Asia does Taken, with an overwhelming amount of punching.
When a man’s daughter is kidnapped, he will stop at absolutely nothing to get her back.
The Furious is directed by Kenji Tanigaki, a name we are probably going to hear more of if this film is anything to go by. A stunt coordinator-turn-director, you know it is going to pack a punch. It stars Miao Xie, Joe Taslim (Mortal Kombat II) Yayan Ruhian (The Raid, John Wick 3) and Brian Le (worked on Bullet Train and Everything Everywhere All at Once) you might have a clue what to expect. Honestly, not many negatives here. Except maybe poor SEO with the Fast and Furious franchise.
The Furious is a riotous, violent, but entertaining time.
We are introduced to a mute father (Miao Xie) and his daughter. He seems to make money as a handyman; he is a kind, quiet individual. His daughter (Enyou Yang) rebukes his insistence on training her in self-defence; the increasing news of child abductions unsettling him. After we put two and two together, she’s kidnapped off the street. After a pitch battle seeing him chase a truck fast enough to make Tom Cruise blush, he loses sight of her.
Can anything stop this father from saving his daughter?
As usual, the global release of The Furious is limited. Western cinema chains want to bombard us with Minions & Monsters from Illumination Studios. I had to go to an independent cinema (which was sold out) to watch it. If you are a fan of John Wick movies, The Raid movies, Monkey Man, Asian martial arts movies in general, you owe it to yourself to find this movie.
Running at an hour and fifty minutes, the movie is absolutely jam-packed with fighting. I’ve not been this engaged with a singular fight since Old Boy (one of my favourite movies. But it is nonstop here. Our hero and his single ally find clues as to the missing children’s whereabouts, and proceed to fight every single person in their way.
Expect extremely violent close-combat fighting, primarily using fists and feet, but various improvised weapons are regular. But the fighting escalates to such absurd heights (literally) with people dog-piling on top of each other. Fights can continue upwards, looking like a miniature version of the World War Z poster. It is ridiculous but extremely fun. The audience were laughing with the movie.
We have characters as well, to stand out from the rank and file. The mute hero in a combat-heavy movie isn’t anything knew. But fans of Yayan Ruhian will not be disappointed; he is positively loathsome, and gets a lot of combat. Brian Le steals the show, though. As an impossibly unstoppable tank of a man.
It is ludicrous. If you are looking for a more serious martial arts movie, you won’t get it. The story does involve child trafficking, which makes our villains suitably murderable, but that’s about as far as it goes. The film does well to give our hero’s pint-sized child agency and guile of her own, though. It neatly broke up the insane action. There’s also touches of subtext, on top of the carnage. Including nepotism, and corrupt police forces.
The third act, without spoiling anything, goes off the rails. Some great three-way, four-way fights. The villains go so far beyond crazy, though. The film is written by three people, so I guess a lot of ideas were on the table. But the overall pacing and tone accommodate it.
It is very silly. If you have trouble with the idea of someone functioning after having a sledgehammer impact into their ribs… so much as to spit blood. Or frankly any number of extremely violent punches that send them flying across the room, you might not be taking the film as lightly as it needs to be.
I think one issue I had with it, oddly, was the language. Set “somewhere” in Asia, but a large portion of characters speak English. And some actors did not strike me as English-speakers. In fact one of them, I swear, was dubbed. I could be wrong, but it was distracting.
Like all the best martial arts movies, it is made by experts in the field. They are showing their craft with passion and efficiency. It is a power fantasy. All the dads out there, doing anything to protect their child.
