Initial D

Year:2005
Director:Andrew Lau Wai-Keung, Alan Mak Siu-Fai
Cast:Jay Chou, Edison Chen, Anne Suzuki, Anthony Wong Chau-Sang, Chapman To Man-Chat, Shawn Yue, Jordan Chan Siu-Chun, Kenny Bee
Description:
Is there a more anticipated Hong Kong film in 2005
than Initial D? Ages in the making, this manga-to-screen
adaptation is a hype juggernaut that virtually guarantees
overblown expectations from a paying audience. Not
only is it based on a beloved anime/manga series with
fans all over the globe, but it's also the starring
film debut of superstar singer Jay Chou, and it's
directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak, two guys who
made some dinky film series called Infernal Affairs.
And besides, it arrives in the midst of Hong Kong's
worst year for cinema, both in number of releases
and actual film quality. Given the above, Initial
D is more than a movie, it's a potential savior.
If you're crossing your fingers, you're not alone.
Jay Chou is Takumi Fujiwara,
a high school student in Japan whose days are spent
working at a gas station and mumbling in a dopey manner.
He also quietly lusts after supreme jailbait classmate
Natsuki , and hangs with blowhard pal
Itsuki . Takumi doesn't look like a special
guy, but he does have a hidden talent: street racing,
and not just any street racing. Takumi uses an old
Toyota Trueno AE86 and clocks insane times on the
Mt. Akina downhill, all by applying the technique
of "drifting," i.e. skidding around corners
without losing much speed in the process . However, Takumi
does not own the mountain with his racing prowess;
instead, he uses his insane drifting skills to get
home as soon as possible after delivering tofu for
his dad Bunta . If Takumi smokes anyone
on the way home, it's just a coincidence.
That exact coincidence
leads to the eventual outing of Mt. Akina's hidden
racing god. Takeshi Nakazato , leader of
the Night Kids racing team, shows up at Takumi's workplace
looking to take on the "Akina Racing God,"
but unfortunately Itsuki claims the title, and subsequently
gets embarrassed on Mt. Akina's slopes. But after
Nakazato gets creamed by a returning-from-delivery
Takumi, he re-ups his challenge at the gas station...except
nobody seems to know who beat Nakazato. Takumi's too
busy acting morose and fantasizing about a potential
beach date with Natsuki to take up the challenge.
But Yuuichi , Itsuki's dad and Takumi's
boss at the gas station, knows that it was Takumi
behind the wheel, and pressures Bunta into getting
his son to race. Bunta offers to lend Takumi the car
for his date, as long as Takumi beats Nakazato in
his first "official" street race. Presto,
an illegal racing god is born, which leads to new
challengers, including Ryosuke Takahashi ,
the leader of the Red Suns racing team, and Kyoichi
Sudo , an actual racing professional
who takes on Takumi to avenge a buddy. Meanwhile,
Takumi ponders his future in a quiet, morose manner,
and the audience waits for the next CG-assisted car
race.
The appeal of the Initial
D manga/anime isn't hard to figure out. The copious
car detail is cool to amateur car tuners and enthusiasts,
but the story itself has a killer concept. Takumi's
status as an accidental racing god is an exceptionally
cool hook, and creator Shuichi Shigeno's initial stories
of how Takumi discovers his own racing prowess - and
how he soundly beats all the serious racers in the
vicinity - makes for fun and exhilarating storytelling
for anyone who likes an underdog story. Takumi is
an accidental genius: a racing god created by years
of incidental practice, and the filmmakers of the
live-action Initial D movie wisely spend plenty
of time detailing Takumi's entertaining origins. Screenwriter
Felix Chong gives
us plenty of buildup, establishing all the hows and
whys before Takumi ever begins racing. The effect
is two-fold: not only does the buildup add extra oomph
to Takumi's ultimate mastery of the downhill, but
it also creates the semblance of actual storytelling.
And as anyone who's seen a bunch of Hong Kong movies
will tell you, actual storytelling is pretty damn
rare.
Initial D is a very
faithful adaptation of the original source material,
which is great because it retains the original material's
inherent strengths, while hopefully pleasing core
fans. Unfortunately, the weaknesses of the original
manga get ported over too. Despite the cool origins
for Takumi, he's not a very compelling character,
and his taciturn ways are as frustrating as they are
supposedly cool. Jay Chou handles the part decently,
especially since it's a thankless role that only requires
an actor to act dopey, mopey, and borderline comatose
for a good portion of the film. Chou can handle dopey,
mopey, and comatose well, and the limitations of the
part even help disguise Chou's stilted Cantonese.
