Initial D Movie 【PREMIUM 2024】

The AE86 may be old, but the legend never fades.

What the Initial D movie does better than almost any other racing film is capture the loneliness of driving. There are long shots of the AE86’s headlights cutting through the fog, the interior lit only by the green glow of the dashboard, Takumi alone with his thoughts and the road. That meditative quality—the reason we love driving at night—is something the anime touched on, but the movie, through its widescreen cinematography, perfectly embodies. Is the 2005 Initial D movie a great film? No. The dialogue is occasionally stilted, the romance subplot feels rushed, and Jay Chou’s inexperience shows in emotional scenes. But is it a great adaptation ? Yes, and a deeply sincere one. Initial D movie

So, when Hong Kong directing duo Andrew Lau and Alan Mak (fresh off the first Infernal Affairs film, which would later be remade by Scorsese as The Departed ) announced a live-action Initial D movie in 2005, the world held its breath. Would it be a glorious tribute or a cringe-worthy cash grab? The answer, surprisingly, was somewhere in between—a flawed, charming, and unexpectedly successful adaptation that deserves a second look nearly two decades later. The movie wisely avoids trying to condense the entire manga series. Instead, it focuses almost exclusively on the "First Stage" arc. Takumi Fujiwara (played by Jay Chou, in his second film role) is a quiet, disaffected high school senior who works at a gas station and harbors a secret: for five years, he has been driving his father Bunta’s old Toyota Sprinter Trueno AE86 up and down Mt. Akina to deliver tofu. Without realizing it, he has mastered the art of drifting—transferring the weight of the car to slide through hairpin turns at impossible speeds. The AE86 may be old, but the legend never fades

The sound design, too, deserves praise. The high-strung wail of Keisuke’s rotary engine versus the gutty, rev-happy 4A-GEU engine of the AE86 is as distinct as a fingerprint. Purists had complaints. The movie omits several racers (like Shingo Shoji and his "Gumtape Deathmatch"), simplifies the technical explanations, and changes the outcome of the final race. Most controversially, it alters Natsuki’s backstory. In the anime, her "compensated dating" (enjo kosai) is a dark, uncomfortable subplot. The movie softens this into her simply having an affair with a wealthy older man, making her a more sympathetic but less complex character. That meditative quality—the reason we love driving at

The catalyst for change arrives in the form of Keisuke Takahashi (Shinji Kasahara), a cocky RedSuns driver in a yellow Mazda RX-7 FD. When Keisuke is humiliated by the seemingly slow, boxy AE86, the local street racing world takes notice. Takumi is reluctantly pulled into the underground world of "gunma racing," defeating rival after rival: the turbocharged Nissan Silvia S13 of Takeshi Nakazato, the sophisticated Altezza of Kyoichi Sudo, and finally, a rain-soaked rematch with Keisuke’s brother, Ryosuke (Takeshi Kaneshiro).

The supporting cast, however, is stacked with Hong Kong cinema royalty. Anthony Wong as Bunta Fujiwara is a revelation. He sheds the cartoonish drunkard trope from the anime and plays Bunta as a weary, brilliant, and emotionally stunted father. His quiet pride during the final race, conveyed through a single cigarette and a half-smile, is masterful.