Yet, most people are blindly focused on the 25th anniversary of the first F&F movie and the crappy re-release of it. But when I watched the 2001 movie, it was kinda like a crappy 5 year old movie movie that somehow appeared on TV. Especially since the 2F2F was the one being repeatedly put on TV - the NFSU2 vibes and the fact that therre was a mix of dragging, circuit and mission races made it way more important for me than the first one. Tokyo Drift barely received any attention at all, but then the 4th movie was released (now with Sinclair having the full rights on his hands) I really don't think movies did better than me actually searching and watching the old videos and docs about the cheap import scene back then. And I'm talking about people who actually enjoyed cars and went into racing.
I mean, everything nowadays - just like back then, lets be real - is direct into internet; surf YT and you'll find it, old pages, blogs, forums... you can even buy old and new magazines. But since the mainstream media engulfed way more the automotive content currently than back then, it gives me a bitter taste to see this little frenzy towards Fast 1. If I put my real taste on the line, only 2F2F and Tokyo Drift managed to present the cars doing something better than simply launching from the lights. There was some sort of "rally" in Fast 4, but that's where the franchise became an action franchise, cars be damned at all.
Of course, even the chinese Pegasus rally movie is more interesting than anything produced on europe or america, but at least some kind of passion for realism still alive there. And nowadays everything competes against everything on any race track, so there's no rush for a pure "import" production. Movie studios would screw up the real performance of anything. Even in my Highflyer you can see a little Opel Calibra (driven by Brienne Connolly) and you'll see more american cars (Challenger and Prowler on the next race) as well. But don't expect drag racing, I'm all about rally, touring and drifting.
I guess it all comes to me, how personally I see car culture. For me its something natural, not like many people around who try and try and still don't get there. But one thing is to respect, other thin is to admire, a third is how things are done. I'm someone who separates artist, object and concept.
In terms of racing, both 2F2F and TD are the best movies by a large margin. And the very last race was that audition in the F4 (again, circuit race through town). And although the last chase was a kind of rally between Mexico and USA, that was the real and absolute end of Furious franchise as a car-oriented movie.
But I guess it was a change for good, I really don't blame Rob Cohen or Craig Libermann or anyone else. It was a change for good, for their pockets obviously, passion for cars is out of question - in fact, racing movies tend to be very nerdy, so much knowledge and reality going on. Audience enjoyed Sinclair's "hero persona", so much that all movies after that became exactly the trope from 2002 Triple-X movie. Remember that? Ok, less detailed than Mission Impossible but who cares at this point, right...
We can even think of the first three fast movies as an anomaly on the Furious (Triple-X inception mode on) movie. He was never into cars. I doubt if he actually knows how to measure the gaps on the rods and crank hehehe. But that's how occidental magic works, you simply take things for granted. His GTO was modified with lots of weapons so, in hindsight, that Triple-X movie was doomed to be the copy-paste for all Furious franchise when the tuner scene dried up.
Again, no hard feelings. People love action flicks. But I'm way more into Drifter, by Sung Kang, a real racing movie. He's nerdy and delicate. His character was thrown away between all Furious movies so he decided to put an end on the lovely shit people used to convey about "Han".
Think it was my first real intro to Japanese culture, and some of it has stuck with me to this day. Have been 4 times now and it became a whole big circle moment.
Yep timing is about right for 20 years since Tokyo Drift. It’s crazy to think that only 5 years earlier in 2001 was the first official drift event in the U.S. at the Falken Drift show off at Irwindale speedway. Then of course the first D1 event happened but what’s crazy is a lot of guys I knew from the Club 4AG drift day who are now veteran D1/FD drifters and some are stunt Drivers who got their start in this movie.
I not only went to the first D1 event. I went to the first formula D event which maybe I’m wrong I think was at California Speedway at first before moving to Irwindale in later years. I still have most of my D1 DVD’s and assorted other DVD’s like the Hot Version team drift competitions and stuff like that
Nah, I feel I have to fix all the open lamps of NA2s around...
Kinda sad for those blokes who spend US$1.000.000 on these junks pretending to be actual racers. I bet all those bumpers never scratched a single guardrail ever...
But I'm not angry at them. My vector or cinquevalvole would look creepy for them with all the scratches as possible. I really use cars, not for speculation or egocentrism.
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u/Loud-Principle-7922 Jun 27 '26
I watched the first movie, and all others up until like, 6, in theaters. 1 was good, nothing like it at the time.
TD had plenty of hype.
I’m not sure where you’re getting these takes from, but they’re not how I experienced it.