Arizona and after moving to Japan, Han gave him a 2006 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX. After damaging his Lancer while racing through Tokyo, he and Han's friends build a 1967 Mustang with the engine originally from Han's Silvia.
• Nathalie Kelley as Neela, an Australian who is Takashi's girlfriend, but later on falls for Sean. She is an outsider whose mother died when she was ten. Takashi's family took her in and raised her. She drives a 2004 Mazda RX-8.
• Sung Kang as Han Lue, Takashi's friend and business partner (and old friend of Dominic Toretto) who becomes friends with Sean and teaches him how to drift. After gaining his share of the Rio heist and also cleaning his record and losing Gisele, he settles in Tokyo and owns a tuning shop. He works with Takashi mainly since his garage is on the turf of Takashi's uncle Kamata, who is the head of the Yakuza. He drives a 1994 Mazda RX-7 Veilside.
• Bow Wow as Twinkie. He is Sean's first friend in Tokyo and introduces Sean to the drift world. He drives a 2005 Volkswagen Touran with a Hulk theme. He dislikes racing, instead making a living by selling stolen American goods to classmates and drivers.
• Brian Tee as Takashi/DK (Drift King). He is a professional street racer and is crowned as Drift King (or DK). He is respected only because his uncle is the head of the Yakuza. He drives a black 2004 Nissan 350Z with the Veilside body-kit.
• Leonardo Nam as Morimoto, Takashi's closest friend and right-hand man. He drives a yellow-black 2003 Nissan 350Z. He is a typical high school bully, and is not very smart.
• Brian Goodman as Lieutenant (credited as Major) Boswell, Sean's father, a U.S. naval officer stationed in Tokyo. He owns a 1967 Mustang which he rebuilt in his garage.
• Zachery Ty Bryan as Clay, the American football quarterback of Sean's school whom Sean challenges for a race. He is a typical rich kid and owns a 2006 Dodge Viper SRT-10.
• Nikki Griffin as Cindy, Clay's girlfriend, who suggests that Clay and Sean compete to win her affections.
• Jason Tobin as Earl, one of Han's friends.
• Keiko Kitagawa as Reiko, Earl's friend.
• Lynda Boyd as Ms. Boswell, Sean's mother, who, fed up with moving herself and Sean around, sends her son to Tokyo to live with his father.
• Sonny Chiba as Kamata, Takashi's uncle. He is the head of the Yakuza who also manages business on his turf.
• Vin Diesel as Dominic Toretto, a professional street racer from the first film and Han's old friend. He arrives in Tokyo when he hears the news of Han's death. His cameo at the end of this film was originally meant to foreshadow his appearance in a chronological sequel, before it was instead decided to set the fourth film before this one.

Production

Development

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Neal H. Moritz, who had produced the two previous installments, began working on the film in 2005. On June 8, 2005, Moritz hired Justin Lin to direct The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. Lin, who wasn't intimately familiar with drifting when he was approached to helm the project, recalled: "I was in film school when The Fast and the Furious came out, and I saw it along with a sold-out crowd who just ate it up. What really excited me about directing this film was the chance to harness that energy—create a whole new chapter and up the ante by bringing something new to the table for the audience who loves action and speed."

Vin Diesel agreed to make a cameo in the film in exchange for Universal's ownership to rights of the Riddick series and character, in lieu of financial payment.

Technical

The S15 Silvia which Black's character trashes in his first race in Japan is depicted as having an RB26DETT engine swap which itself is donated to the Mustang. However, the car in the movie was actually powered by the S15's original SR20DE engine. The Veilside Fortune body-kitted RX-7 driven by Sung Kang's character was originally built by Veilside for the 2005 Tokyo Auto Salon but was later bought by Universal and repainted (the original was dark red, not orange and black like in the film).

The car in which Vin Diesel's character appears at the end of the film is a highly customized 1970 Plymouth Satellite, Steven Strope's "Hammer", built for the SEMA show. It started life as a Satellite, but now is a GTX clone.

SCC tested the cars of the film, and noted that the cars in Tokyo Drift were slightly faster in an acceleration match up with the cars from 2 Fast 2 Furious.

Notable drifting personalities Keiichi Tsuchiya, Rhys Millen, and Samuel Hubinette were consulted and employed by the movie to provide and execute the drifting and driving stunts in the film. Tanner Foust, Rich Rutherford, Calvin Wan, and Alex Pfeiffer were also brought in when it was revealed that none of Universal's own stunt drivers could drift. Some racing events were filmed within the Hawthorne Mall parking lot in Los Angeles.

Toshi Hayama was also brought in to keep elements of the film portrayed correctly after being contacted by Roger Fan, an old high school friend who starred in Justin Lin's Better Luck Tomorrow, the organizers of the Japanese series, and his former boss at A'PEXi. Among them were keeping certain references in check (the usage of nitrous oxide in straights but not in turns, keeping the usage of references from sponsors to a minimum, etc.). Hayama also joked that a prop car was "stolen" by some of the action stars who took the car for an impromptu "drift session" from which the car never returned.

