The Furious is a near-perfect action film. There are a couple of logical improbabilities. The biggest one being a skinny street kid holding an escape rope made from blankets for children who are exiting a fourth story window. In a movie that’s just under two hours long, and being a genre with a very lenient curve automatically applied to it, that’s amazing. People will compare The Furious to The Raid and they’re correct, but it’s so much more than just another martial arts movie.
It’s an action movie with as much fighting and gun play as fans of the genre would expect with John Wick. For action movie fans, the period between 2012 and 2015 was high entertainment. 2012 had The Raid, 2014 was John Wick (as well as, The Raid 2) and 2015 saw the much-delayed Mad Max sequel, Fury Road hit cinemas. The Furious blazes its own body count trail with aspects of the seminal Indonesian film from 2012, but is also less intense than that to a degree.
Less intense is not a bad thing. The Furious has moments of levity that you aren’t expecting. During the final fight there’s an instance where the faces of each of the fighters is zoomed in on and arranged in rectangular boxes, like a classic western. In most of the fights leading up that there are times when a kill has edges of black humor. They make you squirm with discomfort, but not out of gore that you’d see in a horror movie. Your mouth will twist in wry ways because you know that this character, because of their actions, ultimately deserves the comeuppance that is being served to them.
The Furious is essentially broken out into five acts. When the film gets to the final act, audiences will be amazed at how much it holds in the tank for the finale. Action movie fans will still be engaged, and casual movie fans will be wondering if there are any other films in the ethosphere as good as The Furious. There aren’t, and that’s why you’re seeing so many social media ads about the Furious expelling its virtues.
It is relentless, insofar as most action movies go. Mo Tse plays a deaf dad whose daughter gets kidnapped by a human trafficking ring somewhere in Southeast Asia. I loved how the film set up the vague and nondescript setting, even though most people in the theater were thinking, “Thailand”. This way the film makers can still save face with a little reality, without casting more stereotypes to one country.
Joe Taslim is the husband of a missing reporter, presumably killed by the same trafficking ring. Tse’s character tries to report it to the police, but they bury it in red tape. Audiences know that it’s buried because someone, probably high up in the police force is corrupt and working with the cartels. It’s great to see Yayan Ruhian again, and Brian Le is a standout heel, with enough of a soul to make him an anti-hero.
There is just enough of a breather between action sequences to build up anticipation for the next one. It’s not a long wait. It’s exposition, but just enough of it to build a plot and not get long in the tooth. There is certainly some special effects involved in the safety aspects of the film. They’re woven in there, but don’t overpower the scenes. They add to the scenes by helping sell the illusion. Green screens or special effects don’t have to create an artificial feeling in cinema. Obviously, the aliens or dinosaurs we see on big screens aren’t real. Action sequences though, the ones that are really well done are ballet-like in nature. The precision and body movements we see on screen are done by people. It’s the after effects, like a tibia poking through a victim’s leg that can be accentuated in post.
Audiences know there are special effects in The Furious, but the actors sell the action with such conviction that any CGI is blended or forgiven. We took our 14-year-old to see The Furious. The film deserves the R-rating, via its sustained action and occasional gore. However, in our case, our son had seen moments akin to it in other films, although not as entertainingly, and knew that it was a blend of martial arts and cinema. The film was in Chinese, with a little bit of English and had a very quick allusion to the underbelly of human trafficking. It’s really quick, lasts no longer than two seconds and is akin to Bruce Willis’ role in Pulp Fiction.
The Furious is a more action-based, martial arts influenced version of Taken. That’s an apt statement. However, The Furious is non-stop action, not to parrot the blurbs that you see on social media, but they’re 100% accurate. This is a classic action film that will age beautifully and hopefully remind future martial artists and film makers of how good a karate movie can be.
The Furious is rated R for sustained violence and gore.
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