Initial D is a Japanese street racing manga series written and illustrated by Shuichi Shigeno. It was serialized in Kodansha's seinen manga magazine Weekly Young Magazine from 1995 to 2013, with the chapters collected into 48 tankōbon volumes. The story focuses on the world of illegal Japanese street racing, where all the action is concentrated in the mountain passes and rarely in cities or urban areas, and with the drifting racing style emphasized in particular. Professional race car driver and pioneer of drifting Keiichi Tsuchiya helped with editorial supervision. The story is centered on the prefecture of Gunma, more specifically on several mountains in the Kantō region and in their surrounding cities and towns. Although some of the names of the locations the characters race in have been fictionalized, all of the locations in the series are based on actual locations in Japan.
Jay Chou is a Taiwanese singer and musician. Dubbed the "King of Mandopop", and having sold over 30 million records, Chou is one of the best-selling artists in Taiwan and is known for his work with lyricist Vincent Fang, with whom he has frequently collaborated on his music. In 2000, Chou released his debut studio album, Jay (2000), under the record company Alfa Music. Chou rose to fame with the release of his second studio album, Fantasy (范特西) (2001), which combined Western and East Asian music styles. The album won five Golden Melody Awards, including Album of the Year. He has since further released twelve more studio albums, spawning a string of hit singles and gaining significant prominence in Overseas Chinese communities such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, Mainland China, Malaysia, and Singapore. Chou has embarked on six world tours, performing in cities around the world to more than 10 million spectators as of 2019. Outside of music, Chou is an actor, active businessman and investor. As a businessman, Chou has served as the President of his own fashion brand PHANTACi since 2006 and was a founding member of his own talent agency, JVR Music in 2007. Chou has also ventured into acting, where he made his acting debut in the film Initial D 頭文字D (2005), followed shortly by a starring role in the epic Curse of the Golden Flower (2006). He has since starred in a number of movies, becoming known to Western audiences when he made his Hollywood debut in 2011 with The Green Hornet, starring alongside Seth Rogen and Christoph Waltz, followed by Now You See Me 2 (2016).
The AE86 series of the Toyota Corolla Levin and Toyota Sprinter Trueno are small, front-engine/rear-wheel-drive models within the front-engine/front-wheel-drive fifth generation Corolla (E80) range—marketed by Toyota from 1983 to 1987 in coupé and liftback configurations.
Keiichi Tsuchiya is a Japanese professional race car driver. He is known as the Drift King for his nontraditional use of drifting in non-drifting racing events and his role in popularizing drifting as a motorsport. In professional racing, he is a two-time 24 Hours of Le Mans class winner and the 2001 All Japan GT Championship runner-up. He is also known for touge driving.
Mount Haruna is a dormant stratovolcano in Gunma Prefecture, in the Kantō region of eastern Honshū, Japan.
The Initial D video game series, also known as Initial D Arcade Stage, is an arcade racing game series developed by Sega, based on the anime and manga series Initial D. In the United States and Europe, the game series is simply known as Initial D.
Shuichi Shigeno is a Japanese manga artist famous for creating Initial D. Shigeno has also created Bari Bari Densetsu, Dopkan, and Tunnel Nuketara Sky Blue all prior to the manga that would make him famous in 1995. In 1985, he received the Kodansha Manga Award in shōnen for Bari Bari Densetsu.
Andrew Lau Wai-keung is a Hong Kong film director, producer, and cinematographer. Lau began his career in the 1980s and 1990s, serving as a cinematographer to filmmakers such as Ringo Lam, Wong Jing and Wong Kar-wai. In the 1990s, Lau decided to have more creative freedom as a cinematographer by becoming a film director and producer. Apart from making films in his native Hong Kong, Lau has also made films in China, Korea and the United States. A highly prolific filmmaker, Lau has made films in a variety of genres, and is most notable in the West for his action and crime films which include the Young and Dangerous film series, the Infernal Affairs trilogy, and Revenge of the Green Dragons.
The AE85 series of the Toyota Corolla Levin and Toyota Sprinter Trueno are small, front-engine/rear-wheel-drive compact cars within the front-engine/front-wheel-drive fifth-generation Corolla (E80) range—manufactured by Toyota from 1983 to 1987 in coupé and liftback configurations.
The Scandinavian flick is a technique used predominantly in ice racing and rallying. The technique induces oversteer using weight transfer to carry a vehicle through a turn while simultaneously reducing speed.
Confession of Pain is a 2006 Hong Kong crime drama film directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak, starring Tony Leung, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Shu Qi and Xu Jinglei.
Alan Mak Siu-fai, is a Hong Kong writer, director, actor and producer.
Chie Tanaka is a Japanese model and actress who is based in Taiwan. She is best known for her role as Tomoko in Cape No. 7, the second top-selling film in Taiwanese cinematic history.
The Rooftop is a 2013 Taiwanese musical film. It is the second feature film directed by Taiwanese singer/actor Jay Chou. Similar to his first feature film, Secret, Jay played multiple roles in the production of the film, as the main lead, director, script-writer and music composer.
New Initial D is a 2014–2016 Japanese anime film series based on the manga series Initial D by Shuichi Shigeno. The film is a retelling of the early stages of the manga and is split into three parts with the first part, Legend 1: Awakening released on August 23, 2014. The full trailer was revealed on 16 May 2014, containing an entirely new Japanese cast. In the English dub, however, most of the Funimation cast from the original series reprised their roles for the trilogy.
Chasing the Dragon, previously known as King of Drug Dealers, is a Hong Kong-Chinese action crime drama film directed by Wong Jing and Jason Kwan. The film stars Donnie Yen as Crippled Ho, based on real life gangster Ng Sik-ho and Andy Lau reprising his role as Lee Rock from the film series of the same name. The film is about an illegal immigrant from China who sneaks into British-colonized Hong Kong in 1963 and transforms himself into a ruthless and emerging drug lord. The film is a remake of the 1991 film To Be Number One.
The Anthem of the Heart, abbreviated as Kokosake (ここさけ) and subtitled Beautiful Word Beautiful World, is an Anime youth drama film produced by A-1 Pictures released in 2015. The film was directed by Tatsuyuki Nagai and written by Mari Okada. Masayoshi Tanaka served as the chief animation director and designed the characters. The trio, under the creative team name of Super Peace Busters, had previously worked on the anime series Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day and its film adaptation, as well as Toradora!. The film was released in theaters in Japan on September 19, 2015.
Bodyguard Kiba: Apocalypse of Carnage, also known as Bodyguard Kiba 2: Combat Apocalypse or simply Bodyguard Kiba 2, is a 1994 Japanese direct-to-video martial arts/action film directed by Takashi Miike. It is the sequel to the 1993 film Bodyguard Kiba and is followed by Bodyguard Kiba: Apocalypse of Carnage 2 (1995), the final part of the trilogy.
