By day, Takumi is an aimless high school student working
at his best friends gas station. By
night, he’s an infamous drift racer secretly roaming the hills of Mt.
Akina. But Takumi’s secret cant stay
hidden for long. When he catches the
attention of a famous racing team, Takumi finds himself drawn into the secret
world of mountain drift racing and his legend begins to grow. Between rivals, romance and an out of control
father, Takumi finds his world changing rapidly. The only way he can discover his true destiny
is to drift against the best of the best and show he deserves to race alongside
them.
As a longtime fan of The Fast and the Furious franchise,
with a special soft spot for the often derided Tokyo Drift, it surprises me
that I never got into Initial D.
I
watched a couple of episodes and while the cars looked great and the soundtrack
is a Dance Dance Revolution compilation waiting to happen (if it hasn’t
already), I wasn’t a fan of the characters or the character designs
themselves.
They just looked dull,
uninteresting and actually kind of terrifying.
Still, I know Initial D is a very popular evergreen Anime title,
especially for fans getting into the genre in the late 90s/early 2000’s.
So imagine my surprise when I found there was
a live action adaptation made in Hong Kong that dropped in 2005.
Alright, Initial D’s animation might not be
my cup of tea but I don’t mind a good car racing flick every once in a
while.
For a movie I only just learned
about recently, is Initial D’s live action debut a hidden gem or one that’s
been lost for a reason?
According to sources, the Initial D movie combines
elements from the first three “stages” of the Anime and Manga.
Even without that knowledge, I’d say Initial
D has a fairly competent beginning, middle and end that doesn’t feel like its
cramming in too much.
The movie has a
single focus: Takumi’s journey from Tofu Delivering Urban Legend to full
fledged Competitive Drift Racer.
Supporting cast is stocked with too cool for school allies, malicious
rivals and even wacky mentor figures like Takumi’s 24/7 wasted father
Bunta.
Jay Chou (who some might remember
as Kato from the Green Hornet movie with Seth Rogan) apparently made his big screen
debut here and he’s fine as Takumi.
He’s
both eerily chill while showing off his prodigal drifting powers racing down
Mt. Akina and equally entertaining as the quiet loner who kind of just wants to
keep to himself yet cant help but attract the attention of racers, the envy of
his annoying best friend Itsuki or the romantic advances of the lovely
Natsuki.
Chou shows plenty of potential
navigating the confused and evolving Takumi’s emotional spectrum even if the
emotion isn’t always plain to see.
Shout
out to Anthony Wong for an increasingly entertaining run as Bunta, who shows
he’s more than just a constant drunk when it comes to cars.
So the story and lead are fine but that’s probably not
why you’re watching Initial D.
Sad to
say that the one thing this franchise is best known for is pretty freaking
dull.
Much like the Need for Speed movie
had barely any speed (or need for it), Initial D’s drift races lack energy and
border on boring most times.
Most of
these issues stem from some of the worst editing I have seen in a movie in a while.
It’s like the film was cut together by a
hyperactive teen trying every quick edit trick in the book from fast and slow
cuts to rapid zoom ins and zooms outs.
Several points just saw the film footage pause altogether while dialogue
was being spoke, making me think the digital copy of the film I was watching
was broken.
Even moments not zipping
down the hills of Mt. Akina follow this same editing philosophy and its both
nauseating and annoying.
Rag on the Fast
and the Furious films all you want, at least the races in Tokyo Drift were
competently shot and put together.
Initial D’s drifting feels like several races spliced together for the
final product, it’s so bad its insulting to drifting much less Initial D as a
whole.
(But hey at least the cars look
like they came right from the Anime…so there’s something?)
Seeing as how the film was made in Hong Kong, my next point of contention
likely couldnt be helped but I’ll bring it up anyway.
Aside from the CG drift racing, the Initial D
Anime is probably best known for the soundtrack.
Many of the tunes feel like they belong in a
DDR inspired video game, beats you could easily jam to while taking a drive (or
drift) of your own.
It popularized the
Eurobeat style of music that was featured in legendary tracks like “Runnin in
the 90s”, “Déjà vu” and “Gas Gas Gas”.
The Live Action movie…has none of this.
Instead it rolls with a Hong Kong hip hop soundtrack that, again, feels
a little Fast and the Furious inspired (mind you this is 2005, 2 movies into
that franchise and it wasn’t nearly as big as it is today).
The attempts to mix it to the
incomprehensible races doesn’t do the music any favors either.
But again, I get this was a region thing so
using Eurobeat music was probably not on the table.
Honestly, if that was the case, why do the movie
in the first place?
On the scale of Live Action Anime adaptations, with
Rurouni Kenshin being the Gold Standard and Dragonball Evolution being the
bottom of the barrel, Initial D sits closer to the latter than the former.
The races are edited in an annoyingly crazy
fashion and lack no energy either.
The
story and most characters are fine but theyre not why we’re watching the
movie.
And the music isn’t good either.
It’s not completely horrible.
It still looks like Initial D on the surface
from the characters to the cars. But as a whole, Initial D could’ve benefited
from a bigger budget to give more life and umph to the drift racing
sequences.
The film also ends on a bit
of a down note which, given there’s no sequel in sight, feels wrong.
And with the Fast and the Furious films
dominating the car action side of the film universe, I doubt there will be a
need for more live action Initial D anytime soon.
4.5/10
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