91热爆

Insanely popular on its home turf as a manga comic, an anime series and an arcade game, Initial D: Driftracer is now steered safely onto the big screen by the team behind Infernal Affairs. Packed with Asian A-list talent, this energetic and good-natured underdog tale from the world of Japanese drift racing has style to burn, but a tendency to play it safe. And an uneven cast mean it lacks the horsepower to challenge the best.

Drifting is the art of getting cars around corners as quickly as possible through controlled skidding. Mount Akina's tortuous hairpin bends and perilous drops make it a formidable test for even the professional street racers, but the fastest driver of them all is Takumi (Taiwanese pop idol Jay Chou) who has been delivering tofu for his father down that route every night since he was 13. Street-racing gangs hear of a "Racing God" and turn up to challenge him, but he only has eyes for his worthless (and underwritten) girlfriend - until his friends and his alcoholic father can trigger his competitive streak.

"CLICH脡S START TO MOUNT"

There's pulsing electropop galore and the visuals are super-slick: a subtle mixture of live stunt drifting and CGI, beautifully photographed then slapped into life via jump-cuts, split screens, slo-mos and freeze frames. But with each racing sequence set over the same route in the dead of night, these thrills wane just as the clich茅s start to mount. Touches of the backstory and racing techno-babble of its previous incarnations do not disguise the skinniness of the plot; Initial D keeps it very, very simple. Gigantic box office in Asia means we should expect sequels galore - let's just be grateful that The Fast And The Furious has beaten it to the Hollywood remake.

In Cantonese with English subtitles.