The Furious Review: One of the Best Action Movies of the Decade
The fun part about reviewing action movies is that no matter what, words can’t do it justice. The Furious has been floating around film festivals for close to a year now, and it’s been hyped to oblivion. The hype basically boggles down to the incredible action, and that was enough to get me excited. So excited that I frantically bought tickets for it as soon as they went on sale (shoutout to Music Box theatre hosting their first ever Beyond Fest, it was incredible). Despite my high expectations, I still wasn’t prepared for what was in store for me. For those who don’t know, action movies are my favorite genre. Nothing hits me like seeing amazing action, whether it be insane choreography, big time stunts, or both, on the big screen. Fortunately, the 2020s have given us some great action movies, stuff like John Wick: Chapter Four, The Shadow Strays, Monkey Man, Kill, and more I’m sure I still need to watch. But as much as I love those movies, I feel like I’ve still been waiting for the next big action staple, one that pushes choreography and action forward.
The Furious is that movie. This movie kicked my ass. It is all out martial arts mayhem. A true feat of choreography, with an all star cast going wild and aided by top tier direction, editing, and mixing. This could very well be the best action movie of the 2020s.
The film stars Xie Maio as Wang, a mute father whose day at work starts off like any other, aided by his sweet and resourceful daughter Rainy (Yang Enyou, who made me actually clap at one point). That is until Rainy is kidnapped by a shockingly large criminal network, and after a tense and suspenseful car chase, Wang loses her. When the police provide no help he decides to go find her himself, and take out anyone in his way. The one exception is Navin (Joe Taslim), a journalist who’s also looking for his wife that mysteriously disappeared. The two work together to, pretty much, beat a whole lot of ass.
It’s a simple plot that you’ve seen before, but it works for this kind of movie. There is a subplot on crooked cops, but to be honest it’s probably the weakest part of the movie. Thankfully it never really gets in the way. It gives you enough to care about our characters, especially Rainy’s safety (the movie does not shy away from showing kids in danger, but the brutality is saved for the adults). Simple plots usually really work in action movies because it gives more room for the action to shine, which is what you’re here for anyway.
And god damn does it shine here. At a little under two hours, it is almost all action throughout. There’s been a lot of comparisons to The Raid here, and I think it’s a suitable one in that it is a wall-to-wall display of martial arts. But the movie also reminded me of the early work of Jackie Chan with how the environment gets used, which made me giddy. Everything is a weapon, from hands, feet, hammers, sledgehammers, knives, machetes, shotguns, lockers, bicycles, arrows, bows (you read that right), ladders, pipes and more. Each set piece is fun and relentless, barely letting you catch your breath as you wince from one brutal hit to another.
While there are a lot of influences from previous action staples, director Kenji Tanigaki really does make The Furious stand on its own. There is so much going on in the action, and while I’m sure it’s carefully constructed down to the last detail, it never feels like it. There is such a chaotic energy throughout every fight that I don’t have the first clue how Tanigaki, his crew, the choreographers, and the cast constructed it. Bodies are tangled up and stacked together that just doesn’t feel possible. There’s not just punching and kicking but grappling and wrestling. There’s so many styles of fighting on display here that it never feels repetitive, and it always had my jaw on the floor. Sometimes I was just laughing at the sheer ridiculousness of it all, and thankfully the movie never takes itself too seriously and knows when to have fun (if you’re looking for realism, you’re going to be quickly disappointed). It all comes to a head in a final fight that instantly became one of the best final fights I have ever seen in a movie, one that will be brought up regularly when debating all timer fights in action movie history. Even going into it and who’s in it would ruin the fun, so I urge you to just see it before it gets spoiled.
There’s a lot of credit to share with how great the action is, and a large part of that goes to the cast. Tanigaki assembled an all star team of martial arts stars here, and they all get multiple chances to shine. What’s really great is that while these characters don’t have a ton of substance (and they don’t need to), their personalities and fighting styles manage to differentiate them. Aside from grunt henchmen, there’s never a feeling of same-ness to the way each character fights. Xie Maio, who starred alongside the legendary Jet Li in his early works, is a strong silent type, who moves with electrifying speed. Joe Taslim, who got his action start in The Raid, gets to show off his Judo chops, and has some of the most impressive groundwork I’ve ever seen in a movie. Even his wife, played by Manatsanun Panlertwongskul, gets to beat some ass, setting the stage in the movie’s opening minutes. Joey Iwanaga as Pak Lung brings in crazy leg work and an appropriate psychopathic energy as the movie’s main villain.
I can’t stress enough how awesome everyone in this movie is, but there are two standouts for me. The first is Yayan Ruhian, who co-starred alongside Taslim in The Raid, as Lung’s right hand man. His character is essentially a slasher movie villain, wielding a bow and arrow and single handedly raising the blood and body count by at least thirty percent. His kills in the movie are easily the most savage. The other is Brian Le. I knew a lot of these actors from previous movies, but Le was a new one to me and instantly shot up my list of martial arts stars I need to keep an eye on. He’s one of the best action movie henchmen I’ve seen lately, right up there with Donnie Yen’s Caine in John Wick: Chapter Four. He’s huge yet so graceful with his movements, until he gets angrier and angrier, then thrashes around like a little kid mashing buttons on a fighting game. He steals the show in every scene he was in, and made for some of the loudest cheers in my theater.
Credit needs to go to everyone behind the scenes too. The camerawork mixes in beautiful wides yet also gets right in the action. There’s minimal cutting as the camera weaves between each fighter in incredible fashion. That, along with tight editing, make the action easy to follow, something many movies struggle to do. The only reason you can get lost or confused in the action is because of how fast the cast moves. The unsung hero here I think is the sound mixing, which is just as technically impressive as everything else going on here. If it were up to me, the sound mixing would be heavily considered for an Academy Award nomination.
As much as I’ve been raving about this movie, words really don’t do The Furious justice. It needs to be experienced on the big screen. It is an all killer, no filler feat of martial arts choreography. It’s relentlessly paced, it takes its stakes seriously while still reveling in its ridiculousness. It gives everyone, both on and off screen, the chance to truly flex their cinematic muscles. It’s given me multiple movies on my watchlist so I can see more of this cast’s work. It’s the kind of movie that demands to be seen on the big screen, and if you’re lucky, with a lively crowd. If you are a fan of action at all, you owe it to yourself to see this. If you have friends that are also fans, get them to go see this with you and just have a blast together. Months later, and I think I can safely say this was my favorite movie going experience of my life so far. It’s one of the best movies of the year, and one of the best action movies of the decade.
