Tonight's Movie: The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)

The second film watched on last weekend's "action movie day," following THE ICE ROAD (2021), was THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS: TOKYO DRIFT (2006).

Over the last five years I've seen all of the other films in the Fast and Furious franchise, from the original THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS (2001) of two decades ago to this year's F9: THE FAST SAGA (2021). F9 had originally been scheduled for a 2020 release but was delayed due to COVID; a 10th film is currently anticipated for 2023.

Spoiler Alert: In this review I'll be discussing the death and later reappearance of a supporting character in the long-running series, as this aspect is key to understanding where TOKYO DRIFT falls in the saga's timeline. Anyone who is brand-new to the films and wants to approach them completely fresh may wish to watch the movies before reading further.

THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS: TOKYO DRIFT was the third Fast and Furious film. It's a spinoff which came out midway between the release of 2 FAST 2 FURIOUS (2003) and the series' big reboot in FAST & FURIOUS (2009).

Although released third chronologically, storywise the events of this film were later "retconned" to fall between FAST & FURIOUS 6 (2013) and FURIOUS 7 (2015). FAST & FURIOUS (2009), FAST FIVE (2011), and FAST & FURIOUS 6 are thus all "prequels" to THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS: TOKYO DRIFT. More on that aspect will be discussed below.

In TOKYO DRIFT Lucas Black plays Sean Boswell, a troubled teen whose latest racing escapade results in him being sent by his hapless divorced mother (Lynda Boswell) to live in Tokyo with his miilitary man father (Brian Goodman).

Lucas's father, an army major, expects Sean to have a curfew and attend school, but within a short time frame Sean is back to his old habits. After befriending Twinkie (Sean Moss, aka Bow Wow), a self-described military brat at his school, both boys fall in with a gang of street racers headed by Han (Sung Kang). After Sean crashes Han's car, Han unexpectedly becomes a mentor to Sean, including teaching him about drift racing.

Sean also makes an enemy of D.K. (Brian Tee), a racer whose uncle (Sonny Chiba) is in the Yakuza. Sean's attraction to D.K.'s girlfriend (Nathalie Kelley) creates problems, and after Han's shocking death in a street race, Sean eventually must face D.K. in a race himself, drifting around dangerous hairpin turns.

TOKYO DRIFT, which runs 104 minutes, builds to a satisfying conclusion featuring a cameo appearance by a very familiar face from the other Fast and Furious films.

This is an engrossing film which works well as a coming of age story set against the interesting backdrops of drift racing and Tokyo. Stylewise, it's akin to the simpler storytelling of the first two films in the series, which focused on more realistic street racing and crime, before the characters evolved into something akin to movie superheroes.

As played by Black, Sean is a screw-up, but he retains a likeability, and viewers come to understand that he's been caught between two parents who don't seem to have had much interest in raising him. His father, while giving him a home, can't even be bothered to meet him at the airport or clean his things out of the bed-sized cubby he's providing in his tiny Tokyo apartment. It's thus all too easy for Sean to start spending time with people who share his passion for fast cars.

The movie is somewhat unique in that the character of Han, who some consider to have first appeared in director Justin Lin's film BETTER LUCK TOMORROW (2002), was later written in as one of Dominic's team in the three previously mentioned Fast and Furious films released from 2009-13.

It's all a bit complicated, in the best soap opera tradition, but to further recap Han's history, at the end of FAST & FURIOUS 6, a tag scene reveals that Han's death in the TOKYO DRIFT race had been engineered by Jason Statham, making his first appearance in the series as Deckard Shaw.

Fast-forward to this year's F9: THE FAST SAGA, and we learn that Han wasn't dead at all, his disappearance having actually been planned by top spy "Mr. Nobody" (Kurt Russell). 

Even better, F9 finds Sean and Twinkie showing up in the series for the first time since TOKYO DRIFT, becoming part of the group of racing spies headed by Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel).

The tag scene of F9 deliciously features Han dropping in to see Deckard Shaw. To be continued...

For those wanting to know more about Sung Kang and Han's history, I recommend an interview he did with the Hollywood Reporter, which includes his musings on how the series evolved over time from "B" racing movies to "Oscar winners like Helen Mirren and Charlize Theron coming to play with us."

As Sung Kang also notes, Oscar-nominated director Christopher Nolan is among those who have expressed a particular fondness for TOKYO DRIFT over the years. 

I was also interested to come across a three-star review by the late Roger Ebert, who wrote TOKYO DRIFT "delivers all the races and crashes you could possibly desire, and a little more," while calling the film "surprisingly fresh and intriguing" and expressing admiration for the way the film works in "details of Japanese life." I would add that the establishing shots of Tokyo by Stephen F. Windon are great "eye candy," though most of the movie was actually filmed in Southern California.

TOKYO DRIFT was the first film in the series directed by Lin, who would go on to direct four additional Fast and Furious films to date, including this year's entry.  It was written by Chris Morgan.

Parental Advisory: This film is rated PG-13, which strikes me as correct. Issues include some bad language and a disturbing death.

A trailer is here.

This film is available on DVD and Blu-ray. It can also currently be rented for streaming via Amazon.

Previous reviews in this series: THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS (2001), 2 FAST 2 FURIOUS (2003), FAST & FURIOUS (2009), FAST FIVE (2011), FAST & FURIOUS 6 (2013), FURIOUS 7 (2015), THE FATE OF THE FURIOUS (2017), FAST & FURIOUS PRESENTS: HOBBS & SHAW (2019), and F9: THE FAST SAGA (2021).

Update: I just learned that Sonny Chiba passed away a few days ago at the age of 82.

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