FAQ

After getting in trouble (again) with the police for street racing, Alabama teenager Sean Boswell (Lucas Black) is shipped off to live with his father (Brian Goodman) in Tokyo, Japan, with the understanding that he will not have anything to do with cars. Unfortunately, he is attracted to Neela (Nathalie Kelley), the girlfriend of Takashi (Brian Tee), also known as "Drift King" or just DK, who has ties to the Yakuza (the Japanese mafia). When Sean is drawn into drift racing against DK and winds up totaling the car he borrowed from Han (Sung Kang), Takashi's business partner, he enters the world of drift racing and the Yakuza in order to pay off his debt.

Tokyo Drift is the third movie in the Fast and Furious franchise, preceded by Fast and Furious (2001) and 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003), and followed by Fast & Furious 4 (2009), Fast & Furious 5 (2011), Fast & Furious 6 (2013), Fast & Furious 7 (2015), Fast & Furious 8 (2017) and Fast & Furious 9 (2021). The screenplay for Tokyo Drift was written by American screenwriter Chris Morgan. The Fast and Furious franchise is loosely based on a May, 1998 Vibe magazine article about illegal street racing, "Racer X", by Ken Li.

The only one returning is Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) in a cameo at the end of the film. All of the other characters are new.

'Drift' refers to the sliding motion that a car takes when it races around a corner. In 'drift racing', the object is to drift while controlling the car during the slide.

Paint is forced from the paint guns using a compressed air feed, which usually just blows cold air (there is no point in pre-heating paint since the car will be 'baked' in an oven to set the paint finish). It's possible the paint could be so cold as to be uncomfortable when coming into contact with bare skin, though it's more likely the boy's discomfort is simply due to the bullying to which he is being subjected.

Twinkie (Shad Moss) drives a green 2004 Volkswagen Touran.

In order to make peace with Uncle Kamata (Shin'ichi Chiba), Sean proposes a race between him and DK with the loser agreeing to leave Tokyo. Sean puts the engine from Han's smashed up Nissan Silvia into his father's 1967 Ford Mustang GT, and DK picks the route, a winding mountain road on which he's the only one to ever make it down. The race begins, and DK immediately pulls in front but, during a near crash, Sean manages to take over the lead. DK tries to force Sean's car off the road, but Sean hangs in there, switching leads a number of times until DK's car suddenly flips over and plunges down an embankment, almost landing on top of Sean's car. When it is clear that Sean is the winner, Kamata tells him that he is free to go. Some time later, Sean has been named the new 'Drift King.' Twinkie informs him that a friend of Han's wants to race him, and Sean agrees. The challenger drives up and a silver 1970 Plymouth Satellite and is revealed to be none other than Dom Torretto. Sean compliments his ride and informs him that it's not a 10-second race to which Dom replies, "I got nothin' but time." And so, the race begins.