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Memorable, crazy movie

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Based on a long running comic series by Shuuichi Shigeno, this all star cast Hong Kong movie puts on screen what's on the comic's volume 1-15 ( Part until Takumi joins Project D ).Takumi Fujiwara (Jay Chou) is a high school student who lives with his single father running a tofu shop. Inbetween his tofu deliveries, he frequents Mt. Akina that has winding roads to improve his driving skills. He gets involved with the street racers that frequents the area, and a battle ensues to prove who's the fastest one on the road. Takumi with his outstanding driving skills, bests other racers with better performing cars. Amongst the people who shows up was Ryosuke Takahashi (Edison Chen). Ryosuke takes notice of Takumi's talent, and takes interest in him. Takumi's girlfriend Natsuki (Ann Suzuki) is chummy with Takumi, but she also has other things going on with older men. Takumi goes head to head with Keiichi Sudo (Jordan Chan) to prove who's the fastest man on the road.The same staff from Medea Asia that's created the "Infernal Affair" series made this movie. The movie was shot on location in Japan around Yahikoiwamuro highway in Niigata Prefecture, and Shibukawa city in Gunma prefecture. The production quality is high despite the difficulty of bringing the location to Japan. Mt. Akina is a fictitious mountain that's modeled after Mt. Haruna in Gunma prefecture.One of the center piece of the action is the Sprinter Trueno AE86 that Takumi drives. Despite its diminutive size, it succeeds in out performing cars that are designed for racing performances. Trueno is is a sister model of Corolla Levin, and shares the same frame, and the engine. It's a performance version of the standard Sprinter model with a twin cam 4A-GEU engine. In the '80s Japan, 4A-GEU souped up to 450 horse power was sold by custom shops. Used on AE86 that weighs less than a ton, the combination made the car into a deadly rocket that can go head to head with lesser powered cars like the GT-R. So a car to car battle like the one seen in this movie was entirely "Possible". The original comic states that the story is occurring sometime in the '90s time frame, and the cars appearing in this movie also reflects this fact.I wonder if China these days are following the Hollywood style casting that casts compatible astrological sun sign actors in the leading role. This method seems to ensure good chemistry between male and the female lead. In this movie, three earth sign actors plays the lead (Ann Suzuki - Taurus, Anthony Wong - Virgo, and Jay Chou - Capricorn). The movie has a world of its own that's completely different from the TV anime series, and in some ways more exciting due to the interaction between the stars, and the actual driving that takes place on the road. It's an excellently made movie that combines best of what Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan has to offer. I only wish that Edison Chen would return to Hong Kong cinema. He was very good in this movie. A very enjoyable movie that takes you into the world of street racing culture of Japan.

I enjoyed this movie very much. I was able to pick up on some things that weren't with the story pretty quick, but since WHEN do the books / movies EVER match? Many of the characters were right-on no matter what, and some of them formed unexpected alliances. I found it all to be a pretty cool mix-up. The pause screen before switching to the next frame was a little weird, felt comic-bookish though. The happy 'relatonship' music was the funniest thing ever. SPOILER: I thought it was hilarious when he started choking, the music got extremely loud and fluttery, and she was there preforming the Heimlich maneuver. Yeah! That's exactly how I am going to get my dates from now on. I think in the movie they should have pushed her more out of the storyline. All they did was introduce her, send her away to be a whore, and then come back. :END SPOILEROverall the movie was very entertaining and worth watching. I was left thinking about it for the next couple days after watching it. Decent voice overs as well!

I realize adapting and compressing a long-running comic and anime series into about 2 hours requires some cuts and changes, but this result of a film is vomit-inducing.My biggest issue in this movie comes with the writing--characters have been completely changed in terms of abilities, personality, and relationships (This is where the possible spoilers come in, I NEED to list some of these things to warn you). The filmmakers expect fans to believe the following changes:1. Keisuke apparently doesn't exist, Takeshi Nakazato takes his place in collaborating with Ryosuke on street races. 2. Itsuki is the leader of the speed stars team, and he drives a Silvia S13 (Iketani's car!). At least Itsuki still can't drive worth anything. 3. In the film version, Itsuki is Yuichi's son, acting like a whiny rich kid. 4. Bunta abuses and threatens his son on multiple occasions when Takumi bangs up the car. 5. Bunta also explains to Yuichi that the reason Takumi began doing deliveries is because his hemorrhoids were killing him. Flat-out dumb.6. Takumi blows the engine on the AE86 while racing team emperor's leader ON AN AKINA DOWNHILL RUN. In the comic and anime, he never lost on Akina! And he grenades the engine before he learns of Natsuki's profession, so he's not even angry when it happens.The direction and editing of this movie is all over the place, as well. When the cars are racing, there are some sweet camera choices and your pulse gets moving a bit. But when the drivers are shown, there's too much use of splitting the screen to show two or three close-ups at once. The movie also apparently didn't have the budget to actually show any of the cars crashing--each time, the car slides through a flimsy barrier or sign and the view cuts to black. When the action stops, it gets worse. Slow motion at all the wrong times, sloppy cuts, and a slow pace all slap the audience in the face. The only high point is the drifting work was pretty good at times for running through hairpins on the mountain passes. Aside from that, I wish I never knew this movie existed. I love the series even more because it doesn't make these horrible story choices.

Anyone desiring some simple entertainment centered on street car racing will not be disappointed by the very nimble camera work on the racing scenes in this film.Unfortunately, it's a tough film to recommend to anyone. Many would agree that the sexual themes are not for adolescents, while the drama and slapstick comedy are so lame that adults watching it on video are likely to fast-forward to view only the racing scenes.In addition, and most importantly, anyone who has any sensitivity to bigotry must be turned off by the very obvious Japan bashing by the writers. Aside from failing to depict any trace of virtue among the characters, these Chinese film makers have used their artistic license to depict the protagonist's father as almost constantly falling-down drunk, and his beautiful girlfriend as an insulting representation of Japanese womanhood. I'm not even Japanese, but this aspect of the film should be offensive to any intelligent viewer.