The Furious
Action junkies who like their adrenaline spiked with edginess will be handsomely rewarded.
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“The Furious” (in select theaters beginning Friday, June 12) is a bloody, brutal Asian action movie bouillabaisse of Jackie Chan’s old school chop-socky flicks, John Woo’s heroic bloodshed pictures, “Taken,” “The Raid” franchise and “Sound of Freedom.”
Both mute handyman Wang Wei (Xie Mao) and undercover journalist Navin (Joe Taslim, late of “Mortal Kombat II”) understandably have an axe to grind with child sex trafficker Mr. Song (Sahajak Boonthanakit) and his son-in-law/protégé Paklung (Joey Iwanaga).
This criminal cabal kidnapped Wang Wei’s daughter Rainy (Yang Enyou) and Navin’s colleague and wife Matia (JeeJa Yanin) went missing after investigating the organization.
The two men team up to run roughshod through hundreds of these heathens. Their biggest obstacles come in the form of Song’s lackey Lo (Brian Le) and Paklung’s right-hand hatchet man Tak (Yayan Ruhian - the Kanjiklub member rocks a burgundy, velvet tracksuit and is armed with a bow and a quiver full of arrows).
Come hell or high water Wang Wei and Navin are going to retrieve Rainy and get answers about Matia’s whereabouts.
“The Furious” as directed by Japanese action choreographer/stunt coordinator-turned-director Kenji Tanigaki and written by screenwriters Mak Tin Shu, Lei Zhilong, Shum Kwan Sin and Frank Hui is an over-the-top orgy of action that’s equal parts exhilarating and exhausting. Much like Indonesian action gems such as “The Raid” pictures, “Headshot” or “The Night Comes for Us” it’s shocking to think no one died making this.
We get all sorts of fisti- and footicuffs and the performers, action director Kensuke Sonomura, director of photography Meteor Cheung, editor Chris Tonick and sound designer/sound editor Hang Shao and his army of foley artists and editors all deserve a whole helluva lot of credit for making sure all these blows not only connect but pulverize.
“The Furious” won’t be for all tastes - a villain shockingly does irreparable damage to his family and hilariously blames our heroes for his actions; a child is graphically shot in the leg with an arrow - but action junkies who like their adrenaline spiked with edginess will be handsomely rewarded.