Leopoldo Gutierrez 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).

shadow_42 OK so if you are a fan of the anime then you probably wont like this. The racing in this film is OK but I'm biased due to the anime and the film doesn't get no where near the level they do in the anime.The storyline is trying to combine series 1-3 into the film and has left several key plot elements out to obtain this. For example half the characters are missing like Keisuke Takahashi (one of the main characters in the anime). Even some of the personalities have been changed like Bunta (Takumi's dad) he is just a drunk 24/7 who beats Takumi.Overall i think this film fails to capture reasons why people watched the anime in the first place, like the epic racing intense storyline, suspense and rush created in the anime.

carlsob I realize adapting and compressing a long-running comic and anime series into about 2 hours requires some cuts and changes, but this result of a film is vomit-inducing.My biggest issue in this movie comes with the writing--characters have been completely changed in terms of abilities, personality, and relationships (This is where the possible spoilers come in, I NEED to list some of these things to warn you). The filmmakers expect fans to believe the following changes:1. Keisuke apparently doesn't exist, Takeshi Nakazato takes his place in collaborating with Ryosuke on street races. 2. Itsuki is the leader of the speed stars team, and he drives a Silvia S13 (Iketani's car!). At least Itsuki still can't drive worth anything. 3. In the film version, Itsuki is Yuichi's son, acting like a whiny rich kid. 4. Bunta abuses and threatens his son on multiple occasions when Takumi bangs up the car. 5. Bunta also explains to Yuichi that the reason Takumi began doing deliveries is because his hemorrhoids were killing him. Flat-out dumb.6. Takumi blows the engine on the AE86 while racing team emperor's leader ON AN AKINA DOWNHILL RUN. In the comic and anime, he never lost on Akina! And he grenades the engine before he learns of Natsuki's profession, so he's not even angry when it happens.The direction and editing of this movie is all over the place, as well. When the cars are racing, there are some sweet camera choices and your pulse gets moving a bit. But when the drivers are shown, there's too much use of splitting the screen to show two or three close-ups at once. The movie also apparently didn't have the budget to actually show any of the cars crashing--each time, the car slides through a flimsy barrier or sign and the view cuts to black. When the action stops, it gets worse. Slow motion at all the wrong times, sloppy cuts, and a slow pace all slap the audience in the face. The only high point is the drifting work was pretty good at times for running through hairpins on the mountain passes. Aside from that, I wish I never knew this movie existed. I love the series even more because it doesn't make these horrible story choices.

biggastank The bad: [1] There was no story line. (Or at least the story line went absolutely no where.) [2] The racing scenes were very repetitive, they kept showing the same moves over and over again. This is not very good by today's standard. I expected more, given that this was a relatively high-budget production with some of the biggest name HK actors. [3] Horrible acting from Jay and Edison. There was no chemistry whatsoever between them. I presume from the storyline they are suppose to become friends or develop some kind of camaraderie through racing. Nothing like that happened.The good: [1] Anne Suzuki in short shorts. She's younger than a lot of those cars, by the way. [2] I loved watching Jay getting the crap kicked out of him by Wang Chou Sang. That's gotta be the best part of the entire movie. [3] The racing scenes were not overly done with CGI. It's pretty believable, although not terribly creative. [4] This movie sure brings back fond memories of when those cars were considered cool, which was quite a while back.Overall, not too bad. Wasn't a complete waste of time. I got some entertaining values out of it. Just in case you were wondering, the AE86 is known in the US as -- the Corolla. :D