INITIAL D

Alternate Title: Tau man ji D
Country: Hong Kong, China
Release Year: 2005
Genre: Racing / Action / Drama
Language: Cantonese
Running Time: 107 minutes

[Cast]
Jay Chou
Anne Suzuki
Edison Chen
Anthony Wong
Shawn Yue
Chapman To
Jordan Chan
Kenny Bee

[Director]
Andrew Lau



I must admit when I first heard of a live-action movie of INITIAL D was being made I thought "Finally!"

I'm sure that it will be a hit especially among teens, and adults alike. I was even excited when the news broke out that they had casted Anne Suzuki to play as Mogi, the female lead opposite Takumi in the Intial D Anime series. I didn't even have a problem when they said Andrew Lau was going to be producing, and directing it, after all he's produced quite a few successful Hong Kong films as of late.

Andrew Lau has directed some of the most memorable and ultra box office money making Hong Kong films like the romantic comedy classic FEEL100% (1996) the CGI laden THE STORMRIDERS (1998), along with A MAN CALLED HERO (1999), and THE DUEL (2000) These three movies are responsible for CENTRO DIGITAL's success, Hong Kong's answer to the U.S. based world famous SFX house INDUSTRIAL LIGHT and MAGIC.

I will also add that CENTRO DIGITAL is responsible for the CGI effects for the ultra box office successful Hong Kong movies like Stephen Chow's SHAOLIN SOCCER (2001), and KUNG FU HUSTLE (2004) to name a few. But anyways, back to the review.

Andrew Lau has also directed modern classics like INFERNAL AFFAIRS TRILOGY (2003-2004), and THE YOUNG AND DANGEROUS SERIES (1996-2000), he's probably reached the epoch of his directing, and producing career with these two series' alone. Fortunately, for us asian movie conoussieurs he's still at the top of his game...

...until now...

...as for my thoughts on the Hong Kong produced INITIAL D, which is of course based on the ultra successful manga by Shuichi Shigeno, here's my review of the movie.

Are you ready?
Here we go....

...now I am a huge fan of the INTIAL D Anime series. I am truly a huge fan... why? well because I personally love Japanese Animation before it was even embraced worldwide i'm talking 20 years back! So I know my Anime....I've seen countless of them, which is probably a good idea for me to start reviewing Anime on this blog as well....hmmm what an idea!!!

Anyhow, I also have seen the entire INTIAL D Anime series which made me all the more excited. I really expected a lot from the flick I mean my expectations were pretty high considering you have someone like Andrew Lau directing it. I mean this guy has made some of the greatest Hong Kong movies ever, some are my personal favorites of mine like the ones mentioned above.

So...

...what I'm about to say will only matter if you are familiar with the Anime series, but if you're not then it should'nt matter however it might still tick you off since there is a pretty big discrepancy with the language issue. What am I talking about? Well...I've mentioned before that this movie is based on the Japanese Anime and Manga series.

That's just it! it's Japanese! Or at least it was supposed to be anyway...

When a movie is based on the famous series Manga, Animation, Novel, or whatever...it is critical that the origin of that particular story is properly represented. Period.

In this case you have pretty much an all-Chinese cast, with the exception of Anne Suzuki.
That is probably the biggest mistake Andrew Lau made in the making of the movie. It's a Japanese story, which takes place in Japan, that has an all-Japanese cast of characters.

The question is...

Why did Andrew Lau use an all-Chinese cast to portray as Japanese characters?
I mean the movie does take place in Japan right? The Anime and Manga characters were Japanese in origin so why cast Chinese actors?

To make matters worse, and this really irritates me...they have all of the Chinese actors as the Japanese Characters speak in Cantonese? I mean don't get me wrong I have nothing against Chinese, or Japanese, or their beautiful intricate languages.

My argument is this people;

If the characters they are portaying and playing as is Japanese, and you know this because all of the characters have Japanese names. Jay Chou's character is Takumi, Edison Chen is Ryousuke Takahashi, the great Anthony Wong as Takumi's father Bunta Fujiwara, Jordan Chan as Kyouichi Sudou, and so on.

Why.....Oh Why are they speaking in Cantonese???

I know the cast is Chinese playing as Japanese characters in a Japanese story, that is the problem. However if they are playing a Japanese characters even though their actors they should speak in Japanese!!! Period.

You know what this reminds me of???

Have you ever watched those old WWII movies from the 50's, the japanese in those movies although they really are japanese they would speak in perfect english?

Why?

I don't know maybe the Americans were too just lazy to read subtitles I don't know.

Another thing that cracks me up is when the US Troops are fighting the Germans, and one of the German soliders would talk to the American Troops not in german but in perfect english!

How's that for authenticity!

Same thing with the recent release of MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA (2005) now please explain to me why they are speaking in english when the movie takes place in Japan? In the turn of the century no less! Shouldn't they be speaking their native language? in this case Japanese?

Now that movie also included some of China's finest actresses Zhang Ziyi, Gong Li, and of course Michelle Yeoh. I didn't have a problem with their casting, but when a movie like that especially it being a period film it's very important for the characters to be speaking in their native language, because it makes it more absorbing to the viewers making everything all the more authentic.

That's what I meant.

Authenticity.

A perfect example is Ang Lee's CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON. Now this is how it's done people
!
It's an American made Chinese period film. Columbia Tristar produced it. Ang Lee directed it the way it should be directed. Chinese period film which had of course an all Chinese cast, and they spoke the native language, Mandarin. It was executed properly, the way a period film should be done.

Now imagine if Ang Lee had all the characters speak english?

