From what I can tell about this Remake of Initial D stage 1 is that it's a modernized version of Stage 1. The movie has combined all the episodes from Stage 1 and made into 1 piece movie. I think the beginning would've had the similar beginning just like in the original stage 1. It was also strange that there wasn't eurobeat but much different songs in the movie. But mostly movie gets straight to the point on moments and some dialogues and looks are probably different but the story stays the same. For They rookies this is good one to begin with, although the olderversion is a bit better than the remake.