Fast And Furious 3

[poisenedrice]

I just got back from watching this. Since I'm pretty tired, I'll just quickly jot down some random thoughts of it:

- This movie was like Karate Kid, but with drifting instead of karate
- Props to Justin Lin for battling the execs to get Sung Kang casted. His character was easily the coolest guy in the flick
- This movie will produce thousands of new asiaphiles. Better stock up on the Kleenex
- Lil' Bow Wow gets his wannabe ghetto ass beat down by a Japanese guy. This alone makes the movie worth seeing.
- Lucas Black gets his Southern cracker ass beat down multiple times, both literally and figuratively, by Asian guys. This also makes the movie worth seeing.

More cohesive and comprehensive thoughts on it to come later.

[BoondockSaints]

This movie sucks ass just like all it's predecessors.

[Infectious]

This movie sucks ass just like all it's predecessors.

Except there's Sung Kang and Sonny Chiba in it. Doesn't make it not suck ass, but makes it a bit better.

[nskripchun]

Sonny Chiba's in it?

Nice.

[little mixed girl]

sailor mars is in it.
but i'm not going to see it, it's just an fyi.

[toml]

I'm sure that many of you have been following what AngryAsianMan has posted, but if you missed it, here's his thoughts on it below.

Justin Lin really fought hard to make this as balanced as possible so many of you should try to make it out and support it. If he does well on this one, he'll get more chances to really make a difference.


Some Thoughts on Tokyo Drift
06.16.06

All right, I think it's time to say a few things about The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, which opens in theaters today. I've never been much of a fan of this franchise, as it has never given Asians a fair shake, considering how well-represented we are in the street racing scene. Let us not forget Rick Yune and his faux thugs in the first film. As for the second one, I never got around to watching it. When I heard they had plans for a third one, and it was going to take place in Japan, I just shook my head, already cursing the racist tragedy that was to come...

But when it was announced a little over a year ago that Better Luck Tomorrow director Justin Lin was going to helm the movie, I got interested. Almost instantly, there were those who cried "Sellout!" (every message board has one or two or twenty of such folks), but I was definitely interested in holding out and seeing how Lin would handle itóthe third Fast and the Furious, a big studio franchise film. I mean, I think most of us have been holding our breath to see what would become of Justin after the explosive arrival of BLT. His first studio film Annapolis was by most accounts a flop. What would he do with big fat summer blockbuster?

On one hand, it is what it is. If you just watch trailer, or read a plot synopsis, there's not much to get excited over. It sounds downright offensive: White guy goes to Japan, experiences exotic new things. Crosses the wrong Yakuza-affiliated Japanese guyówho also happens to be an exceptional drift racerówhen he gets involved with said Japanese guy's girlfriend. White guy must learn this new style of racing and save the day. Throw in a wisecracking Black sidekick, and there you go. I hear this, and I'm like, that's whack, there's no way I'm watching this. And why would you? In essence, the movie can be described this way, there's no way of getting around it. And that bugs.

But if you can get past that, there are more than few interesting things going on... Fortunately, Lin and Co. managed to inject a little more balance and sensibility (well, as much you can manage in a movie like this) into what could've been an ugly, ugly cross-cultural train wreck. I had a chance to chat with Justin a couple of weeks ago, and he talked about some of the challenges he faced in dealing with the studio every step of the way... Apparently, the first draft of the script they showed him was a pretty much a piece of crap, with a lot of the Lost in Translation cliches you'd expect. He looked it over and basically said, "Hell no." We didn't need to see another Karate Kid II. But much to Universal's credit, they ultimately let him make the movie he wanted to make (but not without hitting a few speed bumps). The first thing he pushed for was to cast an Asian American actor for the lead... This excerpt from Jeff Yang's article explains it well:

Lin's first request was that the role of the protagonist, an American juvie who's sent to live with his estranged dad in the Land of the Rising Tachometer, be rewritten to be played by an Asian American.

"They looked at me like I was stupid and said, 'There's nobody bankable,'" he remembers. "I said, 'OK, well, if you think so, I want you to open the search up globally, Asia, Europe, Australia, whatever, and if the best actor for the role turns out to be Asian, you gotta give it to him.' And it was pretty incredible -- they went ahead and did it."

After seeing dozens of candidates from across the nation and around the world, Lin finally agreed with the producers that the best choice was Lucas Black, who'd starred opposite Billy Bob Thornton in "Sling Blade" and then again in the varsity football film "Friday Night Lights."

