Launched in 1990 as a Japanese manga series “Wangan Midnight” was more like a graphic novels than a traditional comic book. The series focused on characters street racing on the Bayshore Route (the Wangan-sen in Japanese) part of the infamous Shuto Expressway network. The Wangan is the 70 km stretch of highway connecting Yokohama to Chiba via bridges and elevated sections featuring long straights where real-life street racers would reach speeds over 250 km/h.
Three years after “F&F: Tokyo Drift” helped bring Japanese car culture to the world stage, a theatrical adaptation of this old school manga series was filmed.
The plot of “Wangan Midnight” centers on a young man named Akio Asakura, a high school student who apprentices as a mechanic. He cruises around the Shuto Expressways in his Mk3 Toyota Supra trying to impress girls, but gets whipped by a black Porsche 911 Turbo, locally famous as the Blackbird.
To redeem himself, Akio visits a junkyard to look for Supra go-fast parts, but accidentally stumbles across a wrecked Datsun Fairlady Z from 1972. The blue car looks highly customized, with lowered suspension, plus a powerful new engine. Shockingly, Akio sells his 1989 Supra to the junk man, and buys the old Z instead.
In a “Christine” inspired storyline that would make Stephen King proud, the car Akio has purchased is cursed by a demon! It’s known in street-racing circles as the Devil Z, and it killed its last owner, who was also named Akio! The demon that possesses the Devil Z exerts a mysterious influence over its driver, making him drive recklessly, faster than he is capable of. Quiet, level-headed Akio becomes a madman behind the wheel.
Once the Devil Z has been fully restored, Akio begins prowling the Wangan late at night, looking for the Blackbird that trounced his earlier. Before long before Akio finds his nemesis; Tatsuya Shima and his black Porsche. Unlike the other young hoolihans on the Wangan, Tatsuya is a skilled surgeon from a wealthy family. Tatsuya also happens to be dating Eriko, the sister of the first Akio Asakura, the original driver of the Devil Z complicating everyone’s emotions.
Tatsuya witnessed the death of his rival and friend Akio in the Devil Z while battling against his Blackbird some two years earlier, and he sold the wreck to the junkyard on the promise it be crushed and never allowed on the streets again. Now that the Devil Z has another victim under its spell, Tatsuya must beat the devil again.
What can really be said about “Wangan Midnight“? A comic book turned into a feature film to capitalize on the public apetite for street racing films. It owes a huge debt to the “Shuto Kousoku Trial” movies, yet this film was also influential.
Despite being a lower-budget production, the movie does not look cheap. It’s extremely well written and the audience is drawn into the stories of these characters as they search for meaning in their lives, and try to make sense of tragedies around them. That’s what makes this one different. It’s not just about fast cars.
I’ll have to try to find this one …. I’m an old “Z” guy!