Tau man ji D
Tags: atmospheric

Plot synopsis:
The protagonist, Takumi Fujiwara, is a gas station attendant working with his friend Itsuki to buy a car, which they plan to drift on the twisting roads surrounding nearby Mount Akina. Unbeknownst to his colleagues, Takumi moonlights as a tofu delivery driver for his father's store before sunrise each morning, passively building an impressive amount of skill behind the wheel of the family car, an aging Toyota Sprinter Trueno.
Shortly after the story begins, the Red Suns, an amateur racing team from Mount Akagi, challenge the local Speedstars team to a set of races on Mount Akina. Dispirited after watching the RedSuns' superior performance during a practice run, the Speedstars expect to lose. Later that night, the Red Suns' #2 driver, heading home after the last practice run, is defeated soundly by a mysterious Sprinter Trueno, despite driving a much more powerful car. An investigation into the identity of the driver leads to Bunta Fujiwara, Takumi's father. The Speedstars beg Bunta to help them defeat the RedSuns, and he initially refuses, later relenting to "maybe" show up at the race. At the same time, Takumi asks Bunta if he can borrow the car for a day to take a trip to the beach with a potential girlfriend, and Bunta seizes the moment by granting permission (plus a full tank of fuel) on the condition that Takumi defeats the Red Suns driver.
On the night of the race, the Trueno does not show up, and the Speedstars enlist a backup driver for the first run. At the last moment before the race starts, the Trueno arrives. Takumi steps out of the car to the bewilderment of the Speedstars, who were expecting Bunta. He easily defeats the Red Suns driver by utilizing a dangerous technique on the mountain road's hairpin corners.
The Red Suns' embarrassing defeat sets up the plot for the rest of the series: drivers from neighboring prefectures come to challenge Takumi and the "Legendary Eight-Six of Akina" and thus prove themselves as racers. Eventually, the plot moves away from Mount Akina as Takumi becomes bored with racing solely on that road. He joins an experimental racing team formed by the disbanded Red Suns and challenges more difficult opponents on their home courses in the pursuit of his dream to be "the fastest driver out there".

Review: 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 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.
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.
I haven't read any Initial D manga, and frankly, hadn't heard of it until a friend asked to watch this movie, thus cannot comment on the accuracy of the story.
When an unintentional race brings him to the notice of the racers, his life changes as he has to field numerous offers to actually see who is the best driver.Based on a Japanese comic and cartoon, Initial D is a live action Chinese film thats broken box office records across Asia.
I'm not sure if thats a good thing or a bad thing, but seeing how many fans of the source material are unhappy with the film I would say its a good thing.Flat out I liked this movie.
It's pretty fun to watch and you just have to wonder who the stunt men are or if they brought in Japanese drift legend, Tsuchiya on to the set for some of these shots.Unfortunately that's the only thing that is good about this movie.
In the movie, this character talks about how he's a racing god and when he loses and wrecks he asks his poor father to buy him an even faster car (GTR) so that he can rematch and wreck that one too.
If you're a fan of the anime don't expect to hear your favorite eurobeat tracks or Move songs.Overall I was bored, only paid attention during the races and got utterly perplexed by the ridiculous ending sequence where the people are celebrating.
Also I'd like to point out that not only is a 3 car race unfair, I've never seen a race with 3 cars in Initial D or any mountain race scene in any movie!Next time try not to squeeze so much crap in..
Based on a long running comic series by Shuuichi Shigeno, this all star cast Hong Kong movie puts on screen what's on the comic's volume 1-15 ( Part until Takumi joins Project D ).Takumi Fujiwara (Jay Chou) is a high school student who lives with his single father running a tofu shop.
The original comic states that the story is occurring sometime in the '90s time frame, and the cars appearing in this movie also reflects this fact.I wonder if China these days are following the Hollywood style casting that casts compatible astrological sun sign actors in the leading role.
The movie has a world of its own that's completely different from the TV anime series, and in some ways more exciting due to the interaction between the stars, and the actual driving that takes place on the road.
any movie you see with an all-star cast means only one thing; publicity without any depth in the film.While I applause the director's effort of trying to imitate some of the out of this world angles used in the animation, there is nothing in this film which suggests it has been properly written or related to the original drawings of the manga writer himself.An all star Hong Kong cast (except Anne Suzuki) + venue in Japan + actors and actresses speaking in 3 different languages (which eventually was dubbed) is weird enough and to spice up the ridiculous plot, the Hongkies made Takumi's father a drunk and a child abuser.