Okay, so we couldn't get that little bright idea off the ground... But Lin was able to rewrite the script to include a mentor character, Han, played by Sung Kang. (Not-so-coincidentally, Sung's character in Better Luck Tomorrow was also named Hanósort of a filmmaker's in-joke. So if you were wondering what happened to Han after the events of BLT, let's just call Tokyo Drift the unofficial sequel.) He is easily the coolest, most appealing character in the film, and reportedly scored really high amongst viewers in initial audience test screenings. Now the studio's apparently looking at stuff for him to star in. Like I said, between this film, Michael Kang's The Motel (June 28th in New York!) and Chris Chan Lee's Undoing (LA Film Festival), this is the Summer of Sung, suckas... and you better recognize.

Justin also told me that original script called for the love interest, Neela, to be Japanese, but he put his foot down and said no way. They weren't going to be doing the ol' White Guy/Asian Girl relationship thing. That story's been told (see Sayonnara, Shogun, The World of Suzy Wong, The Karate Kid Pt. II, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera), he wasn't going to go there, and if the studio wanted it that badly, he was going to walk. Not that the role is all that deep (it pretty much calls for her to look good in a short skirtóa visual motif for most of the women in the movie), but I could appreciate the significance of his insistence about this bit of casting.

All in all, I'm glad Lin was tapped to direct Tokyo Drift. I shudder to think what kind of movie we would've been watching if say, Brett Ratner was behind the camera. What a nightmare. The way I see it, this is an example of an up-and-coming director like Justin Lin working within the constraints of the studio system, and recognizing that it's a give-and-take situation. I suppose it's really about balance. For instance, there's a moment near the beginning of the film where we catch Shawn's father with a Japanese woman who is presumably a prostitute. I literally groaned at this moment. However, there's another line later where Han jokingly chastises Shawn for taking an interest in Neela (DK's girl), and says, "Why can't you find a nice Japanese girl like all the other white guys around here?" Priceless. Also, along with Sung, Justin brings a few familiar faces from Better Luck Tomorrow along for the ride... And while their parts as Japanese drift villains aren't too appealing (I hated them), I'll admit Brian Tee and Leonardo Nam put in some pretty decent performances. Hopefully, this movie will open doors to a few better roles for them.

I'll be fair. The movie's pretty darn fun. I actually enjoyed myself immensely. While I now know drifting has been around for a while, I had never heard of drifting until they first announced this movie a few years back. I'm also aware there's another popular drifting movie out there, Andrew Lau's Initial D, which I have not seen, but will inevitably draw comparisons from fans. So be it. I'm not really an Import Tuner kind of guy, but man, the car sequences in the movie are pretty stunning. I guess sometimes you just want to turn your brain off for a hundred minutes or so. Let's face itóit ain't Citizen Kane. It's the Fast and the Frickin' Furious. It is what it is... fast cars, races, chases, and hot ladies. There's stuff to like, stuff to hate, stuff to titillate. If you go in expecting a prolific statement about, well... anything, you've been watching the wrong trailers. It's exciting, mindless, and at times ridiculous, not unlike most of the blockbusters that populate the cineplex around this time of year. If this is what an Asian American-directed studio film looks like, you could do a lot worse. You could also do a lot better, but I imagine there are perhaps still bigger and badder things to come for Asian American cinema...

Again, here's Jeff Yang's article, which makes gives some good background: Switching Gears. And check out the cover story from AsianWeek. I also enjoyed O-Dub's review: I'll Stop The World And Drift With You... And here's the review roundup over at Rotten Tomatoes (not doing so well at the moment).

One last thing... there's a neat surprise at the very end of the film, something that wasn't necessary, but made for a great moment. It's totally icing on the cake. Unfortunately, some of the TV commercials I've been seeing totally give this suprise away. Boo on whoever put these commercials together. Avoid the ads if you can!

From: http://angryasianman.com/extra.html

[nskripchun]

The Far*East Movement (http://www.fareastmovement.com/) (an Asian American hip-hop group) did a song for the movie... a pretty funny music video of it is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Spi-WqDr0Lc

Sung Kang and various import "models" (heh) also make cameos in it. Gotta love the hotdog eating contest spoof!

[kwak76]

Pretty good analysis from angryasianman. I didn't watch the movie because I assume it would be base upon old stereotypes but after reading the analysis from angryasianman it sounds fair now.

I mean I think the Hollywood is like any other corporation with it's old way of thinking. It could of been worst with this film but I think Justin Lin direacting it actually tried to impede some of the stereotypes. I actually want to see it now . I like to see how bad or how good it is.

