Initial D
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Movie Reviews of Initial D
Movie Review: WATCH OUT F&F
Summary: 4 Stars
Great movie if you are a fan of tuning and sports compact racing. I'll recommend to anybody that liked the fast and furios movies like myself (not the second one that much at all though)
I hope the sequel of this movie is released soon and the fd3s makes an appearance.
Movie Review: I love Initial D and I love this movie.
Summary: 4 Stars
Ok, I'm biased because I love cars and I love Initial D. So this movie is obviously a good one for me. If you know nothing about cars or Initial D, it will not be that fun. In fact, it's just an ok movie otherwise, not worth buying.Movie Review: My Husband loves Initial D
Summary: 4 Stars
I was a little skeptical about the Initial D movie just because it was with real people. And not just animated people. But the movie turned out to be actually pretty good.Movie Review: Downhill Spiral
Summary: 3 Stars
"Initial D" is a fairly good film. With about 5 separate car races and numerous flashbacks where the same footage is repeated in montages, the film does tend to drag a bit.
Jay Chou plays the teenage Takumi whose stoic facial expressions as a tofu delivery boy get punctured by love. Chou did much of the music in the film; and we see fancy footwork on the car pedals as he jams into gear around the curves. He gets some nice reaction shots after his romantic breakup. Chou followed this, his first film, with "Curse of the Yellow Flower."
Anthony Wong who was recently in "The Painted Veil" plays his alcoholic father who is an ex-racer but who has spiraled downhill since the loss of his wife. He keeps passing out, but he knows how to outfit a tofu delivery car. After repeated threats to knock his son around, it was a wink that let his son know how much his dad loves him. With a cigarette dangling, Wong plays the perfect vagabond.
Anne Suzuki who was in "Moon Child" & "Snow Falling Cedars" plays Natsuki. She seems to be a normal high school girl who develops a crush on Takumi. However, we soon find that the uncle who takes care of her is an older guy who uses her for physical pleasure at the "Love Hotel." Obviously, this causes some problems in her relationship with Takumi who is her true love. Suzuki seemed far too nice and innocent to believably play a lady of the evening (or in her case afternoon), but she does a good job with the innocent love in the film.
Chapman To who was so good in "Six Strong Characters" plays the heavy-set Itsuki, best friend of Takumi. His father owns the service station at which Takumi works. To is the comic relief of the picture, mugging, full of bravado one moment and vomiting by the curb from carsickness the next. Kenny Bee does a nice job as Itsuki's father, owner of the service station.
Edison Chen who was in "Gen Y-Cops" does a good job as being the other independent racer who tries to take out the professional in the climactic final race. The race sequences, mostly at night, are well filmed and keep you glued to the screen. While there may be a few too many of them, overall this is a good movie that grabs your attention and makes you care about its characters. Enjoy!
Movie Review: Don't expect the anime/manga
Summary: 3 Stars
While the anime stayed fairly close to the manga, this live action movie makes substantial character and plot changes. For instance, Bunta is now perceived more as a drunken womanizer more than the retired legendary (yet still smug and egotistical) racer from Akina. Ryousuke and Keisuke Takahashi are essentially one character. Several other characters don't even appear in the movie.
The plot was also condensed considerably. Instead of being a movie covering a few races from the anime's first season, it compresses everything from the first three stages (which took the anime 39 thirty-minute episodes and its own two-hour movie). Obviously with about two hours of time, this movie had to drop several races and increase the pace of character and car driving technique development.
However, the movie does get some things right. Character development is focused on Takumi and his indecisiveness of what he wants to be in life. The actual car racing uses the real cars that the characters drive in the series, and most of the driving is more realistic than completely special effects. The mood of the movie fits, and it follows the general "teenager who has special skills but doesn't know it" plot of the series. Itsuki is still the overzealous racer wanna-be, even if his character's background was totally changed.
One thing to note is that there is absolutely no EuroBeat music in this version, which can be a good or bad thing depending if you're a fan. Most of the Chinese pop music is from Jay Chou, who plays Takumi.
In the end, if you're a previous fan of the series, don't go in expecting to see a live-action version of the anime or manga. You'll just end up disappointed that the movie tries to cover so much ground in such a short amount of time. This movie is like the later Harry Potter movies in that it is an okay adaption of a much better and more detailed story.