As you all know that I am a huge fan of intial d :P and so when i heard the movie was coming out i was basically shitting in my pants..haha..So yesterday I watched initial D with seng yip, and here's a review!

Firstly, we had obatained the tickets using my super trick (previous post :P) and we got really great seats (or so we thought!) we got LAST row seats for some hot movie, and we stood in line for about 30 minutes! how cool is that? haha

well anyways, the last row seats were bullshit :p they were level with the 2nd-last row seats, which meant that heads blocked our views! so well I decided what the heck, and I sat on the aisle intead and watched the movie from there :P it was pretty comfortable and most importantly there were no heads to block my view haha..

so on to the movie-
from the starting scene where Bunta falls down the stairs, and Itsuki gives his speech about gods, you know you're in for a comedy! seriously, this movie was hilarious! one of my favorite comedic scenes has to be when Itsuki wants to race again with his dad's car, and the camera zooms out- funny shit!

the movie revolves around Takumi, a really good driver who has been driving up and down mountain passes for five years delivering tofu for his dad. One day he 'accidentally' beats a street racer and that marks his beginning into the world of street racing (or should i say mountain pass racing?).. shit, i suck at writing summaries..go google for it online :P

one thing about the movie is that alot of things have been changed from the anime/manga in this big screen adaptation, and people will either like it or hate it..

people new to the movie wouldn't mind and would probably like this movie alot as it is very entertaining throughout, but hardcore fans expecting an exact transalation to the screen will be disappointed

so why they didn't follow the original story was probably due to time constraints- they possibly couldn't fit all the characters and races into one sitting- the movie compressed 3 stages of the anime (thats about 16 hours?) into one 2 hour film..

most probably there won't be a sequel, because of the cut up story line :p unless they create a totally new story from then on

problems i with the movie: the racing sequences weren't as exciting and fleshed out as the ones in the anime (most probably due to time again) and there was very little mention about the 'techniques' used, which was basically what the racing in the anime was all about.. the racing was fast paced and exciting, but it just didn't capture the same spirit as the anime. For people new to the movie, i don't know if its a problem, but yeah that was a let down for me. other minor quirks were the fact that the emperor team was dressed up in ridiculous get up! leather jackets with metal spikes? flashing LEDs all over their trucks? come on, they were gangster-like, but they didn't have to turn out looking like circus freaks :P

but overall it was a good movie, the plot moved on interestingly enough (though i feel there might be some stuff that people new to the movie might not understand) and there is alot of action and humor to keep it running along

fans of jay chou will definitely be flocking to watch this film, since its his acting debut after all, imho not a bad start for a movie career (how often does one get to burst into the scene with the lead role of a popular character? exactly!) the lead girl, natsuki, is also one hot girl :p

i'd give the movie 8/10, definitely a movie i will watch again..for fans of street racing, cars, jay (or any of the hk actors) and anyone looking for an enjoyable movie to watch

and if you enjoyed it, you'd have to check out the anime for a much better grasp of the whole series :P

This has been a movie review brought to you by Evening Drama!