[DijabutiA]

I saw it. It was pretty entertaining and I think its better than the other two. But it can't touch the cult status of the first one as a classically horrible car movie.

[poisenedrice]

Damn you toml, now I can't make you all listen to me talk to myself about this movie :x

But I'm going to anyway.

Let's get one thing straight. Despite what AngryAsianMan says, this movie sucked a horse's shitty ass, straight up. As I said in my previous post, this movie was like Karate Kid (Part II). Switch drifting for karate, and voila you have Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift. When a chick decides to date a guy based on whether or not he beats her boyfriend in a race, then you know the script was originally written by some lame white guys.

Yet I have the utmost respect for Justin Lin. Prior to watching this, I had read how he constantly battled with execs to make the movie less derogatory and racist towards Asian guys, and it showed at various points throughout the movie. I especially appreciate how he fought to get Sung Kang cast as the Mr. Miyagi type character, because he was easily the coolest one in the movie. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say he was the real centerpiece thanks to Justin.

However, like AngryAsianMan stated, it was a give and take situation, as a few blatantly racist moments popped up. One such moment was when Sung Kang takes Southern cracker, er, Lucas Black to some party filled with hot chicks, and Lil' Bow Wow mentions to him how Japanese guys are too chickenshit to ask girls out. Of course, Justin Lin must've written the scene later on where Bow Wow gets a beat down from a Japanese cat, cuz that alone was worth the $9 I paid for admission. Lucas Black's character getting a beatdown multiple times was icing on the cake.

In addition, to spoil it for everyone, white boy actually beats the villain's 350Z with a goddamned Mustang. The racist message in that symbolism was blatant, to say the least.

Ultimately, Justin Lin did his best given the circumstances, so I can't really fault him for that. Just imagining how this movie would've turned out had some whiteycrombie directed it makes me shudder. As angry as this post was, I'm actually heartened. To me, this is a sign of progress. Although not as much as my bitter ass would like to see, it is progress nonetheless. Had this movie been made even five years ago would have been a blatant masturbatory celebration of the cracker male vanquishing evil Asian men to win the love of a white worshipping Asian girl.

With that said, I really recommend you watch the Initial D movie over this. That movie sucked as well, but at least it's a movie that at least somewhat captured the feel of drifting on mountainous Japanese roads. All the cars in it are some of the hottest whips in Japan, and thank heavens there are no potato buckets (aka American cars) featured at all. In addition, Asian guys are portrayed completely on our terms, and not the crackers'.

[maogirl]

With that said, I really recommend you watch the Initial D movie over this. That movie sucked as well, but at least it's a movie that at least somewhat captured the feel of drifting on mountainous Japanese roads.

:x

another jay chou hater!

[Charlie]

Sounds like a good start - pressure Hollywood to use AA 's directors for any Asian-themed flicks that would otherwise have been directed at crackers and change things from within. Props to Lin for doing what he could.

Still, I'll wait for the video.

[poisenedrice]

With that said, I really recommend you watch the Initial D movie over this. That movie sucked as well, but at least it's a movie that at least somewhat captured the feel of drifting on mountainous Japanese roads.

:x

another jay chou hater!

whatwhatwhat?! I didn't say Jay Chou sucked, I said the movie itself sucked. You should know I listen to Jay Chou almost every day, especially Ke Ai Nu Ren, Fa Ru Xue, and that song he made for Huo Yuan Jia.

[Makulita]

The movie did suck, especially with that went-no-where angle between Takumi and Natsuki.

Unless there's supposed to be a sequel to it or something. All them hot boys were immensely appreciated though.

But watching it kinda makes me wanna swim in a tank with tofu cubes in it. I don't care if that sounds weird.

[rising7]

Props to Justin Lin. (personally liked it better than Initial D :P)

[inferno]

Okay, so we couldn't get that little bright idea off the ground... But Lin was able to rewrite the script to include a mentor character, Han, played by Sung Kang.

Regarding this "mentor" character:


In film circles, a "Magic Negro" is a term that was coined back in the 50's to describe a one-dimensional African-American character (male or female) that serves as a "God-like" advisor or mentor who helps a troubled white man or woman.

source: http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/06/08/203754.php


http://www.blackcommentator.com/50/50_images/50_cartoon_large.gif

source: http://www.blackcommentator.com/49/49_magic.html

[maogirl]

With that said, I really recommend you watch the Initial D movie over this. That movie sucked as well, but at least it's a movie that at least somewhat captured the feel of drifting on mountainous Japanese roads.

