Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details about Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift's classification and consumer advice lines
• a review of Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift completed by Young Media Australia (YMA) on 15 June 2006.

Overall comments and recommendations

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) and the associated consumer advice lines.

YMA review

This review of the movie Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• themes
• use of violence
• material that may scare or disturb children
• product placement
• sexual references
• nudity and sexual activity
• use of substances
• coarse language
• the movie's message

A synopsis of the story

Sean Boswell (Lucas Black) is a Southern American high school student, who has been convicted of illegal street racing three times. To avoid Juvenile Hall (prison), Sean has been sent to live with his father in Japan. After arriving in Japan, Sean enrols in a local high school and teams up with fellow American Twinkie (Bow Wow). Twinkie introduces Sean to Japanese underground street racing referred to as ‘Drift Racing’, that is, racing through crowded multi-level Tokyo parking lots while employing lots of controlled skidding or drifting. Sean flirts with Neela (Nathalie Kelley), the girlfriend of D.K. (Brian Tee) who is the local ‘Drift King’ and member of the Yakuza (Japanese mob).

Han (Sung Kang), D.K.’s business partner, becomes Sean’s patron and begins teaching him to drift race. At the same time Sean becomes further entangled with Neela, and Sean and D.K become bitter rivals. Matters come to a head when D.K. is confronted by his mob boss Uncle Kamata (JJ Sonny Chiba), and informed that Han has been stealing from them. D.K. seeks revenge and Sean confronts Kamata demanding that the matter be settled via a mountain drift race between himself and D.K.

Themes

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Glamourisation of reckless and illegal behaviour, teenage relationships, family breakdown

Use of violence

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie including:

• several high school students drag a lone student into a back room restraining him and then spray-painting his stomach
  
• teenage male characters verbally threaten and intimidate other male characters
  
• at times these verbal disputes were settled via a car race, and on several occasions the races result in the cars being used as weapons to continue and extend the initial verbal violence
  
• a couple of fist fights between teenage male characters involving brutal and vicious punches to the face and stomach and kicks to the stomach
  
• a male high school student violently spits in the face of another male student
  
• D.K. verbally and physically intimidates and threatens Neela.
  
• D.K. twice threatens other males with a handgun. In one of these scenes, D.K. holds a handgun to Sean’s head while Sean’s father simultaneously holds a handgun to D.K.’s head.
  
• D.K. shoots Han’s windscreen out with a handgun while both D.K. and Han are driving their cars at very high speeds
  
• several instances of cars being used as weapons of violence, such as one driver attempting to run a second driver off the road by crashing their car into their opponent’s car
  
• Han crashes his car, which explodes in flames burning Han alive.
  

Parents are reminded that children are at greater risk of learning that violence is an acceptable way of resolving conflict, when violence is used ‘successfully’ by young, attractive and athletic characters.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under eight

Children under eight are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations, the death of a parent or child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

All of the above-mentioned violent scenes could scare or disturb children under the age of eight, particularly:

• Han being burnt alive when his car explodes
  
• the violent car crashes, including: head on crashes, cars rolling over numerous times, cars slamming into walls, cars running out of control into crowds of people etc.

In addition, children under eight could be disturbed by a scene in which Sean and two other characters, a male and a female, are shown in a hospital waiting room following a car crash. Their faces are covered in bruises and smeared with blood. At one point Sean smiles to reveal a mouth full of bloodied teeth.

Aged eight to thirteen

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

All of the above mentioned violent scenes could scare or disturb children aged eight to thirteen. Also of concern for this age group is a scene where D.K. threatens and intimidates Neela, using put downs and references that belittle her and make her feel worthless and helpless.

Over the age of thirteen

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

Young adolescents could be particularly concerned by D.K.’s intimidating nature, particularly his intimidation of Neela, and the more brutal instances of teenage violence and bullying.

Also of concern, is the idea that many of the teenagers own or have access to flashy, fast and expensive sports cars which, when recklessly destroyed, are simply replaced by another.

Parents are cautioned that some susceptible children may be influenced by the scenes in which cars are used as weapons, and consider imitating the risk taking and reckless behaviours portrayed.

Product placement

In general, owning fast and expensive cars was linked to personal success.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

• an attractive teenage female comments on a male teenager’s car as being “a nice ride”. The male responds with “It’s not the ride, it’s the rider”.
  
• When D.K. and Sean dispute what the prize of a race could be, Neela says: “How about me, the winner gets me”.
  
• Sean and Twinkie drive into a multi level car park full of fast cars and attractive scantily clad teenage girls. Twinkie hands him a box of tissues, saying “That’s for when you blow your wad”.
  
• Han says to Sean “Why can’t you find a nice Japanese girl like all of the white guys around here”.
  
• Twinkie says to Sean “I could sell rubbers to a monk”.
  
• D.K. intimidates Neela making reference to her mother being a prostitute further stating that if it wasn’t for his family Neela would also have ended up a prostitute
  
• the dangerous risk-taking behaviours by the male teenagers are linked to sexual ‘success’ in the form of promiscuous behaviours and the treatment of female characters as objects.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:

• several scenes in which teenage high school girls are dressed very scantily, revealing their underwear, midriffs, cleavage, etc.
  
• a teenage male kisses a girl and grabs her on the bottom, bending her over a car while lying on top of her
  
• two scantily clad women kiss each other intimately
  
• when Sean visits his father in Japan, he has to wait while his father lets out a young attractive Japanese woman, the implication being that she is a prostitute who has been entertaining him

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

• people smoking cigarettes
  
• a man smokes a large cigar
  
• Sean’s mother floutingly smokes a cigarette in a police questioning room directly in front of a No Smoking sign
  
• a couple of nightclub scenes in which people consume alcohol
  
• Sean’s father sits at a table littered with several bottles of empty beer

Coarse language

There are several instances of coarse language in this movie, including:

• shit
  
• arse
  
• hell
  
• screwed up.

The movie's message

Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, the third in the Fast and Furious series, has no connection with the first two films, other than being about illegal street racing. The film’s race action is visually outstanding, but plot, character development and acting, with the exception of Sung Kang, are poor.

The main message is that it is ‘cool’ for teenage males to rebel against authority, and to prove their manhood by driving fast cars in a dangerous and reckless manner. A further negative message is that these behaviours will attract good-looking and sexually available girlfriends, who can then be treated more as ornaments rather than as real people.

This movie could give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children the real life consequences of driving a car in a fast and reckless manner, reminding them of the deaths and permanent injuries caused by road accidents and the how this can affect not only those injured, but all those around them.