A New Movie About Pro Drifting With Keiichi Tsuchiya Is Coming in June

Alive Hoon is set for release on June 10 in Japan.

byVictoria Scott|
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Look, I adore Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift. It's about the closest American moviegoing audiences will ever get to a big-budget cinematic love letter to the exciting world of drifting, and it's a vastly entertaining film. But if you want a deeper dive into the world of competitive drifting, Alive Hoon might just be for you. 

A fictional movie by Mugen Films, Alive Hoon is about the very-real D1GP series, Japan's highest-level drifting competition, and Japanese Nostalgic Car reports that it's the only movie ever made centered on the pro-drifting scene of Japan. The plot centers on an e-sports gamer played by Shuihei Nomura, shown competing in Gran Turismo Sport, who makes the leap to professional drifting. The rest is a bit hazy in the 30-second trailer, but the action is crystal-clear, and it's killer. 

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Immediately the trailer opens with a Nissan S15 Silvia—specifically, Naoki Nakamura's Silvia—leaping over the camera at what appears to be Ebisu Minami's infamous drift-jump-corner. The filmmakers claim the entire movie is "CG Zero," which means all the action scenes are shot in the real world without special effects. Think Mad Max: Fury Road, but on a mountain pass with technicolor drift cars rather than blacked-out Falcons in the wastelands of the apocalypse.

A behind-the-scenes video, uploaded today, reveals slightly more about the production and filming of Alive Hoon. Nakamura is a stunt driver for the production and appears in the drift scenes of the bright-pink Silvia being driven (and in a few instances, crashed). Alongside Nakamura is a who's-who of drifting legends, with Masato Kawabata and Daigo Saito also contributing as stunt drivers. Keiichi Tsuchiya, the Drift King himself, will oversee the action scenes directly.

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The "supported by" list for the film is nearly as long as the cast credits themselves, but by far the most notable sponsor is Toyota Gazoo Racing. The making-of video prominently features both Kawabata's Toyo Tires-liveried Supra and Saito's personal 1,000-horsepower, 2JZ-swapped GR Yaris, and the main character of the film appears to practice extensively in a bright-pink Toyota JZX100 Chaser. 

Alive Hoon

Regardless of the plot and specific cars, this looks like the love letter to D1GP I've waited for, ever since I switched regions on my DVD player to watch 2007 highlight reels I'd find on eBay. Sadly, while the movie has a June 10 release date in Japan, there appear to be no plans to release it Stateside. The film does have an official Twitter account, however, so I might just try to bug them until they let me watch it.

Got a tip or question for the author? You can reach her here: victoria.scott@thedrive.com.

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