Would it be believable still?
Nope.

Would it be an absorbing, period story as it was?
Probably not.

In order for a story to believable the director must use the language that corresponds with the characters. In this case, Mandarin is the language that is consistent with the characters being portrayed which of course is Chinese.

MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA is the perfect example of a badly directed, poorly executed film and you can add INITIAL D, to that list.
MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA has been 'American-ized', so too has INITIAL D has been 'Hong Kong-ized' should there be a such a word. If not, I just invented it!

I could only imagine the 'gasps' and 'sighs' that would've echoed throughout a japanese cinema house. The poor japanese INITIAL D fans must've demanded their money back after they saw this flick. Not just the language issue, or the casting of an all Chinese cast. It's also the badly written script, the way they tried to compress, and shortcut the whole entire series.

For instance, none of the characters were ever given justification for their actions. The Anime and Manga explained why the each of the characters did what they did, but the movie doesn't explain anything at all! Also, Jordan Chan one of my favorite Hong Kong actors appeared to be stiff and was trying a little too hard to be...well...to be a bad-ass. The role was just not for him!

Jay Chou didn't even come close as Takumi. Come to think of it, none of the characters were convincing as the characters they were supposed to be portraying.

Anthony Wong, the veteran of Hong Kong Cinema did a decent performance as Bunta Fujiwara. Thanks to his priceless experience, he was able to pull it off but only barely.

Anne Suzuki, is really the only exception. She played as Mogi, and she was pretty convincing considering well that she's Japanese whose portaying a Japanese character but still her Chinese voice over sounded a little older than she is, and try as I might I just can't imagine her speaking in Cantonese.

Unless she's someone like Takeshi Kaneshiro a Japanese who can speak in Cantonese, Mandarin, and Japanese.

To be honest, I was never a fan of voice overs to begin with. I prefer watching a movie in its original uncut state, with it's original unedited original language. However, I am aware that most Hong Kong movies are dubbed in both Cantonese, and Mandarin.

This I can tolerate since with the exception of two different dialects they are both still a Chinese spoken language. However, what Andrew Lau and Company did to have the Japanese characters speak in Cantonese is utterly ridiculous!

It's simple really...

...this movie should have never been made!

Not this way anyway. It was just doomed from the start. About the only thing one can enjoy from this flick are the racing scenes. The racing scenes are awesome, and plentiful! Especially for fans of DRIFT racing, they'll definitely get a kick out of this flick!!!

Also whenever they would show Takumi shifting, and changing gears. The way the camera would pan-down to his left hand, and the way his feet would step on both the gas and the break it's just like the Anime. They got the shot down-pact. Unfortunately that's the only scene in the movie that kinda reminded me of the Anime.

Oh and let's not forget the stereotypical soundtrack that was used. Now I do like all kinds of music. I like Rap, Hip-Hop, R&B, Classical, Pop, etc. But why did they have to use god-awful wanna-be rap music in this flick? Why not just stick to the Bass-Thumping Techno music that was in the original Anime? The soundtrack in the film is as important at it's story.

I thought Andrew Lau and company would know this element by now? Oh man....did they drop the ball on this one. I do hope someone hopefully a Japanese Movie Studio pick up the rights to make this awesome series into a REAL Movie worth seeing.

Keep in mind that this wasn't Andrew Lau's first foray into making a movie based on a Japanese Manga, Anime, or a Videogame. Andrew Lau's first attempt was THE AVENGING FIST (2001) based on the very popular videogame TEKKEN. As much as I wanted to like that movie because it featured an all-star cast, bottom line is the movie was a complete, and total crap!

(F.Y.I) This is not Andrew Lau's first racing movie either...nope!

Back in 1999 he made a racing gem titled THE LEGEND OF SPEED.
Now this movie is 10 times better than INITIAL D, for the simple reason that it has a good story. Watching this movie made you care about the characters, it featured awesome racing scenes probably not quite up to par with the racing scenes in INITIAL D but....still it was adequate, and believable. INITIAL D only had one cutie pie Anne Suzuki, probably the only reason to see INITIAL D to be honest! But in THE LEGEND OF SPEED, you get a bunch of cutie pies, especially Kelly Hu, and Hong Kong's finest, a very young Cecilia Cheung!

In conclusion, INITIAL D was a very big disappointment for me with Andrew Lau at the helm I expected a lot from him, and from the movie. None of my expectations were met...at all!!!!

As I said before, I have nothing against the casting of Chinese actors playing Japanese characters. Unfortunately that decision doomed the project from the start.

My suggestion:

They should have stayed true to the Anime Series and casted an all Japanese cast.
Andrew Lau could have still directed it with Japanese Actors, I don't know for the life of me why he short-changed himself. The same thing can be said for the aforementioned TEKKEN based AVENGING FIST(2001). He did the exact same thing in that project and look what happened...total crap!!!

Andrew Lau and Company should have taken their time.
The whole movie feels like it was rushed for some reason.
The obvious high budget production seemed to be there, but what in the hell happened?

Oh and that crappy-ass music....whose idea was it to use wannabe rap music in this flick, honestly? stick to the original people! INITIAL D is also famous for its thumpin' TECHNO Soundtrack, use that.

If it ain't broke...then don't fix it!!!

Plain, and simple.

Anyhow...

...if you're a fan of the INITIAL D Manga and Anime series don't expect too much from this flick, or you too will be disappointed.

Just enjoy the movie for what it is, and expect nothing in return because you won't get anything from it...oh wait, that's right you will get something from it!

Know what it is...

...total disappointment.