The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.35:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. This became a good but not great presentation.
Though sharpness usually worked well, some exceptions occurred. This stemmed partly from light edge haloes that I saw at times, and wider shots could be a bit on the soft side.
Still, most of the movie provided appropriate delineation, and I witnessed no signs of jaggies or moiré effects. Print flaws also failed to create distractions here.
Shot Super 35, the image exhibited appropriate grain at times. However, interiors could feel a bit smoothed out, so I suspect some noise reduction in play for those.
The movie’s palette focused on a heavy teal orientation. Other hues cropped up as well – with some orange and ambers along for the ride - but blue/green dominated.
Though this felt like an oppressive choice, the Blu-ray reproduced the colors appropriately. The disc’s HDR added some zing to the hues as well.
Blacks were fairly deep and dense, and shadow showed pretty good clarity, though some interiors could seem a little murky. HDR contributed nice impact to whites and contrast. In the end, this became a mainly positive picture, though one that came with some issues.
Downconverted to DTS-HD MA 7.1, the movie’s DTS X soundtrack boasted more consistent pleasures, as the mix made solid use of the many driving scenes. In those, the side and rear speakers became active partners and placed us amidst the revved-up road action. All of these elements combined to form a smooth, involving soundscape.
Audio quality also worked well, with concise, distinctive speech. Music showed great range and effects offered accurate, dynamic material that kicked out strong low-end. I felt pretty happy with this active soundtrack.
How did the 4K UHD compare to the Blu-ray version? The DTS X audio showed a bit more involvement, though the 5.1 mix from the Blu-ray worked so well that we didn’t find much room for growth.
As for the visuals, the 4K felt better defined and offered more vibrant colors. Though it came with drawbacks, the 4K fared better than the Blu-ray.
Only one extra appears on the 4K disc: an audio commentary from director Justin Lin. He presents a running, screen-specific look at music, cast and performances, locations and shooting in Tokyo, cars, stunts and action, effects, visual design, and related areas.
Lin gives us a perfectly competent commentary. While he never threatens to make this a truly insightful piece, he manages to offer a good array of notes. All of these mean Lin turns this into a listenable – if somewhat mediocre – discussion.
Additional features show up on the included Blu-ray copy.
Like many Universal titles, Drift includes the interactive U-Control.
In this case, it breaks into four categories. “Storyboards” appear four times during the film and show the expected art in the upper left part of the screen. They’re a decent addition.
Less useful, “GPS” shows up four times and offers a small visual aid in the upper right corner of the screen. It lets you see the locations of various drivers on a map. It’s too small to give us a useful viewpoint – and would probably lack much value even at a bigger size.
Another mediocre feature, “Tech Specs” pops up seven times throughout the film and offers basics about the cars, with an emphasis on repair costs. This makes it more of an ad for the insurance company that sponsors it that a helpful piece.
Finally, “U-Control” includes “Picture in Picture”. This mixes shots from the set with comments from Lin, writer Alfredo Botello, picture car coordinator Dennis McCarthy, director of photography Stephen Windom, producer Neal Moritz, technical consultant Toshi Hayama, 2nd unit director/stunt coordinator Terry Leonard, lead stunt driver Rhys Millen, stunt driver Tanner Foust, and actors Nathalie Kelley, Lucas Black, Leonardo Nam, Brian Tee, Bow Wow, Jason J. Tobin and Sung Kang.
“PiP” looks at story/characters, cast and performances, cars, stunts and action, sets and locations, visual design, and related subjects.
Most of these “U-Control” PiP features only give us occasional video clips, but this one differs, as footage/interviews appear during virtually the entire film. That makes me happy, as the constant presence of information avoids the frustration factor we usually discover.
As for the quality of the material, it’s perfectly okay. Much of it tends to feel less than substantial, so I can’t claim we learn a ton of great notes – especially because a lot of the info already appears in Lin’s commentary.
