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Good movie but grossly overrated

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

For all those fans of drifting, (yes that small population in Australia that I'm apart of) this movie will definitely take the cake. If you are one of the many active fans of the initial d cartoon series then you have more than likely already seen the movie or otherwise keep ready. The movie is about a Young boy (Takumi) who is a delivery boy for his dads tofu store. To complete his deliveries he has to drive this mountain pass everyday at about 4am were no one is actually on the road. His route is a downhill mountain pass which he soon learns how to drift. His expert techniques guide him as he begins to challenge and defeat racers in his local and regional area. However, all that I have just said is recapped at the start of the film to fill anyone in. This film however is rather just tying up all the loss ends that he would like to conquer before he moves on. It shows Takumi graduating from school, and in a way mirrors his graduation from sort of racing school. There are some incredible races within this film that will keep you on the edge of your seat right up until the very end. There is one particular race between the AE86 and a SW20 (MR2) that is just incredible. This movie is definitely one to see for anyone who has petrol flowing through their veins or a brick for a foot.

I just watched it today and I have to say I really liked it. As said before, it focuses more on the emotional side of things a bit, but there is a healthy does of racing. A must see for initial d fans. Takumi fallows in his dads footsteps and beats the son of his dads old rival. (only by the skin of his teeth though) and goes for a rematch with the Emperor team. Plus he completely owns one of Mogi's ex-"friends".......racing in the snow......things also get slowly started with the next part of the story as "Project D" starts to shape up..... the story is given a temporary kind of ending since takumi graduates and goes onto being a racer on a new team. Although the story is continued in the 4th stage......i give it a 9/10

Basically you can consider it as the last longer episode of stage 2 or the 1st long episode of Stage 4. It doesn't stand alone like the extra stage with its own story. In this 'movie' version, you will see that Takumi is facing the wind of change. He will need to decide how move on to improvise his driving skills, technique and his knowledge in car.In this movie, he is graduating from his high school(?), and due to his by far unmatched downhill drifting driving skills, he need to decide on how to move on. In the meanwhile, he was invited to join the Project D, initiated by the two Takahashi brothers to challenge all others skilled drivers from other areas in Japan and re-set the fasted driving time in all those areas, then the team dismissed. Before he came to his decision, he had raced the leader of the lancer evolution team, Emperor team and the son of Takumi's father's old time challenger (who had lost to Takumi's father last time). And at the end, he had also raced with Keisuke for his decision making of joining the Project D or not. Not to forget also, this movie also had showed more development of Takumi's love life. In short, its a very good movie with this time more emphasis on the emotion of the main characters. A must match for the Initial D die hard fans.