December 21, 2006

tokyo drift

Posted by dogpossum on December 21, 2006 11:13 PM in the category fillums and tasmania

We do actually intend to do something besides eat this week.
Perhaps.
So far I've had a couple of naps, eaten way too much, sat on the couch and 'watched' The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, a film which, strangely, has caught my interest.

I am fascinated by the way each of these films seems to be using the same story line, but with different male protagonists, and a host of equally interchangeable booby girls of indeterminate ethnic origins. I'd like to say that my interest was caught by these sorts of things. But I was actually fascinated by the cars and the driving - the way these were 'superlight' cars with 'powerful engines'. Basically, the 'Tokyo drift' involves taking corners really quickly in these light cars. You kind of 'drift' around the corners. Especially if you're in a parking lot or driving down Mt Fuji (I think it was meant to be Mt Fuji - I wasn't really paying much attention, and it seemed the obvious choice). There was a series of scenes very much like the 'learning to dance' bits of Footloose. And of course, a car-makeover.

In addition, there were a number of thinly veiled 'American = best' bits, including the necessity of fitting out an American Metal car with a full-on Japanese engine for the Big Race sequence, the protagonist making friends with an African American kid at school, lots of full on Japanese teen fashionistas buying 'American' sports shoes, a kind of narrative reworking of the term 'gai jin' by the protagonist and so on.

I think I want to see what