The Furious is basically what happens when you throw The Raid, Taken, and John Wick into a blender and somehow only keep the best parts. Directed by Kenji Tanigaki, this is the most entertained I’ve been in a movie theater all year and one of the best action films I’ve seen in a long time.
From the opening scene, this thing is pedal to the metal. It doesn’t slow down, it doesn’t let up, and somehow it keeps finding new ways to top itself. The story follows Joe Taslim’s character searching for his missing wife, a reporter investigating a human trafficking ring, while Wang Wei (Xie Miao) is desperately trying to find his abducted daughter. Their paths collide as they tear through an empire of traffickers, leaving a trail of broken bones and destroyed bodies behind them.
What makes The Furious special isn’t just that people are beating the hell out of each other for nearly two hours. It’s how well it’s all put together. The directing is fantastic, the cinematography is sharp, the pacing is relentless, and the action choreography is absolutely masterclass. These aren’t CGI superheroes flying around. These are real martial artists doing real martial artist things, and you can feel the difference in every fight scene.
The cast is loaded. Joe Taslim is terrific as the wisecracking, hopeless investigator who has nothing left to lose. Xie Miao is equally great as the film’s mute protagonist, communicating almost entirely through his actions and expressions. Their contrasting personalities make for a surprisingly effective partnership.
Special shoutout to Brian Le, who absolutely steals every scene he’s in. The guy has incredible energy, unbelievable physicality, and moves like someone who was born to be in movies like this. Joey Iwanaga is another standout, playing a character who initially seems like a rich pretty boy before revealing himself to be an absolute wrecking machine. Yayan Ruhian remains a legend and proves once again why action fans get excited whenever his name appears in a cast list.
The action itself is outrageous. There’s a nightclub sequence that honestly rivals some of the best nightclub scenes in the genre. At one point Xie Miao is running around with a hammer fighting multiple opponents at once, and I remember thinking, “Yep, this is exactly why I go to the movies.” The film constantly finds creative ways to stage combat, whether it’s hammers, bicycles, bicycle pedals, ladders, bows and arrows, blocks of ice, sledgehammers, or whatever random object happens to be within arm’s reach. Every fight feels distinct and memorable.
The final act somehow raises the stakes even further with a chaotic multi-sided showdown featuring several of the movie’s biggest fighters all colliding at once. By that point the audience in my theater was cheering and applauding. It felt like one of those increasingly rare crowd-pleasing theatrical experiences where everyone is having a blast together.
Even the supporting cast shines. Rainy, who plays Wang Wei’s daughter, gets her own moments to stand out, and the villains are memorable enough that everyone gets a chance to leave an impression. That’s part of what makes the movie work so well: nobody feels wasted.
With stunt performers finally getting Oscar recognition in the coming years, movies like The Furious deserve to be in that conversation. The stunt work here is astonishing. The craftsmanship behind these sequences is every bit as impressive as the violence itself.
We need more movies like this. Movies built around practical stunt work, elite martial artists, clear choreography, and filmmakers who understand how to shoot action. Kenji Tanigaki is operating at a ridiculous level here, and I can’t wait to see what he does next.
The Furious is an instant action classic and one of the year’s very best films. If you love The Raid, John Wick, classic Hong Kong action cinema, or just watching incredibly talented people do incredible things on screen, this is mandatory viewing.
The Furious = 92/100