If I hadn't known better, I thought Itsuki Tachibana (Chapman To) was the lead because he was the loudest and the director paid too much time in his character developing which is totally unnecessary.I felt ashamed knowing I once admired the director and he screwed up such a beautiful and exciting story and the fact that I was a big Initial D fan didn't help.
Makes you think that the beats are just placed there as a requirement rather than a catalyst to the car races.Finally, would I recommend anyone to watch this film?
So when I heard that there was this movie (Initial D) about drift racing popular with Japanese teenagers and it had been adapted from the Manga story, I was interested, and courtesy of Moviesville, I got to see it.Movie The movie itself is good, it's quite comic in places which could be traced back to its Manga origins, and unfortunately this takes away from the story because it does present itself as having a serious underside.Something that surprised me about this movie is there isn't that much racing.
Mixing unusual camera angles, some CGI, and smooth stunt driving, you end up with every race scene being exciting and visually rich.The pace of the movie is quite back and forth.
It's understandable considering the group that the movie is aiming towards, but you can't help but feel a little bit of growing up could have been applied to the story.The romance thread is interesting, and brings a dimension to the character of Takumi.
Perhaps this was a deliberate move in order to retain the connection with the story's roots, but he just seems to get in the way of events.Jay Chou playing the lead of Takumi, don't have that much to say, and although this reflects a troubled teenager, it does quickly get grating and you can understand why his Father wants to kick him into action!Picture Presented: 2.35:1 The picture is very sharp and clear, this is particularly noticeable during the racing scenes which mainly occur at night.
It looks like a lot of work has gone into making this DVD look good.Audio Presented: DD5.1:EX \ DTS:ES During the racing the sounds are really good, you can hear the engines changing gears and over revving, and when the camera is near the car the LFE kicks in well.
They are there, you just have to watch rather than listen...unless of course you can speak Chinese.Overall It's an okay movie, but where it excels are in the racing scenes, superb drift racing which has been filmed really well using some interesting techniques, camera angles and a little CGI.
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.
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.
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..
The film has an impressive pedigree, being directed by the duo of Andrew Lau and Alan Mak, and written by Felix Chong, the trio having worked together previously on the mega hit (and soon to be Hollywood remade) "Infernal Affairs" trilogy.Based on the Japanese manga by Shuichi Shigeno, "Initial D" follows the (literally) downhill adventures of tofu delivery teen Takumi (Chou), who spends his school days in a daze about the flirty Natsuki (Anne Suzuki, "Returner"), his afternoons working at the gas station of best bud Itsuki (Chapman To), and his nights delivering tofu for his hard drinking (and narcoleptic, one presumes) dad Bunta (Anthony Wong).
Merely a "Jay Chou" star vehicle and a disappointment to both manga and racing fans.
France has had minimal success with Blood the Last Vampire and Even Japan has trouble making a anime adaptation that not only stays true to the original source but is a good movie in its own right(deathnote was very true to the original but turned out like a cheesy, convoluted B movie).With a cast of A list actors, a veteran director and the promise of a blockbuster hit that would satisfy all, Tau Man Ni D(initial D) looked to be the one to buck that trend.
It would have been a lot more believable to either set the story in hong kong or at least dub over the actors with a Japanese voice track.Even as a stand-alone story, barring any comparisons to the original manga and anime, Tau Man Ji D would still be a mediocre film.
It lacks the kinetic sense of energy that made other racing films like Fast and Furious: tokyo Drift such fun to watch.
They even tried to use CGI for one very obvious crash scene, but the crappy computer generated car looked very fake against the photo-realistic background.The only reason for Tau Man Ji D's possible success in Asia was the cast and Jay Chou.
Aside from Jay Chou fans, followers of the manga and lovers of good racing movies would do well to look elsewhere..
I personally think this movie is more a promotional tool for Jay Chou's new songs and for Pepsi.It is merely a shorter version of the original Initial D series.
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).
Despite (or maybe because of) all this, INITIAL D: DRIFT RACER turns out to be a very middling type of film, although it is a damn sight better than the most execrable the genre has to offer (SPEED RACER).Still, INITIAL D does deserve credit for making repeated scenes of cars racing on the same stretch of road throughout interesting, but the car chases are merely perfunctory and hardly the best thing about this.
The characters are far more realistic and their motivations more believable than in an average FAST AND FURIOUS film, for example.There are welcome supporting roles for Edison Chen and Shawn Yue, who at least have the movie star charisma that Chou lacks, and Anthony Wong is a welcome presence as ever in a comedic supporting role playing Chou's dad.
