From the start, it’s clear that “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift” is in trouble. It dispenses with reality as soon as possible, beginning in a high school populated entirely by clearly post-collegiate actors; this is the oldest group of high schoolers since “Dawson’s Creek” went off the air.

Sean (Lucas Black), one of these high schoolers, has just been arrested for reckless driving and is being sent to live with his military dad in Japan. He is quickly sucked into the world of underground drift racing, where, with the help of friends Han (Sung Kang) and Twinkie (Bow Wow), he must battle against a wannabe gangster called the Drift King (a surprisingly effective Brian Tee).

As in the previous two “Fast and the Furious” movies, the plot in “Tokyo Drift” is little more than an excuse to show off fancy cars going really, really fast. Unfortunately, director Justin Lin’s hyperactive style renders the races incomprehensible and boring. He seems incapable of holding a shot for more than a couple of seconds; he cuts so often that it’s nearly impossible to tell what’s going on and even harder to care.

So all that’s left is the undercooked romantic subplot between Sean and the Drift King’s girlfriend (Nathalie Kelley) and the movie’s bizarre anti-Japanese racism. Only one of the protagonists is Asian, and he speaks English exclusively - even when around other Japanese people. Every fully Japanese-speaking character is a gangster or a criminal.

The climactic race between Sean and the Drift King has the Drift King’s Nissan losing to Sean’s Ford Mustang, the quintessential American muscle car. It’s American strength and power triumphing over foreign opposition.

It’s an oddly xenophobic stance for a movie with “Tokyo” in the title to take, but “Tokyo Drift” doesn’t seem to care about its setting any more than it does about its characters; Tokyo is just a flashy city in which to set flashy car races. But since not even the races are any good, “Tokyo Drift” is pointless.

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