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One of the most popular manga titles in Japan is Initial D, a car racing story that appeals to young and old readers alike. (According to the bonus features on this disc, the manga was named after the English term "starting from the D," a phrase I've never heard used.) As happens with many successful comics in Japan, this story was turned into an anime series. They didn't stop there though. There are scale models of the vehicles in the comic, clothing, remote controlled cars, a computer game and even a collectible card game. In 2005 the franchise was expanded in a way that few other manga comics have been: a live action movie was filmed. This film, entitled simply Initial D, has now been chosen by publisher Tai Seng to be their first Blu-ray release. The disc has a good though not reference image quality and an excellent sound design. A fast paced show, this is a good action movie that moves so fast you'll hardly notice the simplistic plot.

Takumi Fujiwara (Jay Chou) is the son of an ex-race car driver, Bunta (Anthony Wong Chau-Sang). Having given up the raceway years ago, Bunta makes tofu for a living. When he's not working he's drinking or passed out on the floor, so Takumi finds himself having to deliver his father's product late at night to the customers. He's been doing this for five years, ever since he was 13, and has driven the twisting Mount Akina road so many times he could do it in his sleep. During these years he's honed his driving skills and can make it around the hairpin curves in nothing flat.

After passing a street racer on the mountain road one night, Takumi finds himself the talk of the town. Everyone wants to see him race again, even though he doesn't want to. Was it a fluke that his father's old Toyota AE86 actually beat a souped up GTR? Pressured by his father to race, Takumi finds out that he's a much better driver than anyone suspected, and creates a whole new set of troubles for himself.

This was a fun and light movie in the same vein as Fast and Furious. I haven't seen the anime or read the manga, so I can't comment on how close it is to the other versions of the story, but this film was fun, concentrating on fast races and a lot of kinetic motion to make up for the rather thin plot. It was also surprisingly funny, with Chapman To nearly stealing the show with his hilarious portrayal of Itsuki, Takumi's best friend and a wanna-be racer who just has no clue. The only part of the film that didn't work well was the romantic subplot between Takumi and the attractive Natsuki (Anne Suzuki.) This was the only thing that seemed to slow the film down and this plot line was left dangling, presumably to be tied up in a sequel.

Taiwanese pop star Jay Chou does a surprisingly good job as Takumi, a shy introvert with a fierce competitive streak. He plays his role with a calm almost bored demeanor that makes Takumi seem unsure of what he wants and also very competent behind the wheel.

This is a race movie though, and the real stars are the fast moving cars. Happily, the action scenes are impressive and very dynamic and really drive the film (no pun intended.) Directors Andrew Lau and Alan Mak did an excellent job of creating the races, making them look very exciting and even though the same stretch of road is raced over again and again, it never gets dull or monotonous. The use a lot of fancy camera work to bring this off, including some very effective split screen scenes, but in never seems too stylized or flashy. Some of the more impressive shots include one that dives inside of the Toyota AE86's engine and shows the pistons pounding away and the constant explosions that turn the wheels. There were also shots where the 'camera' started on the hood, pulled back through the passenger's compartment and then through the car that was following. The lightning fast cuts served to built up the tension and make the whole film seem to speed along. While, as I mentioned, the plot was a bit simplistic, what they lack in substance they more than make up with style.

Video:

This 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 encoded disc presents the film with its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and it looks pretty good overall. There are many scenes that are very sharp with tight lines and all the detail that we've come to expect from HD releases. Even the smoke coming off the wheels as they skidded around hairpin curves was well defined and lacking any blocking or other defects. Unfortunately that's not always the case. Sometimes the picture is soft and not as well defined. Luckily these instances are fairly rare. The colors are solid throughout and the blacks are nice and inky. On the digital side of things the disc looks pretty good. There is some banding in a few places, mainly when going from light to dark in the same scene. Aliasing and other common defects aren't noticeable; however there is a touch of edge enhancement in several places. Not a reference quality disc, but not a bad one either.

Audio:

There are a good number of audio options included with this disc. I viewed the film with the Cantonese lossless PCM 5.1 track, and spot checked the Cantonese, Mandarin, and English DD 5.1 tracks. They all sounded very good, but the PCM track was a joy. It was a full and open sounding track that put viewers right in the driver's seat. The race scenes were especially impressive with the sounds of reving engines panning across the screen and from front to back making the viewer seem like they are in the passenger's seat. If you enjoy active, immersive audio tracks you should give this disc a spin. There weren't any dropouts or other audio defects.

There are optional subtitles in English as well as Traditional and Simplified Chinese.

Extras:

This disc ports over most of the bonus items from the SD release of the film, leaving off only a photo gallery and a text piece. It would have been nice to have included these, but I can't get too upset about such a minor omission. Unfortunately all the bonus material is in SD.

The bonus times start out with 16-minute behind-the-scenes featurette which is mainly a bit of fluff, but it also shows them filming some of the car stunts, and includes interviews with the star and directors.

There are also two minute video biographies of the main characters, comparing them with the manga version and having the directors and actors talk briefly about the roles.

The 20-minute making-of featurette covers much of the same footage as the behind-the-scenes extra but there are enough differences to make this worth watching. There are also nine minutes worth of deleted scenes, five minutes worth of outtakes, 13-minutes worth of highlights of the promotions they used to advertise the film, and a series of theatrical and TV spots. A very good selection of bonus features.

Final Thoughts:

This film was incredibly popular in Asia, and it's easy to see why. The high octane, fast paced film has a lot of action and sympathetic characters that are easy to root for. Even though the plot is pretty simple, the film has some impressive race scenes and a lot of enjoyable comic relief. This BD has excellent sound and a solid, though not terribly impressive picture quality with a nice set of bonus features. It is an easy disc to recommend.

Note: The images in this review are not from the Blu-ray disc and do not necessarily represent the image quality on the disc.

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