The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)

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Synopsis

Sean Boswell, a troubled teen living nomadically due to his troubles with the law, specifically illegal street racing, finds himself in trouble once again, this time with Clay, a rich kid football player whom Sean challenges to a race after Clay throws a brick at the rear window of Sean's Monte Carlo. The winner of the race "gets" Cindy, Clay's girlfriend -- the cause of the confrontation in the first place.

Sean, Clay, and many other students meet at a constructing neighborhood to race. While Clay's Dodge Viper takes the early lead, not without the help of a little dirty driving, Sean and his Monte Carlo soon catches up, which angers Cindy who challenges Clay by saying "I thought you love me!" Angry, Clay rams Sean's car, flipping it while crashing his car and nearly killing all of them.

At the police station an officer expresses to Sean that he has crushed his Monte Carlo, and because of Clay's and Cindy's parents they would be let go without a slap on the wrist; while Sean and his long criminal record would have to pay for his mishaps. Sean's mother manages to plea a deal on Sean's behalf with the justice system: Sean would be free to go as long as he moved to Tokyo, Japan, with his father, a Navy veteran.

Sean arrives in Tokyo to a confused father who has lost track of the date, and gets settled into his father's tiny house where the rooms are no bigger than the average American closet. The next morning Sean awakens to find a note from his father telling him that the bus for school leaves at 7:00 AM. Sean then makes a scene when he arrives at his new school in his street shoes instead of changing into the Japanese slipper, "wabaki". Embarrassed and angry, Sean alienates himself from the rest of the students at school, until Twinkie, a military brat, approaches Sean at lunch trying to hustle a pair of new Air Jordans. While Twinkie pitches his sell, Sean notices a detatched racing wheel on Twinkie's backpack. Instantly intrigued, Sean asks the price of the wheel only to be denied business because it is Twinkie's personal steering wheel. Now even more intrigued, Sean is taken to a parking garage on the street to see Twinkie's car, which to Sean's surprise is not a tuner, but rather a hatchback (distastefully) customized to look like the Incredible Hulk.

D.K. and Neela

Having quickly become friends, Twinkie invites Sean to a large multi-story parking structure where dozens of the local youth flock to race, dance, meet girls or boys, but most of all, show off their tricked out cars. There, Sean quickly spots Neela, a girl who giggled flirtatiously at him during class the same day. But little does Sean know that Neela's boyfriend, D.K., is just a few feet away, and soon swoops in to tell Sean to run along to a place where he belongs. The two then buck up only to decide to finish their dispute with a race. Han, one of D.K's future associates, allows Sean to borrow his car to "see what he's got." Having stubbornly accepted the race, Sean is alerted by Twinkie that D.K. has connections to the Yakuza -- his uncle is a local boss -- and he is given a quick lesson on how to drift -- a key component to the Tokyo race scene..

The race begins and Sean speeds past D.K. only to realize the sharp turn ahead. Remembering his quick tutorial, Sean pulls the E-Brake hard, failing miserably. Due to his lack of skill, D.K. is able to easily and cockily win the race while Sean has horribly wrecked Han's car. In order to pay off the damages Sean must come to work for Han running errands and collecting money from Han's associates. Sean accepts the duties in return for drifing lessons from Han. At the same time, Sean's father is becoming warry of Sean's late nights and confronts him about racing and blatantly says that if Sean is racing he will be kicked out of the house and sent back to the states. Sean instead decides to leave voluntarily to live in Han's loft where he slowly begins to learn the ways of Japanese racing and also begins to earn a reputation in local scene. He also befriends Neela, who reveals that she too was once a gaijin, or outsider. D.K. soon finds out about their time together and budding romance, and shows up at the docks to beat Sean and warn him to stay away from Neela.

D.K. and Han go head to head

Later, D.K. is confronted by his Uncle Kamata, the Yakuza boss, about discrepancies in the books, accusing Han of stealing from them. In order to earn his uncle's respect, D.K. and his thugs storm Han's loft with guns, threataning the lives of Han and the others. Han, Sean, and Neela are able to flee from the scene with D.K. in pursuit. Sean and Neela are able to get away from the thug chasing them while Han is rammed into and flipped by D.K. Sean soon arrives on the scene only to see Han's car explode into flames.

In grief, and with nowhere to go, Sean and Neela go to his father for shelter, only to be met there by D.K., who pulls a pistol on them and orders Neela to get in the car with him. Then, when it seems there is no hope for Sean, his father appears with a gun pointed at D.K., who decides to leave the premises with Neela in tow. After D.K. has left, Sean's father orders him to get on a plane and leave the country. Eventually Sean convinces his father to let him stay by saying: "It's my mess, I have to clean it up."

Sean's Mustang

With no where else to turn, Sean approaches Kamata with a proposition to settle his and D.K.'s feud -- a race. The winner would stay while the loser would leave the city. Kamata agrees much to D.K.'s chagrin. With no car to drive, Sean and his friends enter Han's garage to find a suitable engine in the Nissan RX-8 that Sean had wrecked during his first race in Tokyo. Knowing that his father has a vintage Mustang body in his garage that he had been working on for the past few years, he takes and engine and successfully tunes it to run with a classic Mustang's body. Sean practices to perfect drifting with an American mucsle car while his crew constantly tweaks, polishes and perfects the inner and outer workings of the car.

Once the car is ready, Sean and D.K. meet up to race in the mountains, the ultimate drifting terrain, with the Yakuza and Sean's friends there to spectate. The spectators are able to use cell phone footage shot from every angle of the track to watch the race in real time, grimacing at every turn and close call. After many lead changes and high contact racing, Sean is able to drift D.K. off of a cliff while nearing the finish line. Cleanly in first place, and only feet from the finish, D.K's car comes pummleing down the cliff nearly smashins Sean's car. While D.K. survives, it's not without injury and embarrassment. Although upset by the outcome, Kamata holds up his end of the deal, and Sean is able to stay in Tokyo, and is crowned the new drift king.

Not long after the climactic race, Sean and Neela are shown hanging out at the old parking garage, where it all started, when Twinkie arrives to alert Sean that he has been challanged to a race. At first Sean declines until Twinkie tells him that the challanger was a friend of Han's. Sean accepts and pulls up to the starting line to reveal that the challanger is none other than Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel). Neela counts off the race and the two cars race off around the first corner.

Place in Franchise

Despite being released before 2009's Fast and Furious, Tokyo Drift -- the third film released in the franchise -- is actually set before the events of the fourth film. It is only tied into the main series in some very loose ways. Specifically, the character Han has history with Vin Diesel's character, which is referenced near the end of Tokyo Drift and shown in somewhat greater detail during the opening scenes of 2009's Fast and Furious.