Tokyo Drift
I’ve never seen a Fast and Furious movie. This one I couldn’t miss. I don’t mean because it is such an event that to miss it would be a travesty. (But it is visually stunning.) What I mean is, I couldn’t miss the action. It is very—ahem—fast and furious. Beauty fills the screen from the very outset: beautiful girls, beautiful cars, and beautiful colors. It is probably the brightest live-action film I’ve seen. The races are beautifully, if not perfectly, choreographed. There is a musical quality to the drift races. I thought this film a bit like a Japanese version of West Side Story, with overhead cams.
There is no motivation for all the racing that I can see. Existence as portrayed in this movie is one of limitless resources spent on doing nothing but building fast cars—in unbelievable super-garages which any NASCAR fan would envy. Why build fast cars? “Well, so you can go fast.� Why would you want to go fast? “Well silly, so you can win races.� Why do you race? “Don’t make me mad or I’ll race you!� Why is winning so important? “It shows you are the best.� I’m not kidding; that’s it!
These races involve drifting: A method of racing developing in Japan for maximizing speed on twisty hillside roads. Drifting is a fancy word for ripping the rubber off of your tires while going around a corner. It is an artistic way of applying the emergency brake, and accelerating to maximize the centrifugal force of the car to carry you around a corner at a very high speed. It is a beautiful thing to watch. It can tear all of the cool plastic add-on stuff from the car body too, but helps you win races. What does the winner of the race get? I don’t know. But, cheering, clapping, stunningly pretty girls come up and stand next to you to rub their bodies on your car. Does it get any better than that?
Well in a word, no. It doesn’t get any better than that. That’s about all there is to the basic plot. The story is about nothing. It is kind of a Seinfeld movie on nitrous oxide. A lot of cash changes hands. How this cash comes into the hands of twenty-year-old Japanese men is not really adequately explained. The good thing about these cash transactions is that they always seem to spark another race. In fact, any emotion above that of a mud flap sparks a new race. New races are the reason for the film. There just doesn’t appear to be any reason for the races.
Tokyo Drift is a film of mumbling, bad-ass, bored, rich, quasi-mafioso-type young men with really bad attitudes, pretty good accents, and terrific looks. They look really mean when they have to. They act really tough. They look as though they may pick a race with you at any moment. And sure enough, they do. In Tokyo Drift, a race breaks out every twelve minutes. (This film was not shot in real time.)
In the case of Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift, lots of racing is a good thing, mainly because the dialogue leaves something to be desired. As hard as it is to understand, due to mumbling, it is not really worth hearing anyway. Several scenes have a bit of Japanese with subtitles. I found myself wishing the entire movie had them. I enjoy listening to the spoken Japanese dialogue as it sounds exotic and lyrical. But English-speaking actors delivered their lines with too shallow a breath. Many times the mumbling gradually disappeared before the sentence was cmmmmm.
One exception to the diction problem was the character of Sean Boswell (Lucas Black), whose Southern accent sounded downright articulate. But, no one goes to Fast and Furious movies for diction. It is for the chicks, guys, cars, monster garages, and stylized driving. This is a guy flick with lots of chicks who don’t say much. Neela (Nathalie Kelley) is stupefyingly gorgeous—and a clear speaker. She stands out in a cast of stunningly beautiful women but has little to say. Han (Sung Kang) is a lovable character. His is the character that is the most endearing. He is giving, large of heart, wise, and drifts for tangible reasons. Chicks. You guessed it, beautiful chicks!
Was there a spiritual lesson in Tokyo Drift? I believe there was. It can be found without a lot of work. The drifters have nothing to live for but racing. They grow-up, become adults, and live their lives with nothing else to do. (Except pick races with each other.) They pursue the victory in a race against time, and each other. The inevitable conclusion is: it is empty. “All is vanity,� as the Preacher in Ecclesiastes says. The emptiness of life with out God is profound. Lives without knowledge of someone greater than us will often spin out of control. I may look great on the outside, but inside I am empty. I am drifting.
