Image via WikipediaNow that Green Hornet DVD is in stores, this reminds me of Jay Chou's first major movie as himself: Initial D the movie. Strangely, this is made in Hong Kong, not Japan, though it was fully licensed... all character names, cars, and so on. The story was that Toyota built 3 Truenos (AE86) for this movie. Hmmm...Any way, the movie is typical HK style production... plenty of horrible puns, dirty jokes, and so on and so forth. Jay Chou of course play Takumi Fujiwara, the racer / tofu delivery boy.
The story borrowed bits and pieces from the various seasons of the anime. I won't bother naming the elements, suffice to say Natsuki, the AE85, the race with Team Emperor, blowing the engine, the new tachometer, and more are in here. (You would only recognize those items if you've watched the anime) It is then you realize how much did the movie F&F Tokyo Drift borrowed from this movie.
Any way, the plot is cliche, but the drifting is not bad. This doesn't have all the fancy special effects and computer enhancements typical of the Hollywood productions. It's more... realistic in a certain sense. Since the folks who started Initial D never made a live action version, you'll have to settle with this one. Unfortunately, you have to deal with Cantonese dialog (or the much worse dubbed Mandarin Chinese). And this is where you realize that Jay Chou speaks horrible Cantonese.
Rating: Rent it... once only
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