Everyone on a film set has a job. There are a lot of people everywhere, but they all do a little thing to make sure the entire operation runs smoothly. And, I can’t believe I didn’t already know this, in the case of The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, a man had the prestigious job of “being arrested pretending to be the director”.
I stumbled upon this story from two days ago presented by ScreenRant That explains how getting film permits in Tokyo is difficult, getting them in the popular tourist district of Shibuya is more difficult, and getting them as a promising western director was basically impossible, so the film studio took care of things the only way. . could. By ScreenRant:
The studio was well aware of the difficulty of acquiring film permits in Japan; in fact, most movies set in the city are shot elsewhere and played to resemble Tokyo. From the James Bond 1967 movie You only live twice Laws and regulations have become stricter. The process is expensive and frustrating, so films set in Tokyo are rarely authentic. Some directors did their best to film on location, such as the case of Sofia Coppola negotiating heavily to film in 2003 Lost in translation. Lin, however, was still a newcomer at the time, so he took a risk. Universal then hired a “fall boy” who remained on set if problems arose. Shortly after shooting in Shibuya, the police expelled the crew from the area. When the police tried to arrest the director, the boy from the fall claimed he was Lin and spent a night in jail.
ScreenRant also notes that much of the actual famous scene uses CGI, which is pretty clear when you look at it again:
Ahem:
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Now, this story doesn’t really offer anything, but luckily for me, Justin Lin spoke to the press about this incident when the movie came out, so I can get this out of DigitalSpy, released the day before the film’s release in 2009:
Lin said DS that Universal hired a “boy from the fall” to accompany him in Tokyo because the Japanese authorities refuse to grant permits to shoot at the scene.
The director explained: “When we went to film in Tokyo, it was a very different culture. They do not give film permits. We would be setting up a scene and people would just walk around the set. I had this guy, I thought he said it was me. I didn’t know what that meant.
“I wanted to shoot in Shibuya, which is the busiest place in Tokyo. The policemen are all very polite, so it takes them ten minutes to come and kick you out. They closed us, I had received all my vaccinations, but I didn’t know that they were going to arrest me. Another guy stepped forward and said, “I am the director.” I found out that it was his job to take the blame for me. He went to jail at night and I am eternally grateful. “
This still seemed a little strange that the “fall boy” never gets a name in these stories, so I kept looking and found this from 2014, posted by Movable party. It was a summary of the comments made by Justin Lin at a screening of the Tokyo Drift film festival, discussing some little-known facts about the shooting. On it we have a clue as to who the guy was:
Movie permits were not an option for production as they are not granted in Tokyo, so Lin had to run and shoot in the city, especially every time he filmed at the Shibuya Crossing intersection. The team learned that they would have about 20 minutes of recording time before the police arrived to stop the filming and when the police asked who the director was, a member of the team (who would also play the bathhouse assistant in the movie) did it. his job to advertise as the director to take him to spend a night in jail instead of Lin. “He was the Japanese me,” said Lin.
OK! The manager of the bathroom. I remember that scene.Our hero is going to collect some money from a man in a bathhouse, who turns out to be Konishiki! Konishiki was born in Hawaii and became the first foreign wrestler to reach the second highest rank in sumo, ōzekiWhich is serious shit. Less serious but equally impressive: people would call it “Meat pump. “Very rad.
In any case, here is that scene:
Only one guy there could really be called a “bathhouse attendant” and he’s this guy here:
But unfortunately it seems unaccredited and not included in Full IMDB cast and crew page.
If you are the guy who was arrested pretending to be Justin Lin, our email is advice at jalopnik dot com. We would love to know how your night was.
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