HLJ's Movie Blog

The Fast and the Furios: Tokyo Drift

I doubt that I would ever recommend The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift to many people. I couldn't recommend it because I liked it for the cars and the driving sequences. How many people see a movie just for that?

I do because I have had a fascination with cars since I was young. My family had a Chevy Nova. Dad would often take us cruising around town on a Friday or Saturday night. I loved just cruising around and looking out the window at all the other muscle cars. I have even taken my son a few times. Although, cruising in a Saturn Wagon really isn't the same as cruising in a muscle car. You just don't get the jump off the line like they do.

If you have an appreciation for cars and movies about cars, then you'll like this movie. They have muscle cars and the new fangled, tricked-out, street racers. The movie has speed and fancy driving. They do try to have some semblance of a story with character development, but I didn't really care about that so much. The best part, they didn't use some cheesy animation to do the driving sequences. Sure, the close-ups of the actors were filmed in studio with a green screen. But the driving sequences where the cars were drifting were filmed on the street. Some of the bonus features show the drivers and the second unit working. It's very interesting stuff.

You may want to consider watching Lost in Translation and this movie together. See if they portray Tokyo in a similar manner. One thing though, this movie has a much better soundtrack than Lost in Translation.