a5c7b9f00b After winning his first competition, Takumi focuses his attention on drift racing, a sport he has unknowingly perfected while delivering tofu in his father's Toyota AE86.
Two mountain road racers, Nakazato and Takahashi, challenged each other to find the best racers, and defeat them in "battles". Nakazato was surprisingly defeated by an old Toyota Trueno AE86 (Corolla in the US) one night, and he searched for the person who defeated him, which lead him to the Speedstars, a local team. But the car who beat him was actually driven by a local Tofu shop owner's son, Takumi Fujiwara, who had unknowingly perfected the art of mountain racing through daily deliveries of tofu. Takumi was able to defeat Nakazato again, showing that he is no fluke. However, winning hasn't helped him home life, as his father, Bunta Fujiwara, was a drunkard (and a racing genius). His girlfriend Natsuki Mogi wants his attention even though she's got a dark and shameful secret, and his best friend Itsuki (who has no talent in driving) wants Takumi to teach him road racing... after buying the WRONG car. In a mountain road encounter, they ran into Team Emperor's Mitsubishi Evo, and normally the old junker don't stand a chance, but when controlled by Takumi they were able to defeat the Evo... And attract the wrath of Sudou, Team Emperor's leader. In another chance encounter, Sudou ran the AE86 and Takumi to the limit... and beyond... Forcing the AE86 out with a busted engine. However, Takahashi is there to lend a hand. With Bunta's help, they repaired the AE86, this time with a true racing engine, and a three-way showdown between Takahashi, Fujiwara, and Sudou is on... Who will be the winner at the end?
I enjoyed this movie very much. I was able to pick up on some things that weren't with the story pretty quick, but since WHEN do the books / movies EVER match? Many of the characters were right-on no matter what, and some of them formed unexpected alliances. I found it all to be a pretty cool mix-up. The pause screen before switching to the next frame was a little weird, felt comic-bookish though. The happy 'relatonship' music was the funniest thing ever. <br/><br/>SPOILER: I thought it was hilarious when he started choking, the music got extremely loud and fluttery, and she was there preforming the Heimlich maneuver. Yeah! That's exactly how I am going to get my dates from now on. I think in the movie they should have pushed her more out of the storyline. All they did was introduce her, send her away to be a whore, and then come back. :END SPOILER<br/><br/>Overall the movie was very entertaining and worth watching. I was left thinking about it for the next couple days after watching it. Decent voice overs as well!
As a true Initial-D fan i just couldn't keep watching this movie and stopped even before i was half-way trough it. The combination of cantonese and the messing up of some characters made it hard to make out if a certain character was new or adapted from the series.<br/><br/>The story isn't a total disaster if you haven't watched the series. Me, as a fan of the series couldn't understand how they got this script to become an actual movie. The Redsuns and Nightkids being friendly almost to the point of being buddies just doesn't make sense. The only way i could watch this movie to the end would be with a Japanese dub where i can at least make sense out of the characters.<br/><br/>So my conclusion: Initial-D fans should never see this movie.
Slick though featherweight adolescent melodrama.