Sung Kang knows movie car chases. Drifter is about the person who stays behind after the race. The actor best known as Han in Fast & Furious directs and stars in a film about Tree, a lonely racetrack custodian with a surprising gift behind the wheel. After its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, the movie has another TIFF screening tonight, September 18, at Scotiabank Theatre.
Tree is not a champion when the story begins. He works around the track, carries grief from his past and keeps most people at a distance. An opportunity to compete in professional drifting gives him a reason to try something bigger. To get there, he needs guidance and a group he can trust, not just the ability to slide a car around a corner.
The car is Lola, but the story is Tree’s
The film’s official site introduces a red Toyota AE86 called Lola as its hero car. The festival trailer shows that car in the desert and follows Tree between his daily work and the racing world he wants to enter. It has the engine sound and tire smoke a racing fan hopes to see, yet the quiet scenes with other people are just as prominent.
Kang described the film earlier this year as “a project born out of a global passion for car culture.” His interest in cars is well known, but Drifter’s official synopsis is clear that driving alone cannot fix Tree’s isolation. The competition pushes him to accept a mentor and a found family. That is the difference between this story and simply watching a succession of drifting tricks.
Who made Drifter?
Kang wrote, directed and stars in the independent feature. The film site identifies his character as Tree and introduces other figures in his world. Toronto Metropolitan University’s September 18 behind-the-scenes panel also lists producer Brian Yang, editor and co-producer Lam Nguyen and cinematographer Bruce Thierry Cheung alongside Kang. The movie is a filmmaking project with a car community behind it, not a new Fast & Furious installment.
A racing film can become predictable when every problem is solved by one faster lap. Drifter’s premise has a stronger personal problem: Tree has avoided the very closeness that might help him succeed. The trailer gives glimpses of an older mentor and people who challenge his habit of being alone. It does not say exactly how the competition ends.
Can you watch it outside TIFF?
The official site lists TIFF screenings on September 12, 14, 17 and 18, with tonight’s at 8:30 p.m. Toronto time. That is a festival schedule, not a general theatrical release calendar. The filmmakers say to follow the film for a wider date and future tour events, but no nationwide opening or streaming date is confirmed on the official site.
For now, Drifter is a TIFF movie with a distinct invitation: come for Lola and the drifting, then see whether Tree learns to let anyone else ride along. Kang has been in some of cinema’s biggest car spectacles; this one aims for something closer to the driver.
See the film’s confirmed story and screening details on our Drifter movie page.
