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 Movie Review: Initial D 
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Lite Four
Lite Four
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Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:03 am
Posts: 3827
Location: Singapore
I'm gonna be adventurous and write a movie review for a movie that I'm sure many here have not heard of, since it's an asian movie.

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Initial D is a movie based on the manga (manga means Japanese comics) by Shuuichi Shigeno, which goes by the same name of Initial D. It follows the tale of Takumi (Jay Chou) who delivers Tofu to Mount Akina for his father in his dad's old junk Toyota AE86, as he faces numerous challenges to become the best street racer in town. Takumi's father, Bunta Fujiwara (Anthony Wong), was himself a talented street racer who gave up the sport when he married. He then makes a living through selling Tofu. However, he has become a drunken, almost good-for-nothing person who relies on Takumi to deliver Tofu for him.

After five years of delivering Tofu to Mount Akina, via the treacherous bends and hairpin turns-filled roads, he has perfected the art of "drifting", which is sort of a main theme in the movie. Drifting is the art of performing controlled slides on cars to get them through wicked curves and corners quickly. This movie gives the viewer loads of drifting, since there are many racing scenes in the movie.

And speaking of the racing scenes, they were done superbly. Minimal CGI was used, and most of the drifting were real cars in action, executed by trained stuntsmen from Hong Kong and Japan. The effects are done just right and nothing too elaborate to make it look unrealistic. Futhermore, the scenery are just breathtaking! The aerial shot of Mt. Akina shows how the serene country side can be turned into a race/drifting track.

Car fans will also be thrilled to see their favourite cars in action. The main star is Takumi's Toyota AE86, supported by a cast consisting of a Nissan Skyline R32. There's also a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo III and Evo IV and the lesser known Mazda FC3S.

And what's a good movie without some form of romance? Takumi's love interest is Natsuki Mogi (Anne Suzuki). I'm not gonna reveal more about this for now :P

Moving on to the acting, Jay Chou wasn't as stale as everyone thought he'll be. He's able to act out the shy Takumi quite well, though his words are sometimes mangled up. He's no where near as bad as Hayden Christensen in Star Wars.

Other actors like Edison Chen, Shawn Yue, and Anne Suzuki were impressive as well, with Edison and Shawn adding a lot to the "cool" factor of the movie. Chapman To and Anthony Wong, meanwhile, excelled in acting out their characters and brought lots of humour to the movie.

The soundtrack was also pretty great. Jay Chou's "Piao Yi" and "Yi Lu Xiang Bei" (meaning "Drifting" and "Always headed north") were excellent. The fast paced music in the racing scenes were also able to add much excitement.

Overall, a very great movie. Do watch it if somehow you guys are able to :P

For racing or manga fans: 10/10
For neutral people like me: 9/10

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Fri Jul 08, 2005 7:11 pm
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Ace Trainer
Ace Trainer
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Joined: Sun Jan 02, 2005 12:08 pm
Posts: 347
Location: Good Ol' USA
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wow thx for the tip 8)

i dont think the local video store hosts this lol but i gotta try to get my hands on this movie this summer.

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Fri Jul 08, 2005 8:15 pm
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Pokemon Ranger
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Joined: Tue Dec 28, 2004 1:30 pm
Posts: 806
Location: PDX
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w000t I know alll about racing and drifting! To bad the movie isn'y shown here, it sounds good. I have read some of the magna though.

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Sat Jul 09, 2005 11:48 am
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