After some consideration, I decided to give the "Initial D" live action movie - adapted from the much-revered Japanese manga/anime series by Shuuichi Shigeno - a try, and being a fan, my expectations were understandably quite high [for the movie to do the original series justice]. Let's just say I was not impressed with the movie although I must give some credit to the stunt drivers for some of the racing scenes... NOTE: I watched the Mandarin-dubbed version, so I did not experience the original Cantonese speech. Here's my quick rant of some actors' performances/directions, followed by general comments about the adaptation:
- Jay Chou, playing Fujiwara Takumi, our lead protagonist. Jay worked hard to capture that "bo-chup" (simply don't care) and "blur" look that made Takumi so famous while he negotiates the bends of Mt. Akina. BUT he sometimes just comes across as trying too hard, and he seems to be a little uncomfortable (which is understandable for the Taiwanese singer in his first leading role, and this movie is shot entirely in Cantonese dialogue!)... More to be said about his chemistry with actress Anne Suzuki later.
- Anthony Wong, playing Fujiwara Bunta, the supposed "God of Mt. Akina's curves". In the anime, Bunta was the strong and silent driving force behind Takumi's skill and abilities. He smokes, quietly makes his Tofu (their family's main source of income) and gives Takumi advice whenever he observes something new about driving or cars. Why... WHY did they decide to make Bunta's character a drunk/alcoholic and child beater?! I still wonder what went on in the minds of the two moronic directors (Alan and Andrew f--kin' something)... You... DO NOT... MESS with BUNTA! Once I saw Anthony passed out on the floor in the first Bunta scene, I was like, "Oh frickin' gawd... they did NOT do this!" The movie just started, and I was ALREADY pissed and disappointed. Movie gets major negative points for this totally uncalled for change of character dynamics.
- Anne Suzuki plays Natsuki Mogi, Takumi's love interest and part-time Enjo Kosai escort. Acting wise, she does the cute thing just fine. But there was little chemistry between Jay and Anne, aside from some indications of puppy love, I felt nothing deeper. Plus, in the anime/manga, it was never clearly stated how far (sexually) she went with her "Papa" (Mr Benz ;) ... the readers/viewers were expected to draw their own conclusions. But in the movie the directors decided to make the decision for us, and so -ba-da-bing- Mogi is a whore. Rrright. Let's see if there is (Gawd forbid) a sequel to this Live movie, how would they recover from this fiasco.
- Chapman To takes on the resident clown role, as Itsuki Takeuchi. This casting choice hit hard on several aspects. (1) Chapman is way too old to play the loud and goofy Itsuki... I mean, LOSE THE DAMN SHADES! Those things were in fashion during the 70s! He came across as smart-ass cocky and just irritating to watch. (2) They got rid of Iketani and threw the reins of the Akina Speedstars into Itsuki's hands, who thinks he's the "God of Driving"! What about our "Lonely Drivers?!" (3) WORST crime of all: They decided to cast the Itsuki character as the gas station manager Yuuichi Tachibana's (played by Kenny Bee, who wasn't too bad) SON. I kid you not. I have no other words for this type of shitty/lazy writing and casting.
There were quite a number of other issues I had, but I'll narrow down to a few major ones, including: the total exclusion of Keisuke Takahashi and his beautiful competition yellow FD RX-7. I mean, come on! The main reason behind Takumi's rise as a racer was the Takahashi bros' discovery of this mysterious AE86 running in the narrow Mt. Akina streets! WTF?
The painfully brief inclusion of the Emperor Team (Mitsu Evo drivers). If you have watched the entire anime or read the entire manga series to date, you will know that the Emperor Team had a far greater agenda! Jordan Chan played his role as the #1 Emperor driver (however briefly) as well as he could, but I can't blame him for the bad adaptation of his character.
So, in conclusion, I really wished the directors + producers planned ahead and signed up the cast for a trilogy or at least a sequel, so that they can stretch out the material a bit and allow more room for their characters to develop. Sure, this whole story line has been covered on print and on TV, but what about those who have heard about Initial D but have not had the pleasure of catching the original series? They would think that all that bullcrap plot alterations are the real deal! So I blame the failure (not commercial, just the interllectual and spiritual) of this movie to the writers, the directors and the producers for being so damn blind to the fact that this movie should have been MORE than JUST about the cars and driving. >:(
Final Pip: They should have left some of the AvexTrax Euro-beat/trance music (esp. those by Move) in the race sequences.
