The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift

Essential, and the single strongest argument this site has for its chronological toggle. Released third, set sixth. Watched in release order it is a disconnected spin-off with none of the cast, and an event near the end of it means nothing. Watched here, directly after Fast & Furious 6, it is the payoff to a character you have spent three films getting to know and to a revelation you watched thirty seconds of after the credits.

How that happened is worth knowing. The film was made as a standalone reboot with a new cast after Vin Diesel declined to return, and Han was introduced as a new character in it. He proved popular, so the later films brought him back by setting them earlier, which quietly placed this film at the end of the run and kept him alive for four more entries. The series wrote itself into the corner and then made the corner into a feature.

On its own terms it is better than its reputation. Justin Lin directs his first entry here and the drifting is shot with real cars doing real things, the Shibuya crossing sequence is the best street-level driving in the franchise, and the film is genuinely interested in Japan rather than using it as a backdrop. Sung Kang's Han, eating constantly and explaining nothing, is the most relaxed presence in eleven films.

The weaknesses are a bland lead and a plot about a school bully with yakuza connections. Watch it for Han, in this position, and the ordering problem this franchise is famous for stops being a problem.