Initial D - Drift Racer Reviews

mmmph

With the combination of Hong Kong cinema and Japanese manga, I really expected (cliche alert!!!) some 'high octane' thrills.

I was a little disappointed to find that this isn't a patch on 'The Fast and the Furious' series. 'TFATF' works on a car porn level that Initial D doesn't. There is no fetishising of the cars and no real focus on the next level skills of the drivers.

Without focus on the cars or the driving skills - the film falls flat in showing the dumb lives and relationships of the kids involved. This coupled with a bizarre boy meets girl, 'oh my god, my girlfriend is a school-girl prostitute' sub plot which seems grafted on for no real purpose - kind of leaves me wishing for 'TFATF4'.

I can't believe I've just wished for 'TFATF4' in print.

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[Highly rated reviewer]

A lot to put in a movie, but successful

Those who are dissapointed by the lack of car 'porn' and engine specs have to remember that this movie is based on a manga that many may not have read. The story of the movie follows a good number of the manga's volumes (up to the point where Tak is offered a position on a racing team) but is condensed very skillfully so that I can hardly say anything is missed out.

Unfortunately some of the characters are missing and a couple of the racers that were important to them (like Cole and the girls in the Sil-eighty) but to fit so much else of the Manga into the movie so seamlessly is a work of genius. The casting was brilliant, all of the characters came through as I'd imagined them, most true for Bunta and the boss of the gas station.

For those that don't know the manga I don't think they'll be much dissapointed but should remember that things that seem hastily added without thought have a great deal of backing that may not be aparrent in the movie. Tak knows very little about cars and nobody can hope to understand the specs of Bunta's AE86. The movie (and manga) is much more about driving skills and drifting on downhill mountain races than it is about tuning and pimping cars.

Overall I love the movie and how skillfully the directer fitted so much of the bigger story into the limited time, ending it at the perfect moment where the story changes. This is the most skillful book to movie adabtation I've ever seen and even fans love the way it's been presented.

Fantastic

Thought the film was fantastic! More realistic than the Fast and the Furious films in a way.

The film gripped me despite the subtitles! Story line is fairly good if your into cars and racing.

Actually slightly humourous at times as well

Well worth a watch!

Commentary?

Great film, makes more sense if you've watched the anime series though.

Not that you have to but I sat through the FUEL commentary. FOR GOD's SAKE DON'T!!

These guys talk utter tripe without adding hardly anything to the movie 'FC must mean Power FC like I've got on my car' NO NO NO...it's the RX7 dipsticks!

Shame because in a foreign language movie they really could have added more of a valuable insight into the story and history of drifting.

And these guys got paid to do that?

For fans of car/drift racing and Edison Chen it's a must see.

I saw this DVD on sale at HMV and since I am a big fan of Hong Kong movies and Edison Chen I thought I'd give it a go and add it to my list. And I wasn't disappointed, the characters are based on a Japanese Manga cartoon. The lead actor is Japans very popular young singer now turned actor too. It has excellent car/drift racing scenes. It's a story about a young man dreaming of being a professional racing driver, having a girlfriend and a better relationship with his drunkard father who nearly became Japans first world car racing driver but decided to marry for love instead. This is definitely one for any collection to which I wasted no time after watching it I went and bought it. Hope you enjoy it as much I did.

Great drifting scenes

Some fantastic drifting scenes that aren't cut to lots of short shots from lots of angles and faked in a studio. You will have a well placed camera filming one or two corners consecutively. The storyline is good enough to keep you entertained but the reason to watch this film is just for the driving, which is definately worth watching.

D1 style fun

This film stays true to the orignal anime roots and even copies loosely some of the stage 1 storylines. It has transfered well to the big screen and the fantastic driving scenes make this film. Looking like they were driven by the worlds top d1 drivers. A great film if you're a jap car drift nut.

Excelent and realistic...

This movie is better than 'Fast & Furious- Tokio Drifting' in my opinion because apart is a jap movie where is the house of drift???? JAPAN of course not USA so the actors and the stunts are 100% real not some Hollywood computer generated special efects and to finish it shows what is the 'history' of drift and the mountains thats where they learn how to do drifting, if you have chance watch the anime movie as well...

PG

brilliant film!

i was a bit surprised that this film was chinese with english subtitles but it did not put me off, a brilliant film, very similar to tokyo drift. a must to watch.

Mixed Feelings

You will enjoy the flick if you are a fan of the mangas. If its the first time you are experiencing Initial D you will only enjoy it for the sick drift moves,but like I say you might find it repetitive if you are not a fan of the comic.