Directed By Kenji Tanigaki

Starring – Xie Miao, Joe Taslim, Sahajak Boonthanakit

The Plot – After the daughter of Wang Wei (Miao) is kidnapped by a criminal network and he receives no help from the corrupt police, Wei sets out on a rampage to find her himself. His only ally is Navin (Taslim), a relentless journalist whose wife has mysteriously disappeared. Fueled by a furious vengeance, the unlikely duo ruthlessly fights against the kidnappers in this explosive martial arts showdown.

Rated R for strong bloody violence and adult language

The Furious (2026) Official Trailer – Xie Miao, Joe Taslim

POSITIVES

Beyond borrowing a few of its decorated utility players, in order to enact physically dominating performances aplenty, The Furious will deservedly draw inevitable comparisons to The Raid movies as a result of its breathtakingly propulsive bone-crunching action sequences, the likes and delivery of which enact a ruthlessly riveting consistency that undoubtedly made this the most ferociously fun engagement of the entire cinematic calendar. Part of that prestigious certification certainly falls on Tanigaki’s energetically blood-soaked spectacle of direction elicited on the finished product, featuring just enough underlining humor to the supercharged intensity that keeps matters engagingly indulging without sacrificing the emotional importance of its established conflict, alongside barbaric brutality in gruesome imagery sure to challenge some sensitive stomachs in the audience, but just as much overwhelming praises should be paid to the elaborateness and creativity of these remarkably executed fight sequences, the likes of which begin as immediately as the movie’s opening sequence, then only elevate urgently and expansively with each additional one increasing the intensity that immerses us effortlessly in the danger factor of those characters involved. While the film has no qualms about earning every square inch of its aggressively obvious R-rating, with buckets of blood and gruesome gore aplenty to digest the stakes and circumstances of so much relentless devastation, they’re made impeccable with razor-sharp fight choreography and intricate set design tangibility that appraise creativity and spontaneity to so much impressive physicality, allowing the movie to do its loudest talking with the actions of its characters, which ride the waves of determination on their ride to vengeance. When I say that these are not only the best action sequences that I’ve seen all year, but also some of the greatest that I’ve ever seen, particularly one during the movie’s climax involving as many as five characters bouncing frantically off of one another, I wholeheartedly mean it, as even with the minimalizing of lukewarm C.G deposits occasionally, there’s still a remarkable influence over the detectability of enactment that renders unsettling impact to those frivolously invested in the heat of conflict, with boldly conveying sound designs maximizing the influence of the imagery in every bone-crunching detail, without anything even remotely artificial to stand out amongst so much artistic perfection. Artistry that involves cerebrally instinctual contortions of the lens from cinematographer Meteor Cheung, whose weaving in and out of the depths of devastation with the kind of smooth seamlessness that goes undetected amongst so many flying limbs and slash and gash weaponry, feels like an assassin of the night evoking claustrophobic captivity in the three-dimensional outlining of what’s registered in every frame. Cheung’s enthusiastic energies in casually deviating between pocketed aspects of this grander scope certainly coincide brilliantly with Tanigaki’s intended approach to atmosphere, with perpetrated personality of a metal dominated score from Elliot Leung and Flying Lotus injecting alarming attitude to these already unforgiving characters, but his established experience in the industry and genre gifts him just enough impulsive intuition to know when to dazzle at just the right down moments within each gripping sequence, without abruptly intruding upon the clear cohesion of the swiftly surreal choreography’s imperativeness, in turn balancing limitless ambition with selflessness in ways that opportune the bigger picture of presentation, rather than a singular aspect that stands out abrasively against the others. Likewise, while the script is admittedly as interchangeable and derivative as you would expect from these kinds of revenge thrillers, I can’t ever say that it sacrificed emotionality in its simplicity, especially considering it reaches for the heart in our most vulnerable of characters; in kidnapped and trafficked children. One-dimensional antagonists aside, give me a narrative involving threatened kids, and you’ve enacted an empathetic angle in me that will back any protagonist assembled to protect them, and considering the fights have such an overwhelming grip on the maintained focus of the movie’s finished product, there were some clever deviations in the utilizing of this creative outline that continuously felt like it increased the complexity of the stakes every bit as much as it expanded upon the scope of those characters involved, allowing for an unforeseen power balance between our dynamic duo and their morally shallow opposition, than I was initially expecting, with the right amount of give and receive that grows maintained attention from seeds of uncertainty. Despite this, where the script excels most is in the blossoming bond between father and daughter, which not only serves as the heartily underlining engine driving Wang’s undeterred resiliency towards attempting to rescue her, but also a bittersweet uncovered truth about the horrifying realities of unwatched kids that this martial arts extravaganza constantly concerns itself with, in turn rendering a sentimentally sympathetic value to these characters that endears them to us as a result of the stoic performances delivered spectacularly between Xie Miao and Joe Taslim. What initially begins as a near-death misunderstanding between mutual intentions, quickly blooms into a dependable friendship that feels nearly familial with the experience of their corresponding mission, with the committed approaches of their respective physical fighting styles garnering uniqueness to the individuality of their portrayals. This is not to say that either struggle in their attempts enacting emotionality to the helming of their characters, as Taslim’s eventual grappling with his unfortunately inevitable reality builds a fiery inferno internally that ejects itself at the most opportune exclamation point moments of personal conflicts, and Miao’s tenderness away from the fight conveys a sincerity and guardianship that overrides his expressive limitations in being a deafly diagnosed character, thankfully without the production’s need to once again immerse us in the depths of an audibly handicapped character with smothered sound designs that have become a cliche of itself in movies involving these kinds of characters. Lastly, despite the movie’s 108-minute runtime dominated by so much physicality, the pacing is surprisingly effortless for so much structural repetition in its creative outline, with the right amount of action sequences, the likes of which never overstay their welcome. This is one of the only problems that I had with The Raid franchise, specifically the second film, where an overlong two-and-a-half hour runtime felt evidentially tedious despite some of the very best action that I’ve ever seen, and while The Furious could’ve easily fallen into the same circumstances that befell its predecessor, there’s the right amount of determinative drive and corresponding developments within these character arcs that keep matters interesting inside of this single day scope, with the right kind of runtime to effectively wield the layers of this story.

