Johnson Thomas
Set-piece heavy false positive Actioner
Film: The Furious (2025)
Cast: Xie Miao, Joe Taslim, Yang Enyou, Jeeja Yanin, Brian Le, Joey Iwanaga, Yayan Ruhian. (English, Mandarin, Thai, Tagalog dialogue)
Director: Kenji Tanigaki (Japanese)
Fight Choreographer: Kensuke Sonomura (Japanese), Cinematographer: Meteor Cheung
Editor: Chris Tonick (USA)
Rating: * * *
Runtime: 113 m
“The Furious” showcases martial arts performers from the Orient and the USA. As the title suggests this an all-out action film that goes from start to finish at a frenetic pace. Everyone in the film is an exponent of some form of martial arts.“The Furious” showcases martial arts performers from China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Japan, and the United States, among other places. They are all so well versed in offence and defence that it seems like they exist in a cocoon all their own. The non-stop action consists of smooth action sequences enjoined together to create a narrative that plays false because the purpose here is to showcase a variety of action and not to tell a story exactly. If you love action movies, and are capable of suspending your disbelief then this one’s for you.
The story and script credited to Mak Tin Shum, Lei Zhilong, Shum Kwan Sin and Frank Hui is a baseline framework. It’s familiar and predictable. It’s the fight choreography that does this film proud.
The prologue takes us into a filthy dungeon full of abducted children being forced into unspeakable nauseating acts.Then comes the main thread.
A mute father(Mo Tse) finds his daughter Rainy (Yang Enyou) being kidnapped for trafficking purposes and try as he might, he is unable to prevent his daughter from being taken away. The Dad chases the truck that has his daughter, on foot, and it’s only inevitable that he won’t succeed, at least at that point. The husband Navin (Joe Taslim) of the journalist (Jeeja Yanin) who was trying to expose the traffickers and mount a lone rescue and goes missing thereafter, is also on their chase. Together they form a formidable team against the gang boss Mr. Song (Sahajak Boonthanakit), Paklung ( Joey Iwanaga),numerous traffickers and the cops who seem to be hand in glove with the villains. Yayan Ruhian and Joey Iwanaga show up towards the end and their involvement makes the going even more difficult for the valiant duo.
The athletic feats on display, exquisite, brutal fight choreography, and the fluid plotting keeps you absorbed in what’s happening on screen. There are several set-piece fights here - a particularly doozy one is the five-way fight in a rainstorm.
Apparently this martial arts movie showcases several variations of martial arts from across the world. The director Kenji Tanigaki (Japanese), fight choreographer Kensuke Sonomura (Japanese), Cinematographer Meteor Cheung (Hong Kong), Editor Chris Tonick (USA) have collaborated brilliantly to make the adrenaline gush from start to finish.
As the narrative progresses the degree of difficulty increases and the villains display a never-say-die brutality that is unswerving. Every instrument available is both offensive weapon and defensive. Knives, swords, guns, ice pick, hammer, a sledgehammer, chairs, tables, beer bottles, crystal decanter, bicycles, ladders - you name it, they’ve all been used here quite creatively.
The fights go on interminably but they are inventive and ferocious. It’s mostly rough-and-ready hand-to-hand combat that takes precedence.
This is the third feature directed by Tanigaki a former action choreographer and stunt coordinator, and his knowledge about the same is seen everywhere. The action is vigorous, relentless and sets off kinetic energy that is viscerally eye pleasing.
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