The title of "Drift King" is a big deal in The Fast & The Furious: Tokyo Drift, and it actually belongs to somebody in real life - someone who had a cameo in the movie. Tokyo Drift is the third film in the Fast Saga, distinguished for the absence of the franchise's main lead, Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker), and chronologically set between Fast & Furious 6 and Furious 7. Vin Diesel's cameo in Tokyo Drift marked a highlight in the franchise when it most needed it, but it's not the only appearance by a crucial racing icon.
Tokyo Drift stars Sean Boswell (Lucas Black), an infamous street racer forced to relocate to Japan due to his criminal record back home. Instead of rectifying his behavior in his father's resident city, Sean becomes infatuated with the underground world of drift racing with the help of Twinkie (Bow Wow) and butts heads with Takashi (Brian Tee), a local racer with ties to the Yakuza who also holds the title of "Drift King" - the most skilled driver in Tokyo. After plenty of challenges and Han Lue's (Sung Kang) death, Sean manages to turn Takashi's obstinate will against himself when the latter fails to take out Sean. Instead, Sean wins the movie's final race and is crowned as the new Drift King. After that, he meets Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) in a friendly race dedicated to Han's memory.
What many viewers may not know is that a Drift King exists in real life. His name is Keiichi Tsuchiya, a professional race car driver who introduced drifting - the act of oversteering the car in order to swerve sideways in a curve - to the public, consequently inspiring an entire motorsport based on the practice and the popular manga/anime Initial D. In Tokyo Drift, Tsuchiya makes an appearance as a cameo alongside Kazutoshi Wadakura, a line producer in the film. They sit side-by-side as unsuspecting fishermen when Sean is learning how to drift for the first time. At the sight of his sloppy attempts, Tsuchiya utters in dismay "You call that drifting?".
After Han teaches Sean the complex technique necessary to accomplish successful drifts, Tsuchiya and Wadakura look at each other with delight. This time Tsuchiya praises Sean's skills with a simple "Not bad". This is not the only reference in the film, however, since a Toyota AE86 can be briefly seen in the parking garage where Sean and Tekashi race against each other for the first time. This car is one of Tsuhiya's personal favorites and it's heavily featured in the Initial D series, which in turn inspired the entire concept of Tokyo Drift.
The brief appearance of real-life Drift King Keiichi Tsuchiya in The Fast & The Furious: Tokyo Drift is more than a mere reference to the drifting motif in the movie. Director Justin Lin knew the relevance of such an important figure and his deep connection to the central theme of the film as well as the franchise as a whole. It could seem like a small detail, but a Fast Saga without drifting is quite odd to think about.
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