NEGATIVES

Admittedly, the dialogue is quite weak persistently throughout the many interactions of the engagement, and not just as a means of Tanigaki’s intended tonal impulses, but rather the stock kind of revenge thriller dialogue that you’ve come to predictably expect from these movies. While the choice to dub these characters in English for American audiences is just as problematic to the necessary emotionality required out of some secondary characters, the reality is that the artificially hollow and unintentionally hilarious lines stand out as compromisingly distracting to the integrity of the depicted characters, even in subtitled form, leaving so many of these exposition-dependent scenes conflicted by unloaded lines that occasionally felt like they stemmed from an entirely different film all together, and one that obviously didn’t have half going for it as The Furious does. Aside from the kind of dialogue that made me wish that every character was deaf, there’s some convoluted contrivances and conveniences to the plotting of scenes, particularly during the third act, that didn’t stretch logic so much as it suspended it all together, leaving members of my audience shouting questions and obscenities at the screen, towards characters who obviously lack the same kind of conflict resolution as their depicted characters. While there are quite a few examples stemming from the aforementioned third act alone, the two that I keep coming back to involve Wang and Navin behind bars at a prison, where they seek to get slightly out of reach keys by attempting to dislocate their shoulder to squeeze their arm through, as well as the rescued kids constantly sticking around and climbing the stairs to higher ground, when in reality a light jog out of the front door would easily put them out of harms way. As previously conveyed, Tanigaki’s kind of depicted world is definitely one not abiding to the typical rules of reality that adorn movies set in the real world, especially during characters casually walking off getting hit by a car or having their brains beaten mercilessly by a crowbar, however these momentary lapses of judgment only serve to prolong the tension of the earned drama, in ways that not only leave our protagonists feeling braindead from the air of their impactful devastation, but also Tanigaki free of comprehending universal answers that are literally right in front of him in more instances than one.

OVERALL
The Furious is a maniacal martial arts masterpiece that effectively delivers high-octane maximalist thrills aplenty to the year’s most brutally bloody and sensorially stimulating action sequences, led impressively by resilient physicality and creatively spontaneous fight choreography that cements an instant classic for the subgenre. Xie Miao and Joe Taslim are an unstoppable duo on a winding and unpaved road to revenge, steering a high-stakes, top-speed thrill ride that leaves audiences on the edge of their seats with a full tank of adrenaline

My Grade: 8.9 or A-