| The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift By Guylaine Cadorette, Hollywood.com Staff  |
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6/16/2006
To avoid jail time, underdog street racer Sean is sent to live with his estranged father, a career military-man stationed in Tokyo, where he is introduced to the underground world of drift racing–the automotive art form of speeding and gliding.
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“Thank you for direct-port nitrous injection, four-core intercoolers, ball-bearing turbos, and titanium valve springs. Amen.”
–Jesse, The Fast and the Furious (2001)
Start your engines: A second sequel to the pocket rocket actioner hits theaters this summer, but will the third installment be something to thank heaven for?
Director Justin Lin‘s The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift is a follow up to 2001’s The Fast and the Furious, starring Vin Diesel and Paul Walker, and its first sequel, 2003’s 2 Fast 2 Furious, starring Walker and Tyrese Gibson.
And just like its predecessor, Tokyo Drift tossed its star power to the curb like a fried piston. The film does not include Walker’s rogue cop character Brian O’Conner or the much rumored return of Diesel‘s heavy hothead Dominic Toretto. Can the franchise thrive without its stars?
Yup.
Let’s go for a little ride
Tokyo Drift‘s story is a total retread of its past two predecessors. Like 2 Fast 2 Furious’ Roman Pearce, troubled teen Sean (Lucas Black) is forced into the street car racing scene to avoid jail time: He is sent to live with his military-man dad stationed in Tokyo, where he is introduced to American teen Twinkie (Bow Wow) and the underground world of drift racing. And just like The Fast and the Furious’ tuna on white, no crust O’Conner, Sean falls for the wrong girl–the girlfriend of a local champ with ties to a Japanese crime machine.
Wait… Lucas Black and Bow Wow?
Despite all the Internet hoopla, it always seemed somewhat unlikely Diesel would reprise his role as Toretto. But Walker being dropped from the series was a surprise to not only Fast and the Furious fans, but to the actor himself. And Walker, who diligently came back 2 Fast 2 Furious, had something furious to say about losing the pink slip that helped skyrocket him to fame.
“I wanted to make another one, but my dream scenario was it was going to be Vin, Tyrese and I, and I spoke it over with the powers that be,” he told the Web site About.com in October. “They’re like, ‘Oh, f**k, we can’t afford that. I was really disappointed when it didn’t work out, but I really like Lucas Black.
“The only thing that pisses me off is before we did the sequel, I told them that we should shoot it in Japan. They looked at me like I was insane. Three years later that’s exactly what it is. It’s in Japan.”
But Tokyo Drift can drift a long ways without star horsepower—and burn rubber all the way to the box office.
It don’t matter if you win by an inch or a mile
To “drift,” a driver intentionally oversteers a car by slipping the rear wheels at a greater angle than the front wheels. The goal is for the driver to achieve steering lock and use the throttle to fine tune the car’s angle and direction. The obscurity of it all is what’s sure to make Tokyo Drift a box office champ.
When The Fast and the Furious was released in 2001, the average moviegoer wasn’t keen on street racing and its dark underbelly, yet the film grossed a $207 million worldwide. Two years later, 2 Fast 2 Furious raced to the top of the box office again, this time with a worldwide box office take of $236 million. But fans hated it. It wasn’t dark or obscure, it was light and fluffy. Tokyo Drift aims to bring back the subject’s obscurity. Moviegoers will be elated, while car enthusiasts will be annoyed at the film for ruining the underground sport of touge drifting.
One thing’s for sure, drifting will make moviegoers forget about the Diesel and Walker and remember it’s all about the cars–provided the studio gets it right.
Whatcha running under there?
The Fast and the Furious focused on the sport compact car scene, and Diesel and Walker‘s hottest onscreen rival came in the form of a black Honda Civic (and that 1994 Toyota Supra–complete with Greddy Turbo and NOS nitrous upgrades, and 19″ Dazz wheels). But in 2 Fast 2 Furious, the stars and the cars were eclipsed by trucks, boats and helicopters. All Tokyo Drift needs to do is get the focus back to fast and furious cars.
More importantly, remember Diesel and Walker were relative unknowns prior to The Fast and the Furious. It was the film that made them into stars. Tokyo Drift could do the same for Black.
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift hits theaters June 16, 2006.
