In the movie's second extended sequence -- after his mother is forced to send him to his dad, a military man stationed in Japan, in order for Sean to escape the legal consequences of the destruction caused by the race -- he flirts with someone else's girlfriend and gets challenged ... oh, you get the picture. Strangely, director Justin Lin and screenwriter Chris Morgan see nothing ominous in their hero's easy transition into crime. Drift is the rubber-burning, slide-and-glide maneuvers that allow racers to negotiate hairpin turns and switchbacks in the mountains and canyons of rural Japan and the parking structures of urban Japan.

Subscribe to the Hollywood Reporter and see the entertainment industry from its best angle: the inside looking out. Complete access to real-time news and exclusive analysis that goes behind the scenes from film to television, home video to digital media.

   Subscribe now.