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Where Was The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift Filmed?

Tokyo Drift was filmed largely in Los Angeles, with the Shibuya chase blending a Los Angeles car set, digital scenery and real Tokyo background footage.
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The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift was filmed largely in Los Angeles, not Tokyo. Its Shibuya chase combines cars filmed on a Los Angeles set, digitally created Tokyo scenery and real Tokyo background footage.

Where was most of Tokyo Drift filmed?

Although the story is set in Tokyo, Discover Los Angeles describes the film as shot “almost entirely in Los Angeles.” The city and nearby communities supplied locations for several scenes, while production techniques helped turn Los Angeles photography into the Tokyo streets seen on screen.

Where was the parking-garage drift scene filmed?

The garage where Twinkie introduces Sean to Tokyo’s drift-racing scene was filmed in the parking garage at Hawthorne Plaza in Hawthorne, California. The shopping center opened in 1977 and closed in 1999; Discover Los Angeles reports that it was later gutted. Its current condition and public access may change, so don’t assume the site is open to visitors.

Was the Shibuya chase filmed in Tokyo?

Not as a complete live-action chase on the real crossing. For the car action, the production used a parking-lot set in Atwater Village, Los Angeles, built to match the dimensions of Shibuya Square. It had little built scenery: visual-effects supervisor Raymond Chen said it had “no built structures or facades, save for a couple of sidewalks, streetlights, and subway entrances.”

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The finished sequence combines that Los Angeles car photography with digital buildings, signs, trees, crowds and cars. The production also used stitched background plates of real Shibuya Square and drive-through footage from Shibuya and Ginza. Those Tokyo images help create the setting, but they do not mean the main dramatic car action was filmed on the actual Shibuya crossing.

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What other locations were used?

  • Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo High School, Long Beach: The real school used for Sean’s Arizona school.
  • A development community, Victorville: The location used for the race that gets Sean in trouble.

These locations, along with Hawthorne Plaza and the Atwater Village set, show how the production used Los Angeles-area places to represent settings far beyond the city.

Quick Recap

Bestseller No. 3
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (Widescreen Edition)
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (Widescreen Edition)
Condition: New; Format: DVD; AC-3; Color; Dolby; Dubbed; DVD; Subtitled; Widescreen; NTSC
$9.47
Bestseller No. 5
The Fast And The Furious - Tokyo Drift [DVD]
The Fast And The Furious - Tokyo Drift [DVD]
Polish Release, cover may contain Polish text/markings. The disk has English audio.
$6.49
Best Value
The Fast And The Furious - Tokyo Drift [DVD]
  • Polish Release, cover may contain Polish text/markings. The disk has English audio.
Rank #3
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (Widescreen Edition)
  • Condition: New
  • Format: DVD
  • AC-3; Color; Dolby; Dubbed; DVD; Subtitled; Widescreen; NTSC

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