Director Justin Lin’s first Fast and Furious project was what is officially the first spin-off of the Fast and Furious franchise. The franchise had been dead at this point with what appeared to be little interest from most of the big players from the previous films. Lin took on a project that, in many ways, started from scratch by introducing new characters and plot lines. Characters like Lucas Black’s Sean Boswell, Shad “Bow Wow” Moss’s Twinkie, Nathalie Kelley’s Neela and, due to the fact that this film came out long before Sung Kang first entered the FaF universe, Han Seoul-Oh graced the big screen for the first time and helped take this expanding universe to new and exciting places. These new characters were introduced in such fun ways. Sean with immediate confrontation and Twinkie with the introduction of possibly the ugliest car in history. The intensity of the opening scenes perfectly mirrors Sean’s intensity and allows the audience to see his driving ability before it was most important. The reveal of Twinkie’s Hulk-themed car expresses how fun and light-hearted this character is making he and Sean the perfect combination of fire and ice. Lin, in a lot of ways, and considering the fact that he was entering new territory in Japan, played it safe with this film. He took many of the elements from the original film (elements that he would have known people already very much enjoyed) and used them in this installment. There is a new team and they connect in ways that have audiences reminiscing of Dominic Toretto and Brian O’Connor. The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift stays closest of any of the other films to one of the main themes of the franchise, street racing. While Lin makes significant changes to the street racing scenes, it is this major theme that carries the film forward and makes it as much fun as it is. Again, women, cars and family (even if it is a makeshift family) are important and because of that the following that had grown so big after just two films accepted this as cannon long before its connection was clear. Considering the fact that this was filmed nine years before it would eventually take place and years before three films that would, when all was said and done, take place before it, most of what takes place here stays in line with the rest of the films. With the exception of the out-of-date technology and one line by Twinkie at the end of the film, nearly everything falls into place. Lin’s last, incredible reveal perfectly connects this story and the characters to the rest of the franchise. As Vin Diesel’s Dom shows up in the final scene, audiences everywhere received a blast from the past and the perfect jumping off point into the next series of films to follow. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0463985/?ref_=tt_sims_tt
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