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xparrotI have a long sordid history with the Fast & the Furious franchise. I have zero interest in cars (love of Top Gear notwithstanding) and am picky about action movies - not that I have good taste with them, but I get bored with straight action; I need to like the characters. They don't have to be good or well-written characters, just ones that appeal to my fangirl heart. (Also obliviously outrageous slashiness doesn't hurt.)
I watched The Fast & the Furious because I saw a slash vid for it. The movie lived up to the vid; it's one of those amazing cases where one cannot tell whether the subtext was intentional or accidental, and can't decide which way would be better. Either way it runs thick enough to be a delicious meal for the fannish soul. While I never got actively into the fandom, I read most of the fic that existed, bought the DVD, inflicted it on people. Good times.
I ignored the sequel because Vin Diesel wasn't in it and I didn't want my 'ship broken up (Only recently did I discover that 2 Fast 2 Furious is, if not 2 x as slashy, at least as slashy as the first movie - old boyfriends reuniting for the win!) The Fast & the Furious 3: Tokyo Drift I wouldn't have bothered with except my uncles and cousins, being major gearheads, were fans of the franchise. And since it was set in Tokyo, and my sister and I were living in Japan at the time, they thought it'd be fun to show it to us when we were State-side for the holidays, so we could laugh at the sure-to-be ridiculous depiction of Japan.
Which didn't go according to plan. While the movie itself wasn't great for a non-drifting fan, it astonished us by being the hands-down most accurate depiction of Japan that either of us has ever seen in an American production. This wasn't the Hollywood-fetishized exotic Orient; this was Tokyo, looking and feeling like the Tokyo we knew (from the perspective of a white American boy, so particularly matching our own experiences; it may play different to someone Japanese, but still more familiar than most US films, I'd bet.)
I only just found out that Tokyo Drift was the first F&F movie helmed by Justin Lin, and that he agreed to direct on the condition that he could do a movie in real Japan, as opposed to the Hollywood-ized version in the original script. That he had to fight for subtitles so characters could be speaking in their native tongue when it was natural to do so, and that the portrayal of minorities/Asians especially in cinema is one of his major focuses. To which all I can say is mission accomplished, sir.
It also explains a lot about where the Fast & Furious franchise has gone since Lin took the reins. Fast & Furious (#4 for those keeping track, and yes, every single entry in the series so far has a different title scheme, which tickles me) we watched a cam-rip of since it either wasn't theatrically released in Japan or else was months behind, and while like the first movie it took itself way too seriously, the characters and chemistry both were back, to our fangirl delight.
Then came Fast 5, which the sis and I went together to slash-fangirl on, and came out astonished. Not only was it a great fan-movie - it was a genuinely awesome action blockbuster. Completely over-the-top ridiculous and epic stunts combined with great character moments, and so much team and family-ness that we didn't even miss the slash. All that, plus oh-so-casually blowing past the Hollywood racial status quo without even blinking or making a big deal about it. With Brian demoted from protagonist to sidekick, their gang is nearly a dozen guys (and girls), of which only one is white - and he's the loyal right-hand-man of leader Vin Diesel. And they're all family in the sweetest of ways.
Fast & Furious 6 upped the ante again. The movie itself is fun, unabashedly and spectacularly ridiculous (Justin Lin clearly believes physics are for the weak and have no place in cinema!) And not only is the multi-racial family of awesome back, but they have two more female characters on board, kicking ass and taking names and defying stereotypes without breaking a sweat. That's maybe the best part - these movies never feel like they're trying to be politically correct or making any kind of statement beyond "cars are cool!" What they do, they do more effortlessly than a driver drifting around a corner at a hundred miles an hour. They prove that if you have fun characters doing badass stunts, their race or gender doesn't matter; the audience is still going to be cheering them on. (Which apparently paid off at the box office - here's hoping Hollywood will take the hint in future franchises!)
I watched The Fast & the Furious because I saw a slash vid for it. The movie lived up to the vid; it's one of those amazing cases where one cannot tell whether the subtext was intentional or accidental, and can't decide which way would be better. Either way it runs thick enough to be a delicious meal for the fannish soul. While I never got actively into the fandom, I read most of the fic that existed, bought the DVD, inflicted it on people. Good times.
I ignored the sequel because Vin Diesel wasn't in it and I didn't want my 'ship broken up (Only recently did I discover that 2 Fast 2 Furious is, if not 2 x as slashy, at least as slashy as the first movie - old boyfriends reuniting for the win!) The Fast & the Furious 3: Tokyo Drift I wouldn't have bothered with except my uncles and cousins, being major gearheads, were fans of the franchise. And since it was set in Tokyo, and my sister and I were living in Japan at the time, they thought it'd be fun to show it to us when we were State-side for the holidays, so we could laugh at the sure-to-be ridiculous depiction of Japan.
Which didn't go according to plan. While the movie itself wasn't great for a non-drifting fan, it astonished us by being the hands-down most accurate depiction of Japan that either of us has ever seen in an American production. This wasn't the Hollywood-fetishized exotic Orient; this was Tokyo, looking and feeling like the Tokyo we knew (from the perspective of a white American boy, so particularly matching our own experiences; it may play different to someone Japanese, but still more familiar than most US films, I'd bet.)
I only just found out that Tokyo Drift was the first F&F movie helmed by Justin Lin, and that he agreed to direct on the condition that he could do a movie in real Japan, as opposed to the Hollywood-ized version in the original script. That he had to fight for subtitles so characters could be speaking in their native tongue when it was natural to do so, and that the portrayal of minorities/Asians especially in cinema is one of his major focuses. To which all I can say is mission accomplished, sir.
It also explains a lot about where the Fast & Furious franchise has gone since Lin took the reins. Fast & Furious (#4 for those keeping track, and yes, every single entry in the series so far has a different title scheme, which tickles me) we watched a cam-rip of since it either wasn't theatrically released in Japan or else was months behind, and while like the first movie it took itself way too seriously, the characters and chemistry both were back, to our fangirl delight.
Then came Fast 5, which the sis and I went together to slash-fangirl on, and came out astonished. Not only was it a great fan-movie - it was a genuinely awesome action blockbuster. Completely over-the-top ridiculous and epic stunts combined with great character moments, and so much team and family-ness that we didn't even miss the slash. All that, plus oh-so-casually blowing past the Hollywood racial status quo without even blinking or making a big deal about it. With Brian demoted from protagonist to sidekick, their gang is nearly a dozen guys (and girls), of which only one is white - and he's the loyal right-hand-man of leader Vin Diesel. And they're all family in the sweetest of ways.
Fast & Furious 6 upped the ante again. The movie itself is fun, unabashedly and spectacularly ridiculous (Justin Lin clearly believes physics are for the weak and have no place in cinema!) And not only is the multi-racial family of awesome back, but they have two more female characters on board, kicking ass and taking names and defying stereotypes without breaking a sweat. That's maybe the best part - these movies never feel like they're trying to be politically correct or making any kind of statement beyond "cars are cool!" What they do, they do more effortlessly than a driver drifting around a corner at a hundred miles an hour. They prove that if you have fun characters doing badass stunts, their race or gender doesn't matter; the audience is still going to be cheering them on. (Which apparently paid off at the box office - here's hoping Hollywood will take the hint in future franchises!)
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Date: 2013-06-17 10:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-06-17 10:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-06-18 02:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-06-19 05:16 pm (UTC)(Oooh, where does Coates talk about it? Reading articles on F&F is lately a hobby ^^)
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Date: 2013-06-19 05:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-06-19 05:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-06-22 01:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-06-24 12:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-01 08:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-03 01:47 am (UTC)