Release

For the film's Japanese release, Kamata's henchman - credited as "Yakuza Pinkie" - had his missing fingers digitally added in the final race scene for cultural reasons.

Reception

Box office

Tokyo Drift brought in over $24 million on its opening weekend. The movie itself was in limited release in Japan (released under the name Wild Speed 3). As of January 28, 2007, the domestic box office take totalled $62,514,415 with another $95,953,877 from the foreign box office, resulting in total receipts of $158,468,292. Tokyo Drift grossed lower than its predecessor films. However, it was considered successful enough to justify continuing the series with a fourth film, as long as Vin Diesel returned to the main cast.

Critical reaction

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift gained a 37% on Rotten Tomatoes based on reviews from 113 critics, with an average rating of 4.8/10, and the site's consensus reading: "Eye-popping driving sequences coupled with a limp story and flat performances make this Drift an adequate follow-up to the previous Fast and Furious installments. Strictly for the racing crowd and fans of the first two films." On Metacritic, which determines a normalized rating out of 100 from mainstream critics, the film received a score of 46 out of 100 based on reviews from 31 critics.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times praised the film, giving it three out of four stars, saying that director Justin Lin "takes an established franchise and makes it surprisingly fresh and intriguing," adding that Tokyo Drift is "more observant than we expect" and that "the story [is] about something more than fast cars". Michael Sragow of The Baltimore Sun felt that "the opening half-hour may prove to be a disreputable classic of pedal-to-the-metal filmmaking." Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter said that "it's not much of a movie, but a hell of a ride".

Michael Medved gave Tokyo Drift one and a half stars out of four, saying: "There's no discernible plot [...] or emotion or humor." James Berardinelli from ReelViews also gave it one and a half stars out of four, saying: "I expect a racing film to be derivative. That goes with the territory. No one is seeing a Fast and the Furious movie for the plot. When it comes to eye candy, the film is on solid ground"?it offers plenty of babes and cars (with the latter being more lovingly photographed than the former). However, it is unacceptable that the movie's action scenes (races and chases) are boring and incoherent. If the movie can't deliver on its most important asset, what's the point?"

Richard Roeper strongly criticized the film, saying, "The whole thing is preposterous. The acting is so awful, some of the worst performances I've seen in a long, long time." Similarly, Peter Travers of Rolling Stone said that Tokyo Drift "suffers from blurred vision, motor drag and a plot that's running on fumes. Look out for a star cameo"?it's the only surprise you'll get from this heap." Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle said: "[The main character] has no plan and no direction, just a blind desire to smash up automobiles and steal a mobster's girlfriend. [...] As for the racing scenes, who cares about the finesse move of drifting, compared to going fast? And who wants to watch guys race in a parking lot? For that matter, who wants to watch guys race down a mountain, with lots of turns?"

Rob Cohen, who directed the first film of the series, was very critical of this film, saying: "If you were to just watch Tokyo Drift, you'd say 'I never want to see anything related to Fast & Furious again.'"

Music

The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack was released on June 20, 2006. AllMusic rated it three stars out of five. RapReviews rated it two out of ten. Another album, the Original Score, has 30 tracks, most composed by Brian Tyler and one track "Welcome to Tokyo" composed by Tyler and the musician Slash. The album was released by Varse Sarabande on June 27, 2006, with 64 minutes and 10 seconds worth of music. Tyler partnered with music producers Pharrell Williams and Dr. Dre for the 2006 film The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.

Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Songs featured in the film, but not in the soundtrack

• "My Life Be Like (Ooh Ahh)" by GRITS featuring TobyMac (3:53)
• "Rising Sun by DBSK (4:42)
• "Rock Star" by N.E.R.D (4:29)
• "Bawitdaba" by Kid Rock (4:27)
• "Chaos Step" by The Mad Capsule Markets (3:20)
• "You'll Be Under My Wheels" by The Prodigy (3:59)
• "There It Go (The Whistle Song)" by Juelz Santana (3:04)
• "I Got It from the Town" by MC Hammer (3:51)
• "Top of The World" by Shonen Knife (3:55)
• "Mamacita" by Pharrell featuring Daddy Yankee (5:08)
• "Mission Banana Muffins" by Qypthone (4:07)
• "Hey, Mami" by FannyPack (3:23)
• "Game Show" by Addicted2fiction (1:05)
• "Jake Alert" by Jake One featuring Malay (0:34)
• "Realizer" by The Crystal Method (3:48)
• "Big Money Talk" by Lyrics Born (3:53)
• "Tokyo Is Great, But Where Are The Bees?" by Chris Beanz (28:33)

Charts

Chart (2006)	Peak position
Australian Albums (ARIA)	77

Original Motion Picture Score