Tokyo Drift review
By Tyler Stephens
I’ve never actually watched Tokyo Drift before this and let me say I was pleasantly surprised. Many have labeled Tokyo Drift as the ugly duckling of the series. It’s because the movie has none of the original cast except for some fan service at the end of the movie. While many don’t like this movie, I personally believe that the lighter tone for this movie was hugely beneficial, and I think that’s because that it was different, and it didn’t take its self seriously.
Plot
The story follows Shawn an American high schooler that has a knack for getting himself into trouble with the law. To keep Shawn out of prison his mother sends him to be with his dad, who is a naval officer stationed in Japan. While Shawn is struggling to adjust to life in Tokyo he goes back to racing and befriends Twinkie. A charismatic and charming individual who has a side hustle selling random goods and betting in street races. Twinkie unintentionally introduces Shawn to Han. Han is a notorious street racer and has connections to the Yakuza (the Japanese mafia). Han takes a liking to Shawn and hooks him up with a ride and teaches him how to drift and gets him to race through the streets of Tokyo. While Han, Twinkie, Shawn and their group all work on their cars and getting better at drifting. The villain of this movie DK or Drift King kills Han in an attempt to scare Shawn out of Tokyo. When this ultimately doesn’t work Shawn instead decides to settle things peacefully. He presents the idea of a race to DK and his uncle in the mafia as a peaceful way to end the conflict. After the race and Shawn’s victory he feels that he has avenged Han in a fitting and respectful way and that he has made the streets safer for all of Tokyo.
Acting
The acting in this movie is good however there are some characters that just steal the show. Those characters would definitely be Han and DK. The dynamic between those two characters is absolutely amazing, because they’re both truly interesting and their conflict is also extremely interesting. With Han essentially stealing from and making DK look like an idiot to his uncle and the Yakuza. While the acting was definitely better than the previous movies the real stars aren’t the main character and I think that’s an important thing to note.
Has it aged well?
I mean it doesn’t look horrible, but you can tell that it’s definitely an older movie. While it’s not the most visually impressive movie or even the most artistic movie, it still manages to entrap me in its visuals. Tokyo Drift is a perfect amalgamation of street racing history in Tokyo. It has references very famous street racing crews most notably the Midnight Club. This is very cool because it makes the movie feel timeless it doesn’t overdue tropes or clichés that a lot of racing movies have. Tokyo Drift is just Tokyo Drift it has its own identity and that’s why it’s a special movie for me.
Cars
The cars in this movie are extremely cool because the main character Shawn is seen actually modding and working on his car in one of the first scenes of the movie. I think that perfectly sets the tone for all the cars in this movie their custom built to be the coolest and most interesting cars that they can be. Also, a fun fact all the drifting in this movie was real they hired actual professional drifters to drift and do insanely dangerous stunts. And I don’t know why but for me that makes the scenes even more tense and exciting when you know that what you’re watching is real.
So up first is probably one of the coolest cars of all time, It’s the Nissan Silvia S15 Spec-R. This car is built as a track toy stock it’s insanely fast and almost impossible to find in that trim. It comes stock with 247 horsepower, twin turbos, and cams that are specifically built to drift. This car is built stock to drift and is incredibly famous for its dependability and power.
Now onto another one of the best cars Japan has ever produced the 2006 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX. This car is another major car in the Fast and Furious series It’s been in all three of the original movies and it’s usually been one of the cooler cars in those movies. However, This one is even cooler than the other ones because It’s all stock In this movie. Except for some small cam adjustments and decals but other than that it’s stock. Now this car stock produces 286 horsepower and is a turbocharged engine. These cars are so fricking awesome that they sell for almost double their original price in 2019.
Now onto the coolest car in this whole movie the 1967 Ford Mustang Fastback. Now, this isn’t any normal Mustang at all and that’s because the stock models while collectible suck they produce very little power and are extremely unreliable. Well, what will fix that problem you might ask. And the answer to that swaps its original engine for a twin turbo Nissan Skyline R34 V-spec engine, you know that engine that without any work can hit 0–100mph in 12 seconds and has around 900 horsepower. And remember this is a car from the ’90s. Now throw that in a classic Mustang that been built for drifting and now you can see why I’m excited. Also, a quick fun fact about the R34 V-spec is considered the fast production car ever made because it’s easily able to hit speeds up to 190mph and has a top speed of 253mph.
Final thoughts
I personally believe that this movie was an experiment for the series as a whole. While there are some things I really don’t like about this movie like none of the original cast being in it and some of the scenes which were just painful to sit through, It’s good and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
8/10
