This was the third film in the non-stop high octane franchise full of cool and fast cars racing and chasing each other, including lots of action and some stunts along the way, directed by Justin Lin (Fast & Furious, Fast Five, Fast & Furious 6). Basically Sean Boswell (Jarhead's Lucas Black) is a teenager and school student in Alabama who has got into trouble too often and has a record for illegal high speed street racing, so his mother sends him to live with his father, U.S. Navy Lieutenant Boswell (Brian Goodman) in Tokyo, Japan to avoid time in prison. Sean ends up in a cramped apartment in a low-rent section of the city, in his new school he befriends fellow American and "military brat" Twinkie (rapper Shad 'Bow Wow' Moss) who introduces him to the world of the drift racing scene in Japan. Though forbidden from driving, Sean competes in deadly speed races with heart stopping courses of hairpin turns and switchbacks, taking on "Drift King" D.K. (Austin Powers in Goldmember's Brian Tee), who has connections to Japanese organised crime syndicate the Yakuza. Sean grows in presence and his talent for drifting, but he is getting close to the Japanese mafia, thousands of dollars are coming into play, but also his life is in stake, eventually he is able to escape the crime underworld, and allowed to stay in the country to continue his passion for racing. Also starring Sung Kang as Han, Nathalie Kelley as Neela, Zachery Ty Bryan as Clay, Caroline de Souza Correa as Isabella, Keiko Kitagawa as Reiko, Shin'ichi Chiba / JJ Sonny Chiba as Uncle Kamata and a cameo from Vin Diesel as Dominic Toretto. This is the only film of the franchise without either Diesel or Paul Walker, so it feels odd, but Black is reasonably good as the bad boy teenager influenced by the drifting craze, the rest of the cast are fine as well I suppose. To be honest, the storyline going on is not the thing to pay the fullest attention to, it is the pedal-to-the-metal stuff, all the colourful and cool cars fuelled up, with extra rocket boosters and switches, that speed and crash their way around, and the explosions and stunts along the way keep the pace up as well, it taking place in Tokyo only adds loads of neon light filled sequences, it slows down mid way and only picks up a little towards the end, but all in all it's an alright action thriller. Worth watching!
