The third entry in the Fast and Furious franchise, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift is not at all the sort of movie that I was expecting to see as a follow-up to 2001’s The Fast and the Furious and 2003’s 2 Fast 2 Furious. The first film was a play on Point Break, but with cars instead of surfboards. Paul Walker played LAPD officer Brian O’Conner, who is sent undercover into the world of illegal street racing to find the racers who had been carrying off highway hijackings to steal loads of DVD players and digital cameras. As it turned out, the racer leading the thieves was the best friend Brian made in the world he had infiltrated: Vin Diesel as Dominic Toretto. Brian let Dominic go in the final moments of that film, opening the door to a sequel that could have seen Walker and Diesel both returning. But Diesel opted out, so for 2 Fast 2 Furious Brian ended up bringing down a drug runner in Miami. The sequel was a success: it did slightly less than the first movie at the domestic box office, but it had better international numbers than its predecessor. So the logical options would have been to either make another sequel with Walker in the lead, try to get Diesel back to re-team with Walker, or see if it would be possible to get Diesel to star in part 3. But Universal wasn’t interested in any of the logical options. When screenwriter Chris Morgan came in with a pitch about Dominic Toretto solving a murder while getting into drift racing in Tokyo, Universal told him to leave out both Dom and Brian. They wanted a movie about high schoolers.
So the third Fast and Furious is almost entirely its own thing... and basically a play on The Karate Kid Part II, but with cars instead of karate. Lucas Black stars as American teenager Sean Boswell, who is known for reckless driving and property destruction. The authorities want him off the roads – so to save him from jail, his mom sends him off to Tokyo to live with his father, who is serving in the U.S. Navy. While attending school in Tokyo, Sean meets military brat Twinkie (Bow Wow) and falls for classmate Neela (Nathalie Kelley) – and he follows them both into the world of drift racing. As the name implies, this is a type of racing that requires drivers to drift their vehicles around tight corners. Just like Brian O’Conner, Sean tries to compete in a race... and loses. Brian ended up owing Dom a “ten second car”, which is how their friendship began. Sean borrows the car of racer Han (Sung Kang) to compete in a race with the local “Drift King” (Brian Tee) and ends up wrecking Han’s car. This leads to Han taking Sean under his wing, for better or worse.
The good thing about their association is that Han starts teaching Brian how to properly drift. The bad part is that Han is into some criminal dealings, as is the Drift King, whose uncle (played by the great Sonny Chiba of The Street Fighter) is in the Yakuza. Brian is witness to some of this shady business while hanging out with Han... and then everything falls apart when D.K. finds out that Han has been making some unauthorized deals behind his back. A chase through the streets of Tokyo ends with Han dying in a fiery crash, and D.K. is to blame. (Although the circumstances of this crash will get much more complicated in later sequels.) The death of Han isn’t the only reason Brian has to dislike D.K. The Drift King is also intensely jealous that Sean and Neela are getting close, since he and Neela were in a shaky relationship before this American with an Alabama accent showed up. D.K. is so jealous, he even threatens Sean with a gun.
This rivalry builds up to a climactic drift race on winding mountain roads. And while this franchise features a lot of foreign cars, to the disapproval of my father, its respect for American vehicles continues to shine through when Sean competes in the final race while behind the wheel of a Ford Mustang.
To enjoy Tokyo Drift, you really have to push the previous two movies out of your mind and take it entirely on its own merits. While there are moments of action and cool race and chase scenes, this isn’t a movie that was aimed at the action audience. This was made to impress teenagers – but director Justin Lin brought it to the screen with such style and energy, it’s a movie I have always enjoyed watching. This wasn’t the Fast and Furious 3 I was wanting, necessarily, but once I knew what it was I open to giving it a chance. I saw the movie during its theatrical run, just as I had done for the previous two movies, and I thought it was pretty good.
Black was a good choice for the lead, and the story with Neela and D.K. is classic teen movie stuff. It is quite reminiscent of The Karate Kid Part II, but that’s not a problem, and Lin makes drift racing look very cool. But what really makes Tokyo Drift entertaining is the presence of Sung Kang as Han. Han may be my favorite character in the Fast and Furious franchise, and I’m definitely not alone in that feeling. The character went over so well with viewers, the decision was made to find a way to bring him back for future sequels. The next few movies in the series are set before the events of Tokyo Drift simply so the filmmakers could continue having Han appear in the movies. Lin and Kang had previously worked together on the indie movie Better Luck Tomorrow, where Kang had also played a character named Han... and as far as the director and actor were concerned, Better Luck Tomorrow was the canonical back story for Han in Tokyo Drift. Kang is playing the same character in both films.
Universal came to their senses right before they released Tokyo Drift in 2006 and decided that the movie should have some connection to the other Fast and Furious movies after all. So they got Vin Diesel to make a last minute cameo as Dominic Toretto, who shows up in Tokyo to challenge Sean to a race – and to mention that he was friends with Han. Due to that cameo tying everything together, and Universal telling Diesel he could produce the next sequel, the door was opened for the Fast and Furious franchise to become a blockbuster behemoth. And Lin and Kang stayed on the ride for multiple sequels.
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift is the odd movie out. If not for the Diesel cameo, it would be the Halloween III: Season of the Witch of this franchise. But for an oddball, it’s a lot of fun.
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