Tokyo Drift

We've all seen it under the special features menu of almost every DVD; the behind the scenes reel--an especially boring part of the DVD that is only highlighted by bloopers, if anything. But the feeling is quite different when you are behind the scenes firsthand. The view is electrifying and the moment is surreal.

Six city blocks of downtown Los Angeles were closed down during the one night Universal invited us to the set of the latest installment of The Fast and The Furious series, entitled The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift. They transformed the usually quiet and dark downtown into a light-filled replica of a Japanese city, complete with beaming vending machines and Japanese street signs. On this particular night, they were shooting a scene where a famous American drifter, Rhys Millen, is blowing rubber around another drift car with precision drifting circles."Wow, that's perfect!" says one of the producers, followed by the sound of clapping from the cast and crew. It was the first take of many, trying to capture the perfect angle and sound of the drifting car. This moment was just a minute part of the movie making process that took the cast and crew from Japan to Southern California.

According to the insiders, this third version will differ vastly from its first two counterparts. The storyline is deeper and the action is more realistic, which basically means there won't be flying Supras going across the big screen. Also, it will focus on racing that hasn't yet caught the eyes and ears of mainstream America, and on June 16th, everyone will find out what drifting is all about.Starring Lucas Black (Friday Night Lights) and rapper Bow Wow, Tokyo Drift will center on the sliding art form. The story revolves around Lucas' character, a vagrant who is sent out of the country to live with his military father in Japan. He subsequently loses a race with drifters that have ties to the Japanese mafia and needs money to pay off his debts. As he attempts to gain money through drifting, he meets other drifters, played by such well-known racers as the Drift King, Keiichi Tsuchiya.

The cars in the movie are more subtle than the other movies--real-wheel drift cars that seem to have the balls to back up what they're doing. More importantly, they aren't adorned with ridiculously superfluous stickers. The most prominent models they used throughout the movie were the Nissan 350Z and Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, which was treated to a rear-wheel drive conversion. The one major car that received heavy fabrication was a 1967 Ford Mustang which was outfitted with an RB26DETT. All in all, approximately 200 cars were used in the making of the film.

Justin Lin, director of the all-Asian American film Better Luck Tomorrow, headed the movie. He also hand picked all the cars chosen for the film, which he said was crucial to make the film as authentic as possible. Lin wanted to make sure that the movie doesn't sell out like the others and will appeal to both newbies and hardcore drifting fans alike.

It seems this third installment will be much better than the first two. There won't be any big actors stealing the scenes (Paul Walker and Vin Diesel), rather, straight-out drifting will be the only focus.