10 Movies That Took Extreme Measures To Shoot Scenes

Though the third Fast and the Furious movie takes place almost entirely in Tokyo, the overwhelming majority of the production was actually filmed in Los Angeles, California, largely due to how difficult it is to obtain filming permits in the Japanese capital.

But director Justin Lin nevertheless went to Tokyo with Universal's go-ahead and attempted to shoot a few small sequences, albeit without permission from the local authority.

Though Lin was able to capture all the shots he needed, he very nearly found himself spending the night in jail were it not for some pre-emptive intervention from the studio itself. Lin said:

"When we went to shoot in Tokyo it's a very different culture. 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.

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."

Paying a local to spend the night in jail rather than letting the director head to the slammer and potentially derail the shooting schedule? That's some smart foresight.