The greatest movie ever made..!

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

There's a good chance the film will make you laugh out loud, but if it doesn't, there's an even better chance it will make you openly sob.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

It would've been so easy.Just do the stupid, obvious thing.You're Hong Kong cinema. You're attempting to cram 17 manga volumes worth of material into about two hours, and with a limited cast and budget. You have no idea what made the source material great or how the fans of the manga are going to take it.MAKE IT ALL ABOUT RACING. *Not* a pathetic drunken loser of a father, *not* an extremely minor subplot involving an extremely minor girlfriend that somehow keeps getting hashed to death, *not* a mischaracterization of Itsuki ten times worse than the most inept anime bungling. Racing and people who race.The regrettably sparse driving scenes are by far the most entertaining part of the movie. Even Takumi's solo runs were fun to watch, and the incredible three-way battle at the end has to be seen to be believed. In between these, we get a depressing amount of tedious drama involving characters far too cardboard to give a damn about.So, so easy. Pretend you've never heard of Natsuki or circling the water and give us two hours of spectacular, unbelievable racing action. Why couldn't it have been that?

most of the info and comparisons are on wikipedia, but i just wanted to say, its a good movie. jay chow really plays takumi well. also the rest of the actors are quite amazing. bunta is too abusive, itsuki isn't even supposed to have a car yet. when he does get one, its an '85. 80ps rather than 150. and everything else on it is just as bad. although, his resemblance to the original character is almost as good as bunta's(physically). he's supposed to be the loud, eccentric, wannabe racer that everyone loves anyway. he's supposed to be a hopeless romantic and speedstar by default. 'Kenji-senpai!Iketani-senpai!' none of this is in there! not even 'Takumi!' that really bums me out. also, itsuki is supposed to love working and become a full-timer eventually. itsuki-s13?!?! why?! anyway, there was no keisuke, which was a really big deal because he plays a big part in the series. almost as big as takumi's. he's the one who tries to get better and live up to the white comet of akagi. also, ryosuke and nakazato? come on. ryosuke tells nakazato that the 86 is too fast for him while smoking and mentions that his non-drifting gt-r has 380hp. nakazato then says that ryosuke is wrong and is very confident that he will win. that happens after keisuke loses to takumi for the second time which on the first, keisuke saw takumi's inertia drift after the easy right. there are so many things wrong with the story and just not enough time in the world to list them all. if you really really really like the anime/manga, don't expect too much, but if you haven't seen it, you'll probably really like the movie(if you like cars and not just ones that look cool).

Thursday June 8, 4:00pm Lincoln SquareSunday June 11, 7:15pm The NeptuneA soft-spoken nerd becomes king of the street racers when he perfects the art of corner drifting on a mountain road delivering tofu for his father. This film actually includes shots of burning rubber and jiggling tofu! Initial D also features every tasteless and embarrassing gag ever used in the worst teen exploitation flick including, up-skirt peeping, menstruation and frequent vomiting. The humor isn't funny, the writing is bad, the acting is bad and the story is pointless and hackneyed. Where Initial D succeeds is in the racing itself. From the aerial views of highway switchbacks to the lens on the pavement shots, the racing footage is fluid and intense. Disk brakes glowing red hot behind wheels as cars fly down the mountain road at night and one meteoric, unexpected crash succeed in conveying the intensity of this dangerous and illegal sport but the rest of Initial D is annoyingly awful.

hi... i've watched the movie, and frankly speaking, i never really like it. don't get me wrong, i love Initial d. i'm a big fan of the Japanese anime. i've been watching the show since it first started. concerning the movie, i'm disappointed with the story, a lot of things were changed (e.g. ryosuke and nakazato were never friends, itsuki were never the son of the gas station owner and etc.), there were a lot of characters missing in the movie like Keisuke, Kenji and one of the most important characters in the show...Iketani (who showed Takumi the secret world of street racing). what really bothered me the most was the fact that the movie changed Takumi's personality, he has never been violent and arrogant, and Bunta was never a drunk. personally, the movie should've been done by the Japanese just because they know, more about cars and how to really make the movie appealing to enthusiast and car lovers alike. i'm sure there are a lot of people out there who were disappointed with the movie as well.