Initial D

Initial D_360P

That's about it. The race scenes were shot pretty decently. They grip the viewers at the edge of their seat. The songs by Jay Chow are pretty good. The movie is funny. It was set and filmed in Japan, yet all the dialogue were in Cantonese. What else is there to say? Jay Chow was pretty good for his first starring role. He gave a believable performance. Anthony Wong is his same reliable self and Chapman To again provides comic relieve (seems like he is typecast now). The movie did not follow its inspiration, the manga. Even though Jay Chow's character is low-key and mild-mannered already, in the manga the character is even more mild-mannered and even less intense. In the manga, the dad seemed to be more responsible and nicer. That does not matter though, because the races are entertaining enough. That is one of two reason why people pack the theaters to see it. The other reason? Jay Chow. Do not underestimate his draw power. This guy is an idol in Asia. Whatever he do is gold. This film is made for entertainment purposes. No depth. No plot. Just watch it and have a good time. 7/10, because it is entertaining. Take that out, a 4.

What to say ? After the long wait and expectation .. finally ... the tickets were sold out for the next 10 shows in KLCC Suria today and i was glad that i could get the ticket earlier than any other .. or else i won't be typing this now .. okay .. back to the topic ... featuring 4 SUPER-HOT-HANDSOME ..or whatever ... the 4 guys did the chemistry quite well ... with Jay Chou keep on his murmuring (exactly like what he did in his every song- no offence !) and Edison and Shawn being Mr. COOL ... all quite well in imitating every character in the anime ... but for me .. i expect a little bit more from the actors ... no doubt all of them are very good in acting but ... something deep inside my heart ... i hope more .. Chapman To really did his work well .. making this movie a 'comedy' other than plain adrenaline push .. keep popping around and make something funny (personally i like when he was nose-bleeding .. he asked that whether it would keep on bleeding every month periodically..) ... although the directors and the screenwriters do changes and summarises for the movie .. it keep this 1 hour 45 minutes a worth-money-spending movie to watch. honestly .. for the fans of Initial D .. they would expect something a little bit more ... in contrast ... fans of Jay Chou, Edison, and Shawn Yu kept on yelling 'oh .. that's too cool !!' behind my seat .. Marks : Story ... 8 for non-fans while 7.5 for fans Acting ... 8.0 (not hot enough?) Editing ... 8.5 Sounds ... 8.0 Pictures... 9.0 Stunts ... 7.5 Effects ... 8.5 OVERALL : 8.5 out of 10 Comment : fans and beginners must watch !

Overall, I'll have to say right off the bat that as a fan of the original anime I found it somewhat amusing. There are a few things that the movie does right. The camera angles and the overall feel of the movie was spot-on to the original source material. A particular highlight was the "zoom-in-on-the-eyes" of the loser in one particular race. This was exactly like the anime, and was a great touch. People might slam Jay Chou, but I thought he did a good job in this. It's rather hard to screw up a character who is generally bored and half-asleep (as he is portrayed in the anime). There are a lot of small changes here and there, such as Bunta being a drunkard for comedy relief, and the complete lack of Keisuke (his character was combined with Nakazato). Or the fact that the anime Nakazato drove the 4WD GT-R model of Skyline, and did not drift. I won't touch on these in detail, as they didn't really bother me that much. However, the biggest element lacking in this is the music! Inital D fans know that Initial D is known for it's high energy dance-style J-pop music. Considering there are at least 10 Initial D soundtrack CD's out in Japan, I can't believe they didn't realize how popular the music is. The music in the film is best described as "Chinese rap/R&B" I guess, which really hurt the feel of the movie in my opinion. As synonymous the anime is with the music, I can't help but think what it would be without it. We'd be left with scenes of car racing with cheesy dialog, intertwined with brief romance scenes. Which now that I think of it, pretty much sums up this film. If they were to make an Initial D anime series with music similar to this movie's soundtrack, I wonder if I would like it as much. I just might feel the same way about it as I do this movie, in that it's a nice reminiscent film somewhat faithful to the original, but nothing to get really excited about. If you're not a fan of Inital D or of import racing, there's not much for you here.

OK, firstly, I see all you guys complaining about how gay the movie was. Well really, I've lots of movie based on books and animes and none of them are perfect. All you people think it is really easy to make a film based on a book or manga. The reasons why I liked the movie is because... 1. It was pretty funny especially Chapman To 2. The cars were all real and based on the anime and manga 3. They did all the basics in the anime and manga I just don't get why all you people are complaining? As i said earlier, hardly any movie is 100% based onto the anime, manga or book. And as long as it entertains people, who cares?

I feel I must apologize on behalf of all Hong Kong folk for this film. It wasn't made for the international audience. In fact, it doesn't even appear to have been made for fans of the manga/anime 'Initial D'. It was almost certainly made exclusively for the Chinese market, because frankly, I don't see how it might have any appeal anywhere else. There are some good examples of great stories from other countries which when remade under the Hollywood banner, stink. This film would be an example of a great story being remade under a Hong Kong banner. Hongkong-ized, if you will. And it stinks too. The tragedy is that the two directors once upon a time made a fantastic trilogy called Infernal Affairs, which won international acclaim, and is ironically about to be Hollywoodized by Martin Scorcese. So how is it that two very talented directors who already have a good track record can turn out such a piece of excrement? Well, because it was made for the all-style-no-substance appetite of the Hong Kong movie going public, who basically just want to see an extended music video starring their favorite popstars. And so on behalf of Hong Kongers everywhere, sorry! We're not all like this.

