An unpopular opinion about a famous movie franchise like Fast & Furious, especially because it is different from the other films, is that The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift is the best movie in the franchise. The biggest reason is the introduction of Han, a fan-favorite character played by Sung Kang, who goes on to play a major role in some of the biggest movies in the franchise. While he is one of the Fast & Furious characters who need prequels, Tokyo Drift characterizes him well, giving us one of the few well-rounded characters in the franchise.
Tokyo Drift is also one of the few Fast & Furious movies entirely concerned with street racing. Even the central conflict in the film is born from and resolved by racing. With just a few characters, grounded stunts, and a new style of racing, it stands out as the best Fast & Furious movie in many ways. The stylish racing scenes, all involving drifting, which is always a visually stunning vehicular stunt, are memorable, but one of the coolest sequences in the movie, arguably the best car scene in the entire franchise, isn’t from a race.
The Drift Scene Through Tokyo Is Fast & Furious At Its Best
It’s A Showcase Of Drifting
After a heated interaction between Han and DK aka Drift King (Brian Tee), Han, Sean, the protagonist of the movie played by Lucas Black, and their friends manage to initiate a quick getaway, only to be chased by DK and his henchman. What ensues is a high-octane chase through the crowded streets of Tokyo, where all four cars involved drift through traffic and narrowly evade collisions before crashing one by one. Drifting is one of the most visually satisfying driving styles, and watching a showcase of it in a real-life scenario makes this the best scene in Tokyo Drift.
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The quick cuts between shots of the cars from up front, close-ups of the drivers, and overhead shots that display the drifting in all its glory elevate the scene by introducing a frenetic and infectious adrenaline-fueled energy. The sequence where they drift through a crowded square as people move away to make way, and the background score comes down to a hush, is perhaps the best shot in the entire Fast & Furious franchise. The drifting occurs at wildly high speeds, the actors play up the emotional stakes in the scenes, and the cinematography highlights how cool the drifting looks.
This Scene Is Proof That Sometimes Less Is More
Grounded Action Makes Tokyo Drift The Best
The first Fast and Furious movie has aged well today in some ways, and the most relevant ways are its serious treatment of death, the smaller scale of the story it tells, and most importantly, the grounded stuntwork. Similarly, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift is restrained in its scale and its stunts. Watching them drift through Tokyo makes one realize how genuine the scene looks in comparison to the average Fast & Furious scene today.
Keiichi Tsuchiya, a famous drift driver, isn’t just among the people the film’s crew consulted while making the movie, but also has an uncredited cameo in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.
Not only is the scene believable, but cars probably do drift almost exactly like they do in the scene. Yet, it’s a perfect scene, despite not having the usual over-the-top hijinks that the franchise comes with today. There is a shameless lack of sincerity in the stunts in the movies today, and without any semblance of logic or adherence to physics, they don’t feel as entertaining, but come across as silly. The stunts in Tokyo Drift, in comparison, especially the scenes inside the city, are much smaller, but are levels better than the stunts in the recent films.