:x

another jay chou hater!

whatwhatwhat?! I didn't say Jay Chou sucked, I said the movie itself sucked. You should know I listen to Jay Chou almost every day, especially Ke Ai Nu Ren, Fa Ru Xue, and that song he made for Huo Yuan Jia.


oh, hehe. in the heat of the moment, i forgot you were taiwanese and only gots love for jay.

unlike those canto haters...


*throws rock at evil_FUX and lopan*

[Fandango]

Why is it that white characters can go to Japan and defeat the mafia, rescue oppressed latina slaves, kill samurais, master their martial arts, take their driving style, use it better than them, and when looking for love and companionship, they find it in the other lone and introspective deep white character in the country, but then they bitch and complain they can't use chopsticks?

Also, since white people are all over asia and Japan according to the movies, then the evil villain should have been white, not asian.

[B the student]

all i have to say is...Sung Kang is one cool, sexy man. 8-) I hope he gets more (and better) films. not sure if I'll be seeing FATF3 tho. :P

[awong]

With that said, I really recommend you watch the Initial D movie over this. That movie sucked as well, but at least it's a movie that at least somewhat captured the feel of drifting on mountainous Japanese roads.

:x

another jay chou hater!

whatwhatwhat?! I didn't say Jay Chou sucked, I said the movie itself sucked. You should know I listen to Jay Chou almost every day, especially Ke Ai Nu Ren, Fa Ru Xue, and that song he made for Huo Yuan Jia.


oh, hehe. in the heat of the moment, i forgot you were taiwanese and only gots love for jay.

unlike those canto haters...


*throws rock at evil_FUX and lopan*
some of my HK friends think he looks ugly, but like his music.

[maogirl]

With that said, I really recommend you watch the Initial D movie over this. That movie sucked as well, but at least it's a movie that at least somewhat captured the feel of drifting on mountainous Japanese roads.

:x

another jay chou hater!

whatwhatwhat?! I didn't say Jay Chou sucked, I said the movie itself sucked. You should know I listen to Jay Chou almost every day, especially Ke Ai Nu Ren, Fa Ru Xue, and that song he made for Huo Yuan Jia.


oh, hehe. in the heat of the moment, i forgot you were taiwanese and only gots love for jay.

unlike those canto haters...


*throws rock at evil_FUX and lopan*
some of my HK friends think he looks ugly, but like his music.


you're just trying to hurt me now. :x

as far as i'm concerned, in 2003, i stood 3 feet away from a shirtless jay chou and sniffed his post-performance musk and i'll never forget it.

god damn you all.


*throws rock at awong, too*

[poisenedrice]

you're just trying to hurt me now. :x

as far as i'm concerned, in 2003, i stood 3 feet away from a shirtless jay chou and sniffed his post-performance musk and i'll never forget it.

god damn you all.


*throws rock at awong, too*

Why I like Jay Chou:

-His music is relaxing after a stressful day dealing with gweilos
-He writes a lot of his own material
-Most importantly, he speaks Mandarin.

[evil_FUX]

as far as i'm concerned, in 2003, i stood 3 feet away from a shirtless jay chou and sniffed his post-performance musk and i'll never forget it.

I bet. It's no coincidence his last name is chou. :P

[SamuraiJack]

Hmmmmm.... I'm tempted to watch it now... who are the racists in charge though? The screenwriters, or the studio that accepts the screenplays and possibly alters them, or both?

I'm glad Justin was able to fix a few things up in the movie.

[Vahz]

I would think that the most racist of the bunch are the writers and producers. The studio just inputs on what they believe to be the best way to make money which usually translates to the same formulaic Hollywood ideas which, sadly, includes stereotypes. The casting director and staff are closely related to the studio and should be blamed for the lack of Asian representation.

[Fandango]

all i have to say is...Sung Kang is one cool, sexy man. 8-) I hope he gets more (and better) films. not sure if I'll be seeing FATF3 tho. :P

You a guy or a girl? You're the 3rd guy I've heard/read say/write that. It'd be more convincing if a girl said that.

[SamuraiJack]

There's something odd about Tokyo Drift. It fetishizes cars in a way that's almost unhealthy. When the vehicles appear in the same scene as a bunch of scantily clad Asian babes, the camera is drawn not to cleavage but to carburetors. When Sean first enters Han's hideout, his attention is not arrested by the party girls but by the cars. In the first two Fast and the Furious movies, sex and automobiles are linked. Here, the latter takes priority over the former.

