Now it’s
time to talk about a movie where a young man moves to a foreign country, gets
into some trouble with some bullies, and learns a secret move from a mystical
Asian man.
This is the
post about how Fast and the Furious:
Tokyo Drift and Karate Kid are
the same movie.
Times were
dark as the franchise moved into its third episode. Brian O’Conner and his
friend Rome had settled down to open a garage with stolen money. Dominic was still running around in Mexico,
living his life a quarter mile at a time, quiet for those 10 seconds. And the
rest of the crew was wherever they were when we left them at the end of the
first movie, because they wouldn’t be mentioned again. Plus, the almighty
producers wanted to appeal to teenagers more, so they removed literally
everything that acknowledged the previous two movies and set out on a new
course. Except for one head nod at the end of the movie, of course.
In Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift, Lucas Black plays Sean Boswell, a
young man from Arizona who is into cars.
Naturally, he gets into a fight with Clay (played by Zachery Ty Bryan)
and they settle it the way all 17 year olds solve their problems whenever this
movie is supposed to take place (more on that in a minute): with a good old
fashioned street race. The winner gets Clay’s girlfriend, who puts herself up
for a prize in a classy display of feminism. Naturally both cars and a large
section of a construction site are destroyed, because of Sean’s inability to
drift into turns, and he gets sent to Japan to live with his father (despite
winning, and without collecting on Clay’s girlfriend, presumably.) While there,
he manages to get caught up in the world of Japanese street racing, and learns
the ancient art of “drifting” while managing to piss off the Yakuza and the
current Drift King, falls in love with the Drift King’s girlfriend, then gets
challenged by Dominic in the head nod to remind everyone that hey, two movies
came before this.
Oh, and
there was a bit about some stolen money, but this Fast and the Furious was
exceptionally light on heists, sadly.
As I
mentioned in the first part this movie is essentially The Karate Kid, but with cars and without an illegal kick to the
face. Sean has trouble in school, is seen as a rebel, gets involved in some
shady stuff, and hast to turn to Han to learn the ancient art of “drifting.” At
one point they even make a reference to the
Karate Kid, letting him know that there isn’t any “wax on wax off” to learn
the trade, but that’s where the differences really end. It is only by learning
and training in the art of drifting that Sean is able to overcome his enemies
and stay in Japan. He messes up – twice
– while learning to drift, and badly damages his car both times. It is only by using his training that he is
able to win the final race, when he needs to prove himself to his father,
divorced from his mother, and to gain
the respect of the racing world. Han takes him under his wing regardless, and
mentors the boy despite not knowing much about him. Seriously, I half expected
Han to catch a fly with a pair of chopsticks at one point.
I mentioned
yesterday that the second movie was the weakest, and I stand by it, but this is
the most problematic in the sense that it is clearly wedged into the franchise
to appeal younger. The first part of the movie is basically Fast and the Furious: The YA Edition as
Lucas is still in High School, proud of his car, and has to take on the rich
kids and his 80,000 dollar car, which we know because he proudly announces it.
They come from a world of privilege that
Sean doesn’t know, because he has to keep moving around with all of the trouble
he is causing. Once they destroy the construction site, along with Clay’s car,
it is only Sean who gets into trouble because he is from the “wrong side of the
tracks” once again continuing the theme of the incompetent police force in the
face of the real trouble. It was Clay that threw a baseball, destroying part of
Sean’s car, that started the argument to begin with.
It is when
the movie gets to Japan that we begin to see the real reminders of a Fast and
Furious movie, with expensive cars in flashy races, but it is a brand new
style, one that is foreign to the audience as it is to Sean. While the original
movies had a pretty clear goal: fast cars go towards a goal. This idea is first
introduced as Sean is batted around the construction site, and then again when
he enters his first race and manages to just mangle his car.
As a
protagonist, Sean causes some trouble because of his age, he is under the thumb
of his father, or at least his father tries to keep him under his thumb. While
father issues aren’t new in these movies – remember the chase and the end of
the first one involves fathers – but this de-aging of the main character means
that the parental issues have to be dealt with in real time. It is by standing
up for himself that he at least starts to reconcile his life.
However it is not until the final
melding of his two sides – using his father’s car with Hans’ old engine – that
we really get to the real theme of the movie, which is Sean’s inability to
reconcile his true self. He is a young man who is at war with himself, trying
to do the right thing while wanting to prove himself. We first see him
conflicted in trying to help the young man being painted purple by the bullies,
and only acts when he is threatened. Then he is contrasted with his older car
to the newer car. We first see him in the plane to Japan contrasted with all of
those around him, and he can’t even find the proper shoes when coming into the
school. He is constantly trying to fight when he doesn’t want to. It is not
until he finally accepts this melding, along with his training that he is able
to accept himself for who he is.
The true Drift King.
As mentioned, this movie does come with
a bit of a problem for the franchise, in that the events of this movie take
place AFTER Four, Five, and Six, and the fallout being shown in the seventh. I
am curious to see how the seventh will reconcile these characters, as Lucas
Black is set to reprise his role. However, this is an interesting detour in the
chronology of the franchise.
Tomorrow:
We finally get to continue the epic bromance of our times; Brian and Dominic.
No comments:
Post a Comment