What Chou doesn't seem to be able to convey is the
character's anger, though the filmmakers don't spend
much time there either. Other than the more obvious
emoting , the characters are upstaged by the stylish
direction from Andrew Lau and Alan Mak, which bleeds
MTV-type sensibilities. If the filmmakers need an
emotion, they rarely turn to the actors, and instead
pour on the camera tricks and obvious music. It's
all very cool and even edgy, but there isn't a lot
of meat behind the freeze-frames, stutter-shots, and
montages set to even more Jay Chou music. This is
entertaining, but empty stuff.
Also problematic is
the actual racing in Initial D, which is known
for being incredibly cerebral, i.e. it involves more
than one guy just being faster than another. In the
manga/anime, actual understanding of the races is
gleamed via running commentary, voice-over, and explanations
by racing experts who are smoking about 30 miles from
where the race is actually taking place. Such storytelling
can stretch a 10 minute race out for 2-3 anime episodes,
or even a whole volume of manga. The filmmakers excise
much of this, which is great for the film's pacing
and visuals, but it also diminishes some of the actual
impact of the races. In the film, the clever tricks
that Takumi sometimes uses to win are made secondary
to the simple fact that he's supposed to win, which
doesn't prove as compelling as what occurs in the
manga/anime.
Granted, this is a media
difference; manga and anime have the luxury of time
to tell their stories, while a live-action movie has
to come in under 2 hours. This is actually a problem
shared by most racing movies, as the big things that
decide races - split-second decisions, detailed strategy,
and technical car stuff that Average Joe Moviegoer
would never understand - largely get ignored in favor
of blaring music, quick cars, and actors grinning
like idiots. Initial D manages to squeeze in
some of the cerebral stuff next to shots of cars whizzing
by, but even then the result is only perfunctory in
its excitement. The races in Initial D aren't
truly exhilarating, though your mileage could vary.
If shots of cars drifting around corners gets you
off, than Initial D is for you. Guaranteed.
The faithful approach
taken by the filmmakers eventually takes its toll,
too. After a period of time, the film seems less concerned
with telling a good story than clicking off some imaginary
checklist of what happened in the manga. This is especially
true with the character of Natsuki, whose story is
truncated in a disturbingly arbitrary manner. Anne
Suzuki gives Natsuki a youthful charm, but her character
is ultimately hung out to dry, a fact that's only
okay because it happened in the anime and manga, too.
Again, that's cool for fans, but the layman unfamiliar
with the complete story arcs to these characters could
find Initial D to be a cold experience.
However, the film has other
positives which help out. The cast largely works;
Anthony Wong and Kenny Bee are charismatic old pros
who bring plenty of fun to their parts, though Wong's
take on Bunta Fujiwara errs a bit on the cartoony
side. Third-billed Edison Chen is barely developed,
which is a shame as his character is integral to the
manga and anime. Still, Chen brings some charisma
to his role, while Shawn Yue and Jordan Chan do more
with their slight screentime than most actors probably
could. Chapman To does the impossible: he makes you
believe that he's playing a high school kid. And the
production is exceptionally impressive. For big-budget
summer fare, Initial D fits the bill quite
nicely. It doesn't challenge or truly involve, but
it's 110 minutes of easily digestible youth drama
and slick racing fun. Undemanding audiences - and
even those with some inkling of quality cinema - will
likely be pleased.
Still, Initial D
is so loaded with expectations that it could still
disappoint a great many. Despite the big-budget flash,
the film doesn't amaze and astound - and those expecting
big things from Messrs. Lau and Mak are sure to be
unhappy, because Initial D does nothing to
approach the watershed in Hong Kong commercial cinema
that was the Infernal Affairs films. If anything,
Initial D is closer to The Storm Riders
than Infernal
Affairs . It's not even Kung Fu Hustle,
as that film managed to surprise and even charm between
egregious displays of its big budget muscles. Initial
D possesses neither charm nor surprise, though
it does manage to be better constructed than 90% of
what comes out of Hong Kong these days. And its subject
matter and cast will probably not draw older viewers,
meaning Initial D might not destroy the bank
like some people might expect it to. So, it may not
be a savior. But for an engaging, entertaining time
at the movies, Initial D meets expectations...provided
you didn't set yours way too high.