In my eternal quest to get angry about film depictions of Tokyo, I've now seen The Fast and The Furious:Tokyo Drift. It is...exactly what you think it is. Does the protagonist have a hilarious exchange about not understanding Japanese. Does he eventually learn the culture? Does he see something uniquely Japanese and stare in befundlment. Does he wreck a dozen yakuza ricers and not get killed immediately? Does he make out with an underage girl?
Yes he does! The film makes an insistent that the mid-20s something actor is 17 and in high school. This never gets believable despite how often they throw it in your face. "Woah ladies he's underage." He's got the stubble I dream of having as an age-peer. Also he looks almost identical to the "main" protagonist of the series that isn't Vin Diesel.
Positive point: He knows how to use chopsticks and the movie never makes this an issue.
Are there plot holes you could power drift an 18 wheeler through? Yes! It wouldn't be a Fast movie if you didn't have the immense dissapointment that they could have made the plot infinitely more believable with just a few changes.
But the love interest's actress actually was 17 and he totally got all up on that shit. Hey! the CG is amazingly well used and I'd rather watch this than Tokyo! .
Then again I'd probably want to sit in a Otolaryngology office for an hour in January with only an issue of People to read than watch Tokyo! . Sure I'd probably get sick from the experience but I wouldn't be inflamed with rage over how little that movie had to do with the city. Tokyo Drift had slightly more to do with it, or Shibuya rather.
Now I'm gonna go play the Shinjuku track in Project Gotham Racing and guffaw at all the licenses they could get but the Yakuza series couldn't.
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