No stranger to breaking the law, high school student Sean Boswell (Lucas Black) has two choices: go to jail or go to Tokyo and stay with his ex-military father for his latest racing stunt against two rich kids (one being “Home Improvement” alum Zachary Ty Bryan), which ends in a crash.
Tokyo is his destination, which, for most, wouldn’t seem like a punishment. As soon as he gets there, the ground rules are set, he can’t even get near a car or he’s being shipped back to America to face jail time. It figures that the underground sport at Sean’s new school is racing, and temptation is obvious. He meets a military brat going by the name Twinkie (Bow Wow) who introduces him to the Tokyo racing world led by D.K. (Brian Tee), a man with relations to the yakuza, the Japanese mafia.
The racing is stylized and harder than America’s street racing. Tokyo drift can best be described as a controlled form of fishtailing -- instead of taking curves straight, the cars go sideways. D.K. and Sean butt heads over (what else?) a girl -- Neela (Nathalie Kelley) -- and a race ensues.
Sean gets thrown into the deep end of the pool where learning how to drift is more difficult than it seems, plus he’s up against D.K. (“Drift King”). After losing and thoroughly wrecking a car, Han (Sung Kang) -- another racer and D.K.’s business partner -- takes Sean under his wing. He teaches Sean the finer points of drifting while waxing poetic on life.
Happy days don’t last, thanks to D.K., who’s out for blood. Naturally, a race decides who is the king of drifting and what will become of the competitors.
“Tokyo Drift” conveys that racing is the cause of and the answer to all of Sean’s problems. It’s understandable, seeing that racing is the point of the franchise; however, racing is where the difference comes about, making “Tokyo Drift” highly entertaining and engrossing.
The first two movies took to high-speed street racing, straight-aways and a few turns here and there. Drifting -- which is an actual racing style and sport created by the Japanese -- makes a race’s intensity increase and it’s something the American public hasn’t truly been exposed to.
This movie’s races take place in towering parking structures or weaving through Tokyo’s crowded streets. But these competitions take on a look that is both graceful and beautiful while still being highly dangerous.
Major qualms with “Tokyo Drift” have to do with the early stages of the movie. Black looks no where near the teen he’s portraying, so being in high school and being sent to juvenile hall seems a bit unrealistic.
But the real surprise, unless the trailers ruin it, is the guest appearance by one of the first movie’s lead actors. We won’t say which actor here, but his appearance adds some credibility to the series as a whole, tying in the different story lines.
Originally from Des Plaines, Ill., Heather moved to Milwaukee to earn a B.A. in journalism from Marquette University. With a tongue-twisting last name like Leszczewicz, it's best to go into a career where people don't need to say your name often.
However, she's still sticking to some of her Illinoisan ways (she won't reform when it comes to things like pop, water fountain or ATM), though she's grown to enjoy her time in the Brew City.
Although her journalism career is still budding, Heather has had the chance for some once-in-a-lifetime interviews with celebrities like actor Vince Vaughn and actress Charlize Theron, director Cameron Crowe and singers Ben Kweller and Isaac Hanson of '90s brother boy band Hanson.
Heather's a self-proclaimed workaholic but loves her entertainment. She's a real television and movie fanatic, book nerd, music junkie, coffee addict and pop culture aficionado.
