by It is safe to say only a chosen few could’ve expected the staggering success of the FAST & FURIOUS franchise when it debuted. The first film offered a capable, yet unimpressive cast and depicted a subculture with a lot of horsepower, adrenaline and appeal but little substance. With Vin Diesel’s absence in the second installment, 2 FAST 2 FURIOUS, the franchise was almost done before it started. But director and scriptwriter Justin Lin, together with Chris Morgan, understood what set the original film apart and juiced the formula with an exotic setting, character development and apt cinematography. The rest, as they say, is history.
People feel drawn to ideas like the Wild West, outlaws and the American Dream, only they’re hard to find in today’s world. There’s little thrill and excitement, few opportunities for a man with character but few marketable skills, who would’ve been respectable in Little Whiskey but is condemned to a life in poverty and boredom in, say, today’s Los Angeles. The street racers in THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS (2001) were outlaws, or cowboys if you will. Or even knights, living up to their ideals, not those of society. Sean Boswell (Lucas Black), is cut from the same cloth. A character who has no place in society and is sent away to Tokyo to live with his father, a US Navy soldier who is never home. Sean is stranded in Tokyo as much as he was back home, or would’ve been in Los Angeles. Another cowboy with no West to conquer. When Twinkie (Bow Wow), a different kind of fortune hunter, introduces Sean to the racing scene in Tokyo, it’s nothing short of a culture shock to him.
The Japanese drifting is the exact antithesis to American drag race. This emphasizes how lost in the world Sean is, just like Toretto or O’Connor from the original film. They were “gaijins,” or strangers, in America as much as Sean is in Tokyo. But then the Japanese meeting for drift races have more in common with them than the ordinary American going to work from nine to five. Challenged to a drift race by Takashi (Brian Lee), who is a Yakuza and dating Neela (Nathalie Kelley), the only other gaijin in Sean’s class and his love interest, the cowboy borrows a gorgeous Nissan Silvia from Han (Sung Kang) and has a shot at it. Needless to say, he fails miserably at drifting, not only losing the race but also wrecking the car, but winning Han’s respect. Han recruits him, taking Sean under his wing. Serendipity is at large here, a concept widely forgotten following the pessimistic 70s but instrumental to the American Dream. It is character that set the stranger apart.
One car in exchange for knowing what a man’s made of. That’s a price I can live with.
Han
Sean is equipped with his personal Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, a car that is known for its rallying capabilities, not drifting. After a rough start, Sean grows into the culture, finding what he had been looking for in a different country. In bringing out these messages and its subtext, TOKYO DRIFT is a lot more subtle than expected. To this day, it has the greatest depth of all the films in the franchise, yet is barely ever acknowledged for it. But then it is acknowledged for the great driving it shows, executed by aces like Samuel Hübinette, Rhys Millen, Tanner Foust, but first and foremost Keiichi Tsuchiya. Not widely known outside of Japan, Tsuchiya is the Drift King, apparently the single most important person to establish drifting as sports. With his modified Toyota Sprinter Trueno, he’s become a cultural icon. And the car has been featured in the Gran Turismo videogames and starring in the popular manga and anime INITIAL D, that solely focuses on drifting. Some of the drifts these men pull off are hard to believe, particularly the uninterrupted drift up the spiraling ramp at the park house.
Clearly, Sean is “Big in Japan”, which is a play with the many myths on diaspora, or rather the old saying “from rags to riches.” But drifting does more than boost him to the only career he seems capable of. It also brings people together, most prominently Sean and Neela, who is a skilful driver, as well. This is evidence that officially illegal activities such as the Japanese drifting or the American drag racing are far more than crime. They’re culture. Lin knows how to bring about his effects and emphasizes these truths. And even though the plot doesn’t offer unpredictable twists and the acting isn’t deserving of award nominations, the actors fill their characters with life. Sung Kang as Han in particular. With his understated acting, he is a perfect fit to portrait a man who can only get his thrills from drifting in parking lots, speeding in traffic and stealing money from the Yakuza. “Wakon Yōsai,” which translates to “Japanese spirit, Western learning,” a concept deployed and often turned around throughout this film, is stressed when Sean prepares to avenge his friend and mentor. Every muscle car fan, or American in general, may take offense in a Ford Mustang with a Nissan RB26DETT engine swap, but then the result is victorious.
What Justin Lin accomplished with THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS: TOKYO DRIFTT is to breathe new life in a doomed franchise with an entirely new and exciting twist to it and a setting that resembles a video game to western audiences. The film isn’t American, but it’s not Japanese either. Those looking for depth and subtext in film find as much to talk and think about as those that are in for burning rubber, fire spitting ears and good-looking babes. The film has its flaws, preventing it from being a great movie, but they’re few. With its mix of action and perspicacity, TOKYO DRIFT will certainly stay around for some time.
