Today’s quick review: The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. Sean Boswell (Lucas Black) is a rebellious teenager who spends his time street racing. After a destructive accident, his mother sends him to live with his father (Brian Goodman) in Tokyo. There he falls in with Han (Sung Kang), the good-natured partner in crime of D.K. (Brian Tee), a wannabe Yakuza and rival racer. But to make it in Tokyo’s street racing scene, Sean must master drifting, a difficult new technique.
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift is a racing movie and the third installment of the Fast & Furious franchise. Apart from street racing, Tokyo Drift has almost no connection to the previous two movies in the series. Sean, the new protagonist, is a teenager with no reason to race beyond the thrill, and he quickly gets himself into a situation where further racing will only hurt him more. As such, Sean never really clicks as a protagonist, and he lacks any strong motivation.
Tokyo Drift does deliver when it comes to the racing. The key conceit of the movie is drifting, an advanced driving technique that lets the car take corners without losing as much speed. The races feature twisting urban and mountain courses with a mixture of closed courses and traffic. The driving is tight and satisfying, although it eschews the big stunts of the second film or the raw speed of the first film’s straightaways.
Watch The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift if you are looking for a bit of action and are willing to disregard a weak plot and main character. Once again, the driving serves as a viable substitute for more typical types of action, even for those who are not car fans. However, the missing star power and lack of a compelling plot make it a weaker film than its predecessors, so watch them first if you are interested.
6.0 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 6.5 for quality driving let down by a lackluster plot and protagonist.