Teenage Drifting in Initial D (2005)


Initial D is a popular manga series in Japan that a number of movies and TV series were created.  Among these, this is the one that we truly liked.  Japanese this maybe in origin, the film is about chinese actors and production.  

The story is about a teenager making tofu deliveries across a mountain with a deceivingly modified old Toyota A86.  While doing these deliveries, his driving improves each run he makes.  So much improved that he beats other drivers along his mountain route.  He is a naive kid and does not bask on his wins that he remains anonymous in the process.  The drivers he beats would like to do a rematch and his being famous means other drivers would like to race against him.  Unknown to  us, his Dad was former racer himself so that solidifies that he got his racing genes somewhere.

The movie might be a simple racing story but the delivery was something slow at first.  Creating a good characterization of our lead, then slowly introducing new characters, supporting the main lead.  The actors herein played their parts well that I forgot they were all Chinese playing Japanese characters in a Japanese manga.

We especially loved his Dad (played by Anthony Chau-Sang Wong) as the Tofu man.  Who is in fact a former racer who knows how to modify and tweak cars.  His skills were so good that his old car can outrun and outmaneuver heavily modified new street cars.  It was clear in the movie of this that when a similar car, another Toyota A86, unmodified was simply no match to the other racers.  Later they found the old car's secret and the racer past of Tofu man.

Overall the movie was surprisingly great to watch.  



Copyright © Pinoy Movie Club | Designed With By Blogger Templates
Scroll To Top