The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)

the audience applauded

Please don't spend money on this.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

If it wasn't for this movie being incorporated into the franchises overall story I think I might be less enthusiastic about it. Because other than the character of Han and a few good races there's not a lot I like about Tokyo Drift. Sure it's easy to just say this movie sucks because it lacks most of are favorite characters, and I'd be hard-pressed to disagree with that. But even this movies story is kinda lame. I know people praise this movie for really giving you a feel for the culture, but I'm not a car guy so that doesn't really matter to me. What matters to me when I watch a F&F movie is great, exciting action/racing scenes and a half decent story. I know it's F&F so asking for an elaborate story is comical to say the least. But Tokyo Drifts story is really hindered by that fact that 90% of the characters are in high school. So the result is a movie that feels smaller than the ones that came before it, and with far less stakes for it's characters than the ones that come after it. All in all if you stack it up against some of the others it doesn't compare, but as a standalone movie it's alright.

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift was prime evidence that the franchise desperately needed a makeover. Not only did it dispose of its popular protagonist in exchange for a cheap lookalike, but also, aside from a couple cool race scenes, it's really just a huge mess. The plot simply advances because the writers need it to, there aren't any real substantial plot elements that keep the audience involved. The story itself seems just like a rehash of any classic gang feud film, and it comes as no surprise to me that the franchise was turned towards high-octane heist films. That transition was definitely for the better, because this formula quickly ran thin.Not even a quick appearance from Vin Diesel could save this film, as his appearance only served to up audience ratings before its release. It may seem like a cool little nod to the previous films, but it doesn't make me care about this new character any more than I already didn't. The film's look is extremely dated, even for 2006. It felt like a real step back from 2 Fast 2 Furious, rather than a revolutionization of the series. I wouldn't have minded Paul Walker's absence if these characters could have held their own, but sadly they just fall flat before the story can even pick up steam.This is probably my least favorite entry in the franchise, and not because Paul Walker wasn't in it. While his absence didn't help matters, the story as a whole felt very uneven and didn't flow through very well. It was pretty unbelievable at times as well, not because of the stunts, but because of the plot itself. Certain things happen just for the sake of happening, with no real substance or process shown in between. It's too convenient to be a good film, despite the stylish driving tactics. Drifting car races are the highlights of the film, but everything in between is just too pointless and shallow to make this a good film. It's a mediocre at best effort, and the weakest entry in the franchise.

*** This review may contain spoilers ***When I first heard about Tokyo Drift and realized that it would feature none of the original cast members, I was hesitant to see it. Can you imagine what a risk the producers took to make this one? At that time we did not know it was the ONE movie of the franchise connecting all others with one of its major characters.Sung demonstrated a lot of talent, making his heartbroken character believable. We see his emotions throughout the movie and we want to know what happened to him, to understand him a little better. After watching Fast 6 come back and see this one. It will all add up.I've seen so many reviews saying that character development was too hurried, for those saying that I only want to say this: Have you watched all the movies???? It annoys me so much seeing people review without knowing what these movies are about.Tokyo Drift takes place after 6, which shows how much effort the writers and producers put into this franchise. It was all written way back. To have that imagination is effing amazing. When I first saw Tokyo Drift, I could not see what it had to do with The Fast and Furious series. I got mad. I just couldn't get it. Funny thing is that the character I loved the most was HAN. My brain was blow away when I saw the other movies. I was like "What's happening? Isn't he dead?" "What? How? When?"So you can imagine that after knowing he's going to die seeing the relationship developing with Gisele was killing me. Now I could see why he wasn't giving a s**t. Like, he was the coolest out there without showing it. Why wasn't he claiming his spot? Because he lost everything that really mattered to him. Ride or die, remember?What a way to blow our minds. You killed it with the whole plot dear writers. I LOVED EVERY SECOND OF THE 8 MOVIES launched so far. And yes, I will be a die hard fan of this franchise even when I'm 50. Thank you Sung Kang and Gal Gadot for giving me one of my favorite on screen couples with just a few scenes.

A teenager becomes a major competitor in the world of drift racing after moving in with his father in Tokyo to avoid a jail sentence in America. Honestly i really don't think that The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift is a bad film it's actually a pretty decent sequel and both the cars and the girls are fortunately pretty well done where the movie lost me is this new characters like Sean who we never actually got to see again in any of the other Fast & Furious films except Furious 7 as a cameo so we could tie in the 2 films plus the film most of the time is really slow paced and it's kinda of a yawn sometimes but overall the street racing and the acting is pretty solid and fans of the series won't be disappointed that much i mean it's definitely a much better 3rd sequel than movies such as XXX: Return of Xander Cage plus speaking of Vin Diesel that ending with his cameo was actually pretty good as well. (7/10)