Chapter one brought to the screen the underground world of American muscle cars and dangerous street racing from the City of Angels.
Chapter two told a tale of Miami money laundering, redemption and the latest sleek racers available to men with fortunes to burn.
Now, the newest and fastest customized rides go head-to-head on some of the world's most perilous courses in the latest instalment of the adrenaline-spiking series built on speed - The Fast and the furious: Tokyo drift.
Welcome to the sexy, forbidden and hyperkinetic underground of Tokyo, where the latest trend to emerge from Japan is taking over the world....
Following in the tracks of its predecessors, The Fast and the furious: Tokyo drift presents the hottest chapter yet in the popular series that has accumulated more than $443 million at the worldwide box office.
Taking racing out of the States and into the post-modern city of Tokyo, Japan, Tokyo drift brings moviegoers to a sport that simultaneously assaults the senses and delivers daredevil thrills.
Drifting is a distinctly Japanese style of driving, which defines a new type of driver whose technique must blend effortlessly with daring speed, where control in the realm of no control is more important than crossing the finish line first.
Although street racing provides an escape from an unhappy home and the superficial world around him, for outsider Sean Boswell (LUCAS BLACK, Friday Night Lights), his reckless involvement in the sport has made him very unpopular with the local authorities.
After one crash too many - and to avoid jail time - Sean is sent to live with his gruff, estranged father, a career military man stationed in Tokyo.
Now officially a gaijin (outsider), Sean feels even more shut out in a land of foreign customs and codes of honour.
But after a fellow American buddy, Twinkie (BOW WOW, Johnson Family Vacation), introduces him to the underground world of drift racing - an exhilarating balance of speeding and gliding through a heart-stopping course of hairpin turns and switchbacks - he's hooked again, and back in trouble.
Simple drag racing is replaced by a new, rubber-burning automotive art form... just bad enough to fit Sean's rebel style.
On his first time out drifting, Sean unknowingly takes on DK (BRIAN TEE, Fun with Dick and Jane), the "Drift King", a local champ with ties to the Japanese crime syndicate Yakuza.
Sean's loss comes with a high price tag when he's forced to work off the debt under the thumb of another ex-pat named Han (SUNG KANG, Better Luck Tomorrow).
Han soon welcomes Sean into his family of misfits and introduces him to the real principles of drifting. Whether for pink slips, wads of cash or bragging rights, the stakes remain high for Sean and his competition... as they learn to elevate the race itself to an art form.
They will take cutting-edge, modified racers to the densely populated streets of Tokyo's urban landscape at neck-snapping speeds then smoothly glide through tight hairpin turns punctuated by screeches and the acrid smell of smoking rubber.
But when Sean falls for DK's girlfriend, Neela (newcomer NATHALIE KELLEY), an explosive series of events is set into motion, climaxing with an ultimate high-stakes face-off against his nemesis. Punishment for the loser? Banishment from Tokyo forever by Yakuza crime boss - and DK's uncle - Kamata (the legendary SONNY CHIBA, Kill Bill: Vol. 1)... if they survive the race at all.
Honour will be challenged and racing skills will be pushed to the extreme... with only one winner standing as champion in The Fast and the furious: Tokyo drift.
KEY CREATIVE CREW:
Director: JUSTIN LIN (Better Luck Tomorrow)
Writer: CHRIS MORGAN (Cellular).
Producer: NEAL H MORITZ (The Fast and the Furious franchise)
Executive Producer: CLAYTON TOWNSEND (The 40-Year-Old Virgin).
DOP: STEPHEN F WINDON (The Patriot)
Production Designer: IDA RANDOM (A Man Apart).
Editor: FRED RASKIN (Annapolis) & KELLY MATSUMOTO (Meet the Fockers)
Costume Designer: SANJA MILKOVIC HAYS (The Fast and the Furious franchise).
Music: BRIAN TYLER (Constantine).
INTERESTING TITBITS
INTERESTING TITBITS
* Drifting originated on the mountains and canyons of rural Japan. Young drivers, usually driving late at night, sped along the dark roads with the tail ends of their cars sliding through cliff-side turns.
* Almost 15 years ago, Keiichi Tsuchiya, the drifto emeritus of Japan's racing community and the supervising technical consultant on The Fast and the furious: Tokyo drift was the first to incorporate and perfect drifting into his driving style on Japan's race circuit. Subsequently, he earned back-to-back championship titles and the enduring sobriquet of "Drift King".
* For one street chase scene, 6 whole city blocks of downtown LA was transformed by the Design team into Tokyo's Shinbuya district. Street signs, buildings, newsstands, restaurants and bus stops, replete with Japanese kanji to identify them, were splayed over three city blocks. Apparently, this created a bit of confusion among Japanese tourists who stumbled on the film set.
* Apparently 2000 of the 4000 tyres donated by Toyota were used during filming. Volkswagen donated 170 wheels.
* It is reported that over 100 cars were wrecked in the making of this movie.
