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Willis
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
USA, 2006
[Justin Lin]
Lucas Black, Nathalie Kelley, Bow Wow, Sung Kang, Brian Tee
Action / Drama
29th December 2006
Some films can really surprise you. You may go in thinking that it�s going to be mindless nonsense aimed at those with an IQ below 85, and that all there�s going to be is shallow eye candy more akin to an advert or music video than the cinema. You may think that the actors have been chosen more for their low cost than their talents, and that the script is little more than a blatant rip-off of a thousand other loner-gets-mixed-up-in-trouble flicks. You may very well be surprised.

Of course
Tokyo Drift didn�t surprise me at all. It�s exactly what I just wrote above, silly cookie-cutter trash with its eye on the bottom line and the very short skirts all the extras wear. What did shock me greatly though was how much I enjoyed it, despite a total lack of interest in cars in general (subsequently altered) and a hatred of the first movie in the series. The whole thing is beautifully filmed by director Lin, and all the car scenes are full of eyes-wide, heart-pumping excitement.

Lucas Black is Sean, a car-obsessed nutter who, after crashing his car illegally racing some trust-fund kids, is given the choice of either going to jail or living with his Navy father in Tokyo. Seems a pretty sweet choice to me! Sean of course plumps for Japan and, though his father forbids it, immediately finds himself re-immersed in the scene over there. After smashing another man�s car up while badly losing a drift race (of which he has no idea how to do) he is co-opted into his mildly criminal fraternity whilst simultaneously earning the enmity of DK (short for �Drift King�), who hates him for talking to one of his many, many ho�s.

And that�s the plot. The rest of the film is little more than lots of beautiful, fast cars racing around in glorious Technicolor, interspersed with shots of beautiful women wearing very little. You know, like in real life. The Japanese continue their fine tradition of looking very stylish yet ugly (for evidence see every single one in the movie) but it doesn�t matter. Unlike it�s two predecessors, Lin makes no effort to make
Tokyo Drift in any way serious, and wisely lets his fine cinematography do all the work. I can�t recommend this to everyone, but to those looking for 90 minutes of silly escapism? You might be surprised.
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