Sausaji Festo

Sandys' movie #17: Tokyo Drift

Justin Lin did a commendable job with this testosterone-soaked summer flick, with one exception: the casting of blindingly ugly caveman Lucas Black. In one scene (set in a sento or public bath) he was dressed only in a towel and I had to literally avert my eyes. Bleccch! If anything his hideousness was an interesting counterpoint to the of-Asian-descent hotties. Almost outshining Sung Kang was Brian Tee as D.K., whom you might recognize from the laundry list of mediocre TV shows he's been in (thanks, imdb.) I like that guy's stinkeye.

As for its depiction of teenaged wildlife in Tokyo... not bad. The apartment ol' Ugly shared with his pop was realistically small, cramped and cluttered. The high school scenes rang true... except for the presence of a cafeteria, of which there are none (students eat in their classrooms.) And those "hills" above Tokyo? Nope. I'm 98% sure those scenes were shot in California. One would have to drive about 3 hours west to reach anything remotely resembling that.

Overall I think this was a score for Justin Lin, which he certainly needed after Annapolis. Yay. Let's hope he puts Sung Kang in all his movies!