Just to set the expectations from this review, I have not read the Initial D manga, nor watched any of the anime. Therefore this review's point of view will be from the cinematic experience, and there will be no comparison on how true it stays to the manga/anime. Despite all the star power in the film, from teeny boppers Edison Chen and Shawn Yue, to veterans Kenny Bee and Anthony Wong, this still remains a Jay Chou vehicle (pardon the pun). Jay stars as a petrol pump attendant who by day works at a petrol kiosk, and in the wee hours of the night, helps his tofu selling dad deliver tofu in an old Toyota AE86 Sprinter Trueno using a route that traverses along a winding Mount Akina. Naturally, with his 5 years experience, he intimately knows the terrain, and gets faster each time, until a group of street racers set their sights to conquer the route. There will definitely be comparisons with Hollywood's The Fast and The Furious series, starring Vin Diesel/Paul Walker. The similarities are there - the fast cars, the beautiful racer babes, the rivalry between arrogant drivers. You even get the same cinematography technique used that starts from the driver's POV, pulling back to the dashboard, the rear seat, the boot, and the car from a "helicopter" view. But what sets this film apart is the way it is delivered. Being based on a comic book offers some depth to the storyline, and it helped by staying true to the setting, being based in Japan and not HK. The races in itself might seem repetitive, as the highlight seemed to be focused on its title - the "drift" technique, being used ad-nausem, but having different drivers challenge each other on the one and only route breaks the monotony as you root for your favourite to come out tops. Given this is Jay Chou's debut movie role, it is difficult to critique if his acting skills are up to mark, as his lead character Takumi Fujiwara is a nonchalant man of few words. Which is very much like his persona. His co-stars Edison Chen and Shawn Yue could very well be their own persons as well. Chapman To, as usual, brings across the rather light hearted moments, and Anthony Wong as Chou's dad, a veteran race ace who finds solace in the bottle and having a penchant for dozing off. Perhaps the only flaw about the movie was the sappy romance between Jay and his Japanese co-star. Not that she isn't gorgeous (which is a saving grace), but their scenes together doesn't further the plot much, and slows down the pace somewhat of this movie about the need for speed. This is an enjoyable flick, one in which I waited for the theme song / tune to be featured (only at the end credits!). But no, I don't think I will be converted to a Jay Chou fan boy anytime soon. I suspect that in the upcoming weeks, we probably might see parallel imports / makes of the Trueno on our shores to satisfy the racer boy wannabes (heard Singapore only has 2?), although it probably can't run as fast as in the movies (movie magic lah). And yeah, the driving with one hand on the wheel and the other on the face, with the contemplating look.

hi... i've watched the movie, and frankly speaking, i never really like it. don't get me wrong, i love Initial d. i'm a big fan of the Japanese anime. i've been watching the show since it first started. concerning the movie, i'm disappointed with the story, a lot of things were changed (e.g. ryosuke and nakazato were never friends, itsuki were never the son of the gas station owner and etc.), there were a lot of characters missing in the movie like Keisuke, Kenji and one of the most important characters in the show...Iketani (who showed Takumi the secret world of street racing). what really bothered me the most was the fact that the movie changed Takumi's personality, he has never been violent and arrogant, and Bunta was never a drunk. personally, the movie should've been done by the Japanese just because they know, more about cars and how to really make the movie appealing to enthusiast and car lovers alike. i'm sure there are a lot of people out there who were disappointed with the movie as well.

this movie is excellent, i buy the DVD almost the one week ago and i watch it every day twice. the actors are great, all the actions are great, every thing is great. all the actors i never hear of before but they are great, sometimes better than other famous Chinese actors. the new actor, the lead, does a very good job and i want to see any of his future movies. it is short but very concise and make the time is very used and not waste. hard to have many storyline in short time but this movie make it good. i already recommend to all my friend and family. some of them watch it and also tell me it is excellent. the director is also very good and put every thing into all good order.

I realize adapting and compressing a long-running comic and anime series into about 2 hours requires some cuts and changes, but this result of a film is vomit-inducing. My biggest issue in this movie comes with the writing--characters have been completely changed in terms of abilities, personality, and relationships (This is where the possible spoilers come in, I NEED to list some of these things to warn you). The filmmakers expect fans to believe the following changes: 1. Keisuke apparently doesn't exist, Takeshi Nakazato takes his place in collaborating with Ryosuke on street races. 2. Itsuki is the leader of the speed stars team, and he drives a Silvia S13 (Iketani's car!). At least Itsuki still can't drive worth anything. 3. In the film version, Itsuki is Yuichi's son, acting like a whiny rich kid. 4. Bunta abuses and threatens his son on multiple occasions when Takumi bangs up the car. 5. Bunta also explains to Yuichi that the reason Takumi began doing deliveries is because his hemorrhoids were killing him. Flat-out dumb. 6. Takumi blows the engine on the AE86 while racing team emperor's leader ON AN AKINA DOWNHILL RUN. In the comic and anime, he never lost on Akina! And he grenades the engine before he learns of Natsuki's profession, so he's not even angry when it happens. The direction and editing of this movie is all over the place, as well. When the cars are racing, there are some sweet camera choices and your pulse gets moving a bit. But when the drivers are shown, there's too much use of splitting the screen to show two or three close-ups at once. The movie also apparently didn't have the budget to actually show any of the cars crashing--each time, the car slides through a flimsy barrier or sign and the view cuts to black. When the action stops, it gets worse. Slow motion at all the wrong times, sloppy cuts, and a slow pace all slap the audience in the face. The only high point is the drifting work was pretty good at times for running through hairpins on the mountain passes. Aside from that, I wish I never knew this movie existed. I love the series even more because it doesn't make these horrible story choices.