Before this film, I was willing to give director Justin Lin the benefit of the doubt. To my way of thinking, Better Luck Tomorrow more than counterbalanced the misfire of Annapolis. Now, however, I have grave doubts about the director. Tokyo Drift doesn't just represent an error in judgment; it's a complete failure, and Lin is one of the reasons why it doesn't work. It all comes back to the action scenes. These are filmed with what has become a frustratingly typical style: quick cuts from multiple perspectives. Yes, it coveys speed, but it also creates confusion. You have no idea what's going on. Everything is a frenetic blur, signifying only sound and fury. In the final race, half the time you don't know who's in front or whether someone is about to fly off the side of a cliff. Directors need to realize that film is a spectator medium, not an interactive one. During a race, the average viewer wants to understand what's happening, not be given whiplash by an overactive camera and a snip-happy editor.

http://www.movie-reviews.colossus.net/movies/f/fast_furious3.html

I like how he classifies "Asian babes" as separate from just "babes". (Would he use 'white babes' or 'black babes'?)

[B the student]

You a guy or a girl? You're the 3rd guy I've heard/read say/write that. It'd be more convincing if a girl said that.

i may be a dude but i only speak the truth... not my fault if the girls can't recognize. :P

[Fandango]

You a guy or a girl? You're the 3rd guy I've heard/read say/write that. It'd be more convincing if a girl said that.

i may be a dude but i only speak the truth... not my fault if the girls can't recognize. :P


eh...that's great that you find him attractive. But if girls don't think the same way, then there's no point.

[whosyourdaddy]

I saw this movie over the weekend. After finishing the movie, my first thought about Justin Lin was SELLOUT!! But then after reading on the internet how bad the original script was and how much he had to work to get stuff changed, i'd say he did the best he could WHILE STILL ATTEMPTING TO PRODUCE A COMMERCIALLY SUCCESSFUL MOVIE.

Let's not forget that the Fast and the Furious franchise isn't exactly the most introspective series of movies.

That said, i have a few complaints.

1. The Asian villain. The villain was portrayed as such a slant-eyed, i hate whitey, insecure type of man, that it was hard not to hate the guy. it palyed upon such stereotypes and racial hatred. i would have thought that at least Justin Lin would try to neutralize some of the negative stereotypes and create a more neutral type villain.

2. Mis-casting Asians. The Japanese i have known HAVE ALWAYS complained about this. Japanese restaurants in the U.S. aren't run by japanese. Movies always use "any oriental" to portray Japanese. They don't care. Many of the characters are not Japanese. And the school scenes have tons of non-Japanese, which is unlikely in Japan.

I mean really. How exactly would Koreans react to non-koreans making kimchee and bulgogi. And how would Chinese react to non-Chinese running dim sum and fine dining restaurants?? This was pretty bad in the last geisha film which used no Japanese actors for the major roles!!

Overall, i'm actually really surprised at the Hollywood studio's decision to create FF3 in an Asian cast. The sales figures so far are far behind the first two. But then again, they decided to cast Ice Cube in XXX's sequel as well.

[taijian]

I mean really. How exactly would Koreans react to non-koreans making kimchee and bulgogi. And how would Chinese react to non-Chinese running dim sum and fine dining restaurants?? This was pretty bad in the last geisha film which used no Japanese actors for the major roles!!


Interesting. There's a Fox forensic investigation show called Bones where the main characters frequented a Chinese restaurant complete with all the asian decor and "exotic" cusine. And the proprietor? An African-American guy.

[Makulita]

Also I remember the extras casting call, primarily for the rave scene had asked for Japanese AND Koreans, Chinese and Vietnamese.

This shit will never cease because of all the fucked up baggage that comes with "miscasting". Where white people in American movies can play different European ethnicities, because in America all those ethnicities have melded into one, indisguishingable mass to which Asians can't be applied to because of our own cultural, ethnic and national differences.

Its a fucked if you do or don't situation... sort because on one hand its a slap to the face and a statement of "All you oree-ennuls look tha same t'me." or the caster trying to look colorblind (but actually comes off as colorstupid) by their actions.

[MATHABA]

if this story was real, every character would be Asian. i never in my life met a white guy who is into this kind of street racing, but im sure they exist.

[DijabutiA]

if this story was real, every character would be Asian. i never in my life met a white guy who is into this kind of street racing, but im sure they exist.

Formula D (http://www.formulad.com/) ; I hope you know it was a white guy that did the driving for the movie :lol: Even Ken Gushi is sponsored by Ford. I wonder if Ford payed money for that Mustang to be in the movie.

[aelward]

I just saw this movie and loved it. While the White guy is the main character, he's really the side-kick to Sung Kang-- who, as everyone else has said, is super cool in this flick.