[matchgrade]

I just saw the live action Initial D at the theater in Taiwan with dball33. It was dubbed in Mandarin with English onscreen subtitles; the original is in Cantonese. It's not too bad, but they crammed Stages 1-3 into 2 hours and everything suffers of course. {edit} in retrospect there were actually a lot of "what the HELL??" moments.

It's a star vehicle for one of Taiwan's biggest music stars, Jay Chou...unfortunately he can't act. If you've seen Infernal Affairs, you'll recognize some of the other stars. If you haven't seen Infernal (not internal) Affairs...rent it...it's good and a black R33 GT-R Skyline makes a brief appearance. It's being remade by Scorsese with DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, and Matt Damon.

Anyway, I can give yall some facts about the movie and you guys decide. I must say it's weird that it's set in Japan but all the actors speak in Chinese. If you don't like spoilers, don't read any further.

The movie is set in Japan, shot on location on Mt. Haruna aka Akina. Akina is actually the mountain's nickname. The new Itsuki character is a combination of the original Itsuki, Iketani, and Kenji, drives Iketani's lime S13 Silvia, and later buys his own AE86 too (not an AE85) in which Takumi beats the white Evo. Itsuki's dad owns the gas station that they all work at.

Bunta is an alcoholic father whose wife ditched him, beats his son, and visits hostess bars, and there's only one Takahashi in the film: Ryosuke, driving the white FC. Nakazato with the black R32 GT-R is also in the film and is beaten by Takumi of course :P. It's interesting to see the GT-R actually drifting in the turns with visible countersteer. The Natsuki subplot with her Benz-driving "papa" remains in the storyline. The guy seems to own at least two Mercedes...a new E-class and an older S-class.

The AE86 does blow its engine and have a 20-valve put in, causing everyone riding shotgun in the "reborn 86" to spew chunks...literally and quite disgustingly.

The gutter trick shows up at least twice, including in the last race which is between Fujiwara, Takahashi, and the Emperor's Sudoh in the black Evo (all three at the same time!?). Ryosuke actually blocks the Evo for Takumi, calling it a "race strategy," after which the Evo flys off the course and lands upside down. All in all, a good two hours of silly entertainment. The driving scenes were actually quite decently filmed and were performed by lower ranking D1 drivers.

Funny how Takumi is first shocked that it took a long time--"a WHOLE 1 month" for Bunta just to find the right suspension for the AE86, but later Ryosuke says that Bunta took so little time to tune the suspension, he must have been a genius.