THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS-TOKYO DRIFT

DESCRIPTION

Run Time: 105 minutes.

Plot Outline.
In order to avoid a jail sentence, Sean Boswell heads to Tokyo to live with his military father. In a low-rent section of the city, Shaun gets caught up in the underground world of drift racing.

Plot Synopsis.
After totaling his car in an illegal street race, Shaun Boswell is sent to live with his father, who is in the military, in Tokyo, Japan, to avoid juvy or even jail. While in school, he befriends Twinkie, a "military brat." Twinkie introduces him to the world of racing in Japan. Though forbidden to drive, he decides to race against D.K., the "Drift King", who has ties to the Yakuza, and loses, totaling the car because of his lack of knowledge of drifting, racing that involves dangerous hair pin turns. To repay his debt, he enters the underground world of drift street racing. As he becomes better and better, he must finally prove his worth in that world by once again racing D.K.

Review.
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift has all the elements that spelled success for its predecessors: Speed, sex, and minimal dialogue. The plot doesn''t need explication; it's a nonsensical series of confrontations and standoffs that serve to get us from one race to another. Tokyo Drift can most accurately be described as a visual poem about screeching tires, crunching fiberglass, and sleek female skin, set to a killer soundtrack of Japanese pop and hip-hop. The actors are only needed for tight close-ups of narrowed eyes or sweaty hands tightly gripping gearshifts, though Sung Kang, Better Luck Tomorrow, stands out as a vaguely philosophical hoodlum with deadpan charisma. The curved bodies of the cars and the luscious flesh of the women are both shot with a fetishistic hunger. The "drift" style of racing--in which the cars are allowed to slide in order to take sharp turns at high speeds--grabs your eyes; there's a strange, spectral beauty to rows of cars sliding sideways down a mountain road at night. Also starring Lucas Black (Friday Night Lights) as our wheel-happy hero; Bow Wow (Roll Bounce) as the scam-artist comic relief; and martial arts legend Sonny Chiba (Kill Bill) as a yakuza big shot. --Bret Fetzer (Amazon).

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