INITIAL D: DRIFT RACER is hardly a good film but it passes the time well enough for fans of Asian cinema, even if it is a film I'd never want to watch again..
Some changes are certainly questionable (Itsuki as the son comes to mind) but the removal of characters (Iketani, Keisuke, etc.) ensures that an uninitiated viewer wouldn't be overwhelmed or confused by some unnecessary characters.Most important, however, is that by placing emphasis on the parallels between the lives Bunta and Takumi, the movie has given Initial D a dramatic edge that may have been diluted in the long-running manga.
Without revealing too much, it suffices to say that the movie becomes a story of a Takumi realizing that the things he loves may not be able to co-exist, and whether he likes it or not he'll have to make the same choice his father made so many years ago.
Many fans were upset that the inclusion of the final scene was placed so far ahead of where it belongs in the original story, but in retrospect, it belongs exactly where it should.Of course, the movie is hardly perfect, and here are some of my biggest gripes as a hardcore Initial D fan:-The music has its nice moments but the soundtrack as a whole should have been played up more and given more consideration, as that is arguably one of the strongest aspects of the Anime.
Like It. I think this movie is good, it kinds of with Japan anime (surely because it is taken from Japan manga).
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 only way i could watch this movie to the end would be with a Japanese dub where i can at least make sense out of the characters.So my conclusion: Initial-D fans should never see this movie..
What makes it a bit unique is the simple fact its set in Japan, a very picturesque prefecture, it feels more realistic being in Japanese (subs) and the race sequences are gritty looking.In that sense the movie is better than its US counterparts (just like Tokyo Drift is the best of the 'FnF' franchise).
The movie ends on a bit of a flat note I think but other than that its a decent street racer flick which should satisfy anyone who likes this sort of thing.
Like most of the reviews said, the ONLY good thing about this movie was the driving and the cars.
The cars were also almost exactly modified and painted like the anime, which I thought was pretty impressive.As for the movie, they pretty much threw the first three stages of the anime in a blender, pureed it to a bloody pulp, farted in it a few times, then poured half of it in a cup and dumped it on a film reel.(Spoilers/Things that ruined the movie) They make Bunta a complete drunken good for nothing jerk, yet ends up showing up at one of Takumi's races..Somehow they found a way to make Itsuki even more annoying.Itsuki and Kioshiro are combined as one character and Yuichi (gas station boss) is his dad..Keisuke is written out of the script and replaced by Takeshi of the Night Kids..Kazumi (Itsuki's love) is a steady worker at the gas station..Kyoichi (Evo III driver) wrecks his car by driving off of Mt. Akina and crashes it similarly to the ending of Tokyo Drift..ALL the races take place on Akina..
This is based on the Manga comic book...I am a comic book fan but Manga is something I haven't quite become interested in, yet...I hope to read some very soon...Anyway..Takumi is a normal boy who one day accompanies his racer friend to a race...Takumi's friend loses horribly...Later that night, Takumi grabs his own car and beats the guy who beat his friend....Suddenly all the top racers want a piece of the ordinary boy who delivers tofu...I like the story...But I don't know how much is true to the comic...There was some humorous scenes that had me in stitches...But overall the film failed to excite me...The race scenes weren't very good..considering the quality of Hollywood race movies...(This is coming from someone who watches 'World Cinema' avidly)...I understand the need for the camera style and shots...and that they tried to bring a comic bookish style to the film but it just frustrated me...I kept thinking the DVD was freezing in places...LOL...I didn't see the need for Shawn Yue's character or Edison Chan's...The lead actor fails to show that burning passion that makes a driver ride fast and drift.....
they really should have rewrite the whole thing.BTW, the missing of Takashi Keiske is a major turn off too...---CONCLUSION--- I believe the Jay Chou fans would enjoy this movie just for the fact that he's the main character here.
i love the anime/manga, but i like the movie.
if you really really really like the anime/manga, don't expect too much, but if you haven't seen it, you'll probably really like the movie(if you like cars and not just ones that look cool)..
The other thing I watch is because it was based on the Anime "Initial D" and I really like that show too.
I recommend the people who haven't watch this movie should, because it will make you change your mind about Initial D because of the race they are so real.
Also i like the end when Takumi (Jay Chou) waits for his girlfriend and sees her coming out of the car with another guy and he now believes his friend hat told him about that.