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Fast and Furious got someone in jail for filming Tokyo Drift illegally

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, made waves in the Japanese box office upon release — but that doesn't mean the authorities were happy about it filming

Working on a huge action movie franchise like Fast and Furious is always going to have some level of risk — but how far are you willing to go in the name of art? For one man involved in the third Fast and Furious movie, Tokyo Drift, it turns out that the answer to the question is, quite literally, prison. 

Justin Lin, who directed and produced the thriller movie, revealed the unexpected drama back in a 2009 interview with Digital Spy. The acclaimed director, who has also directed several Fast and Furious movies, as well as Star Trek Beyond, revealed to the outlet that they hired a “fall guy” come with him to Tokyo, Japan, because they were unable to get permits for location shoots from the country’s authorities. 

“When we went to shoot in Tokyo it’s a very different culture,” he explained. “They don’t give out film permits. We would be setting up a scene and people would just walk right through the set. I had this one guy, I thought he said he was me. I didn’t know what that meant.”

He continued, “I wanted to shoot in Shibuya, which is the most crowded place in Tokyo. The cops, they’re all so polite, so it takes ten minutes for them to come over and kick you out.”

“They shut us down, I’d gotten all my shots, but I didn’t know they were going to arrest me. Another guy stepped up and said, ‘I’m the director.’ I found out that it was his job to take the fall for me. He went to jail for the night and I’m forever grateful.”

Now, that’s what we call looking out for family.