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Shuto Kousoku Trial

首都高速トライアル
Megalopolis Expressway Trial
Freeway Speedway
Freeway speedway.jpg
"The Complete Collection" DVD boxset
Directed by Freeway Speedway:
Katsuji Kanazawa
Freeway Speedway 2:
Shūji Kataoka
Freeway Speedway 3:
Yoshihiro Tsukada
Freeway Speedway 4:
Yoshihiro Tsukada
Freeway Speedway 5:
Yoshihiro Tsukada
Freeway Speedway 6:
-
Starring Keiichi Tsuchiya
Gitan Ōtsuru
Yumiko Okayasu
Daisuke Nagakura
Arthur Kuroda
Kazuhiko Nishimura
Ikuo Fukada
Toshihiko Sakakibara
Keika Miyamoto
Masaki Nishimori
Wataru Watanabe
Distributed by Toei (Japan)
Nikkatsu (Japan)
Adness Ent. (U.S.)
Release date
1988 – 1996
Country Japan
Language Japanese

Megalopolis Expressway Trial (首都高速トライアル, Shuto kōsoku toraiaru) is the original title of a series of six Japanese films, about illegal highway racing in the Shuto Expressway, released between 1988 and 1996. An English subtitled version of the films series -renamed Freeway Speedway- was released on DVD in North America in 2004 due to commercial success of popular Hollywood films like The Fast and The Furious ("before there was The Fast And The Furious, there was Freeway Speedway" is a quote appearing on the fourth DVD). A 4-disc re-release of the 2004 edition was made available in 2007, it was renamed Tokyo Speedway: The Complete Collection. Though also available in Hong Kong, the DVD edition was not released in Japan since the series is still banned and the last episode unreleased yet.

Made during one of the most notorious eras of street racing, when the Mid Night Club ruled the scene and became one of the most infamous and feared or "respected" car clubs in Japan. Before they were banned from doing so, car magazines freely covered illegal races, but in the mid 1990s, Western media started to report about the Bōsōzoku and in the 2000s a popular American street racing video game series was named after them, as Midnight Club.

The first film, produced by Nikkatsu, was banned from release in Japan in cinema, due to its content. When racing driver and former street racer Keiichi Tsuchiya came on hand from the first sequel, it had adopted an anti street racing message, therefore avoiding a ban. The series became a semi biographical piece about him, partially about his experience as a hashiriya (native term for "street racer") and that when he quit to go professional racing.

The series following the first film, were released under the Toei Company's V-Cinema line, meaning that they were all released direct-to-video. These films are believed to have influenced popular franchises including local video game series such as the Ridge Racer series and the Shutokō Battle series (the name "shutokō battle" is a dialogue line in the fourth film), as well as comic books like Wangan Midnight.


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