INITIAL D: DRIFTRACER

Year: 2005
UK: Contender Entertainment Group
Cast: Jay Chou, Edison Chen, Anthony Wong, Anne Suzuki, Shawn Yue, Chapman To, Jordan Chan, Kenny Bee, Kazuyuki Tsumura
Directors: Andrew Lau, Alan Mak
Countries: China / Hong Kong
Language: Cantonese (English subtitles)
UK: 109 mins
UK Certificate: 12A contains car racing action and moderate language
UK Release Date: 12 May 2006

Synopsis

Based on the hugely popular Manga comic by Shuichi Shigeno and adapted by Felix Chong, INITIAL D: DRIFTRACER is directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak - together the filmmaking trio responsible for the phenomenally successful INFERNAL AFFAIRS trilogy. Already a massive box office success in Hong Kong, where it grossed more than WAR OF THE WORLDS and BATMAN BEGINS combined, INITIAL D: DRIFTRACER is one of the most highly anticipated Asian films to be released in recent years.

The "D" in the title stands for 'drifting', a motor racing technique of putting a car into a controlled slide around bends without losing any speed. It is a technique used to great effect by the Night Kids, an illegal street racing team who are keen to pit their skills against the mysterious "Akina Racing God", a driver who has unwittingly perfected the art of drifting around the notorious and deadly hairpin bends of Mount Akina.

Unknown to everybody, including himself, the mystery driver is actually a teenage student named Takumi (played by Taiwanese heart throb Jay Chou), who uses drifting merely as an insanely high-speed method of returning home after delivering tofu for his father's takeaway business. Uninterested in racing, Takumi is more concerned in pursuing his relationship with a cute fellow student, Natsuki (Anne Suzuki). But when his identity as the racing god's is eventually revealed, Takumi is convinced by his father, himself a former racing driver, to take part in a series of perilous illegal downhill races. For Takumi the adrenaline and fame soon become irresistible as he accelerates towards a full-throttle three-way showdown against the best of the best.

Super-stylish, super-slick and packed with edge-of-the-seat racing sequences, where real drift racers were employed to make the stunts as realistic as possible INITIAL D is a highly entertaining thrill-ride action movie guaranteed to enthral car enthusiasts, petrolheads and Asian cinema aficionados alike with specially composed music by street bass and auto styling experts 'Fuel'.