I am currently on day 3 of Furious Week: I've never seen a Fast and Furious movie, so I'm watching the first seven, one a day, from Sunday to Saturday. Now, when I first announced Furious Week, a lot of people told me to skip to Tokyo Drift or watch Tokyo Drift then hop to 5. The consensus is Tokyo Drift isn't a higher quality movie than The Fast and the Furious or even 2 Fast 2 Furious (by consensus the low point of the franchise), but it's more entertaining somehow. Now that I've finished it, it's obvious to see why.
In The Fast and The Furious, the story is told wrong. People seem to pick up on this intuitively: in the Wikipedia plot summary the fact that Brian is an undercover cop is explained right away. In the actual movie you don't find out until after the first race, which makes the race pointless as far as the plot is concerned. What's at stake? A dude we just met and know nothing about might lose a car. We have no idea how much, or even if, that matters.
This problem extends to all the racing in the film: was it a big deal that mechanic kid lost his dad's Jetta to Tran? They tell us that, but I don't think it came up earlier, so why should we care? Why did anything that happened at Race Wars (which is probably the worst name for a racing event ever) matter? The racing was a flashy distraction from the real plot, a paint by numbers undercover cop story with an interesting antagonist (Dominic) and a boring protagonist (Brian).
In The Fast and The Furious, the story is told wrong. People seem to pick up on this intuitively: in the Wikipedia plot summary the fact that Brian is an undercover cop is explained right away. In the actual movie you don't find out until after the first race, which makes the race pointless as far as the plot is concerned. What's at stake? A dude we just met and know nothing about might lose a car. We have no idea how much, or even if, that matters.
This problem extends to all the racing in the film: was it a big deal that mechanic kid lost his dad's Jetta to Tran? They tell us that, but I don't think it came up earlier, so why should we care? Why did anything that happened at Race Wars (which is probably the worst name for a racing event ever) matter? The racing was a flashy distraction from the real plot, a paint by numbers undercover cop story with an interesting antagonist (Dominic) and a boring protagonist (Brian).
2 Fast 2 Furious is even worse. The racing matters even less: there literally is no reason for the first race (it's not like Brian is forced to race and him sticking his head out gets him caught, and him being picked up by the police could have happened before the race with as much impact to the rest of the plot as after). The race to the impound lot matters a little for the sake of the plot, but it doesn't tell us anything about Brian and Roman other than they drive well (something we already know), and the race to get those two cars doesn't matter because Roman and Brian have already beat those guys before. Remove the racing, which is pointless, and we've got a hackneyed drug movie that brings us OBVIOUS BAD GUY for boring Brian to bounce off of (but hey, they make up for it with some comic relief black guy!).
So we have two racing movies with pointless races. Now, let's look at the big 3 races in Tokyo Drift. Race one has small stakes: Movie Jock has smashed in Sean's window with a rock. We don't like Movie Jock, we want Sean to beat him.* So, small stakes, but it engages us enough to watch the race, in which we learn a lot about Sean. Sean doesn't care about how much damage he sustains, as long as he sticks it in Movie Jock's face that he won. He even plays just as dirty as Movie Jock, cheating by going off the course and ramming Movie Jock back when Movie Jock rams him. Sean wins, then runs away from the larger consequences of the race.
Race 2, Sean races DK. We care because we know Sean is a good racer, but he's drift racing for the very first time in a very expensive car owned by an associate of the Yakuza. We're curious to see if Brian will do well, and every collision matters because we know the consequences: he's going to owe a lot of money to a criminal. We also see that Brian's recklessness isn't going to work in drift racing like it did racing back home. His world is thrown out of balance because the one thing that gave him worth, winning races by being reckless, won't work. Additionally, both Han and his father make it very clear that, for once in his life, Sean can't run away. For the first time, he has to face the consequences of his recklessness.
Now, the final race between Sean and DK. Sean has changed as a person before our eyes**: he used to run away away from his problems, now he's racing to stay and fix them. We want Sean to win because if he doesn't, everything he's worked for will be undone. Then the race itself is symbolically rich. Sean is driving in an American car, from his father, with a Japanese engine, from his mentor. When Takashi loses his temper and starts trying to drive Sean off the road, Sean doesn't engage with him like he did with Movie Jock, he stays cool and focuses on the race. Sean doesn't just beat Takashi, he beats his old self.
Now, is Tokyo Drift a cinematic masterpiece? Good heavens no. What I've described up above isn't masterful storytelling, it's the first step of good storytelling. To make a food analogy, 2 Fast 2 Furious is a fountain drink: empty calories that could never be mistaken for a meal. The Fast and the Furious is fries and a drink: it almost looks like a meal, but it's missing the meat. Tokyo Drift is a #1 with all the fixin's: it's a full meal. You wouldn't eat it for special occasions, and it's not an example of craftsmanship like a crown roast, but it wouldn't be disappointing if you were hungry and just looking for something simple to eat.
So we have two racing movies with pointless races. Now, let's look at the big 3 races in Tokyo Drift. Race one has small stakes: Movie Jock has smashed in Sean's window with a rock. We don't like Movie Jock, we want Sean to beat him.* So, small stakes, but it engages us enough to watch the race, in which we learn a lot about Sean. Sean doesn't care about how much damage he sustains, as long as he sticks it in Movie Jock's face that he won. He even plays just as dirty as Movie Jock, cheating by going off the course and ramming Movie Jock back when Movie Jock rams him. Sean wins, then runs away from the larger consequences of the race.
Race 2, Sean races DK. We care because we know Sean is a good racer, but he's drift racing for the very first time in a very expensive car owned by an associate of the Yakuza. We're curious to see if Brian will do well, and every collision matters because we know the consequences: he's going to owe a lot of money to a criminal. We also see that Brian's recklessness isn't going to work in drift racing like it did racing back home. His world is thrown out of balance because the one thing that gave him worth, winning races by being reckless, won't work. Additionally, both Han and his father make it very clear that, for once in his life, Sean can't run away. For the first time, he has to face the consequences of his recklessness.
Now, the final race between Sean and DK. Sean has changed as a person before our eyes**: he used to run away away from his problems, now he's racing to stay and fix them. We want Sean to win because if he doesn't, everything he's worked for will be undone. Then the race itself is symbolically rich. Sean is driving in an American car, from his father, with a Japanese engine, from his mentor. When Takashi loses his temper and starts trying to drive Sean off the road, Sean doesn't engage with him like he did with Movie Jock, he stays cool and focuses on the race. Sean doesn't just beat Takashi, he beats his old self.
Now, is Tokyo Drift a cinematic masterpiece? Good heavens no. What I've described up above isn't masterful storytelling, it's the first step of good storytelling. To make a food analogy, 2 Fast 2 Furious is a fountain drink: empty calories that could never be mistaken for a meal. The Fast and the Furious is fries and a drink: it almost looks like a meal, but it's missing the meat. Tokyo Drift is a #1 with all the fixin's: it's a full meal. You wouldn't eat it for special occasions, and it's not an example of craftsmanship like a crown roast, but it wouldn't be disappointing if you were hungry and just looking for something simple to eat.
*For those of you crying foul on me since Brian fought with Dominic in The Fast and the Furious, no, Brian fought with Vince and Dominic broke it up; the first race should have been between Brian and Vince.
**Compare the intro scene, where he lets the bullies spray paint that kid, to the rooftop scene where he protects Twinkie.
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