Tokyo Drift is actually a fun movie. It does not challenge you. It is delightful to watch. The drift racing is exciting and almost moving to see. The film goes by pretty quickly and has some surprises near the end. Again, you will not see many more visually stunning movies this year.
There may also be a practical lesson in Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift. Perhaps instead of war, we could race each other?!
There is no motivation for all the racing that I can see. Existence as portrayed in this movie is one of limitless resources spent on doing nothing but building fast cars—in unbelievable super-garages which any NASCAR fan would envy. Why build fast cars? “Well, so you can go fast.� Why would you want to go fast? “Well silly, so you can win races.� Why do you race? “Don’t make me mad or I’ll race you!� Why is winning so important? “It shows you are the best.� I’m not kidding; that’s it!
These races involve drifting: A method of racing developing in Japan for maximizing speed on twisty hillside roads. Drifting is a fancy word for ripping the rubber off of your tires while going around a corner. It is an artistic way of applying the emergency brake, and accelerating to maximize the centrifugal force of the car to carry you around a corner at a very high speed. It is a beautiful thing to watch. It can tear all of the cool plastic add-on stuff from the car body too, but helps you win races. What does the winner of the race get? I don’t know. But, cheering, clapping, stunningly pretty girls come up and stand next to you to rub their bodies on your car. Does it get any better than that?
Well in a word, no. It doesn’t get any better than that. That’s about all there is to the basic plot. The story is about nothing. It is kind of a Seinfeld movie on nitrous oxide. A lot of cash changes hands. How this cash comes into the hands of twenty-year-old Japanese men is not really adequately explained. The good thing about these cash transactions is that they always seem to spark another race. In fact, any emotion above that of a mud flap sparks a new race. New races are the reason for the film. There just doesn’t appear to be any reason for the races.
Tokyo Drift is a film of mumbling, bad-ass, bored, rich, quasi-mafioso-type young men with really bad attitudes, pretty good accents, and terrific looks. They look really mean when they have to. They act really tough. They look as though they may pick a race with you at any moment. And sure enough, they do. In Tokyo Drift, a race breaks out every twelve minutes. (This film was not shot in real time.)
In the case of Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift, lots of racing is a good thing, mainly because the dialogue leaves something to be desired. As hard as it is to understand, due to mumbling, it is not really worth hearing anyway. Several scenes have a bit of Japanese with subtitles. I found myself wishing the entire movie had them. I enjoy listening to the spoken Japanese dialogue as it sounds exotic and lyrical. But English-speaking actors delivered their lines with too shallow a breath. Many times the mumbling gradually disappeared before the sentence was cmmmmm.
One exception to the diction problem was the character of Sean Boswell (Lucas Black), whose Southern accent sounded downright articulate. But, no one goes to Fast and Furious movies for diction. It is for the chicks, guys, cars, monster garages, and stylized driving. This is a guy flick with lots of chicks who don’t say much. Neela (Nathalie Kelley) is stupefyingly gorgeous—and a clear speaker. She stands out in a cast of stunningly beautiful women but has little to say. Han (Sung Kang) is a lovable character. His is the character that is the most endearing. He is giving, large of heart, wise, and drifts for tangible reasons. Chicks. You guessed it, beautiful chicks!
Was there a spiritual lesson in Tokyo Drift? I believe there was. It can be found without a lot of work. The drifters have nothing to live for but racing. They grow-up, become adults, and live their lives with nothing else to do. (Except pick races with each other.) They pursue the victory in a race against time, and each other. The inevitable conclusion is: it is empty. “All is vanity,� as the Preacher in Ecclesiastes says. The emptiness of life with out God is profound. Lives without knowledge of someone greater than us will often spin out of control. I may look great on the outside, but inside I am empty. I am drifting.
Tokyo Drift is actually a fun movie. It does not challenge you. It is delightful to watch. The drift racing is exciting and almost moving to see. The film goes by pretty quickly and has some surprises near the end. Again, you will not see many more visually stunning movies this year.
There may also be a practical lesson in Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift. Perhaps instead of war, we could race each other?!
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