Still, we find many glimpses the shoot, and I always enjoy that sort of footage. While not great, this does become a better than average PiP track.
Many featurettes pop up here, and we open with Making of the Fast Franchise. It goes for 17 minutes, two seconds and offers info from Moritz, Black, Lin, Foust, Kelley, Leonard, Hayama, Bow Wow, Kang, filmmakers Rob Cohen and John Singleton, and actors Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Eva Mendes, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges and Tyrese Gibson.
“Making” offers some basics about the first four Fast movies, one that remains heavy on hype and low on information. It’s a fluffy waste of time.
During the one-hour A Sideways Craze, we hear from drift racers Samuel Hubinette, Ken Gushi, Tsukasa Gushi, and Alex Corstorphine, Alex’s dad Evan, “Drift Day” co-founder Naoki Kobayashi, and model/professional drifter Tyson Beckford.
“Craze” gives us a look at drift racing and its professional circuit. We get a decent view of this scene, but “Craze” feels more like an over-amped fan video than an in-depth take on the topic.
With Drifting School, we find a seven-minute, 35-second piece with Tee, Black, Lin, Millen, Bow Wow, Kelley, and actor Zachery Ty Bryan. As expected, this one discusses the actors’ driving training. As usual, a few nuggets emerge but most of “School” offers praise and puffery.
After this we get Cast Cam. This four-minute, 19-second reel shows actor-shot footage from the set. It’s silly and forgettable.
The Big Breakdown lasts eight minutes, 26 seconds and involves Lin, Windon, Leonard, and Millen. “Breakdown” offers specifics about the shooting of one particular scene. It gives us good info and becomes one of the disc’s better featurettes.
Up next we find Tricked Out to Drift, an 11-minute reel with McCarthy, Kang, Lin, Black, Leonard, Millen, Bow Wow, Tee, Foust, Hayama and Kelley. “Drift” examines some of the movie’s cars and turns into a moderately engaging featurette.
In a similar vein, Welcome to Drifting goes for six minutes, 17 seconds and involves Lin, Kelley, Hayama, Leonard, Foust, Millen, and Bow Wow. As expected, this one tells us more about the drifting techniques. It complements the other shows fairly well.
During the three-minute, 38-second The Real Drift King, we hear from Leonard, Lin and stunt driver Keiichi Tsuchiya. We learn a little about Tsuchiya and see his work in the film but we don’t learn much from the short featurette.
Finally, The Japanese Way takes up nine minutes, 45 seconds with notes from Lin, Tee, Black, Leonard, Kelley, Windon, costume designer Sanja Hayes, Japanese translator Michi Ukawa, 1st AD (Japan) Taniguchi Masayaki, production assistant Jimmy Tagashi, and 1st AD Gary Marcus. “Way” explores aspects of shooting in Japan, and it does so in a reasonably concise manner.
11 Deleted Scenes fill a total of 18 minutes, 16 seconds. These tend to offer minor character beats and extra exposition. Some of these connect a few dots, but I can’t claim we find anything substantial here.
We can view the scenes with or without commentary from Lin. He tells us a little about the clips and why they didn’t make the final cut. Lin delivers some useful notes.
Custom-Made Drifter provides an interactive domain. It lets you modify a racecar and then see it integrated into a short movie scene. It’s not exactly fascinating, but I admit the CG car you assemble fits into the film better than expected.
The package concludes with two Music Videos. We get clips for Don Omar’s “Conteo” and Far*East Movement’s “Round Round”. Both offer low-budget affairs that mix movie footage with lip-synch performances and sexy women. The songs and videos seem forgettable at best.
With a new cast and setting, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift boasted the potential to revive the franchise. Unfortunately, it flopped due to stale characters and situations, none of which the action scenes could redeem. The 4K UHD brings us moderately good picture and exciting audio along with a long but somewhat superficial set of supplements. I don’t know if Drift is the weakest Furious flick, but it lacks much to make it memorable.
To rate this film, visit the original review of TOKYO DRIFT
