The two become friends and Han teaches Sean to drift so that Sean can take down Drift King or DK (Brian Tee), a local Yakuza underling, and win DK’s girl Neela (Nathalie Kelley). Sean’s first race is disastrous and after totalling Han Lue’s (Sung Kang) car he ends up working for him. There Sean meets Twinkie (Bow Wow) the high-school fixer who introduces Sean to drifting. Sean gets involved in one high speed chase too many in America and is sent to Tokyo to live with his naval officer father. Still, most of the insane, mind-blowing shit that we now associate with the franchise did start with here even if it did mess up the series’ timeline for three films. The Fast and the Furious films eventually got better with how they treated their female characters but it didn’t start with Tokyo Drift. Admittedly the main character Sean Boswell (Lucas Black) looks 20 years older than the teenager he’s supposed to be. Yet, it’s the least financially successful of the franchise overall and received little critical appraisal. Tokyo Drift was pretty profitable at the box office.
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It was a risk that wound up reaping creative dividends for the series even if no one saw it that way at the time. It was a risk but so were the first two films.
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Interest in Japan was only growing and setting the third Fast and Furious movie in a country literally on the other side of the world began the series’ reputation for country hopping. But Hollywood wanted to stake their claim in Asia and they were willing to experiment to do it. Disney had a good working relationship with Studio Ghibli which gained Hayao Miyazaki his first Oscar for Spirited Away. Miramax had lucrative distribution rights to films from all across Asia, specifically action and martial arts movies. Tokyo Drift came along at a time when Hollywood was desperate to cash in on wider Asian markets. Above all else Tokyo Drift is the most pure film in The Fast and the Furious series with a commitment to the adrenaline and nitrous fuelled ethos of the series not seen before or since. It’s a Romeo and Juliet tale that just so happens to feature slick cars. It’s a thrilling feature film about Tokyo’s drifting scene in 2006. It’s a 104 minute music video for the Teriyaki Boyz song of the same name (which absolutely fucking slaps by the way). But I’ll go to my grave defending The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. I’m an easy-going guy when it comes to most things.