THE FURIOUS

****

Directed by Kenji Tanigaki.

Starring Miao Xie, Joe Taslim, Enyou Yang.

Action, China, 113 Minutes, Certificate 18.

Released in Cinemas in the UK on June 26th by Lionsgate.

One of the biggest problems in running a site like this, is trying to find a suitable still to accompany a review. Most of the time all that is available is a perfunctory image of the main actors just standing around in a style that is hardly representative of the film or more often just plain boring. When doing an image search for Kenji Tanigaki’s brutal, exciting and darkly fun action fest however you are faced with an embarrassment of riches. What you will find is either Miao Xie and/or Joe Taslim in a striking action pose while some deserving villain is being flipped in mid-air getting punched, kicked or literally hammered in mid-air. Such random imagery is entirely representative of what has been hyped as one of the best action films in years. It turns out that such advance buzz is pretty much entirely warranted.

The plot is simple and straight forward, mainly involving a villainous cadre of child kidnappers and traffickers. Is there any villain more reprehensible than these bastards? Not really, especially this particular crew, led by a business suited and callous Joey Iwanaga as Paklung and his tracksuited, bow and arrow wielding henchman Tak. Right away you know that Tak is a force to be reckoned with because he’s played by the great Yayan Ruhian, one of martial arts cinema's most distinctive actors. Thankfully, for us and a bunch of poor kids, in opposition to these reprehensible characters is Navin, played by Joe Taslim, another familiar face from THE RAID and the sorely missed HBO series WARRIOR. Searching for his missing wife, a reporter who was tracking the spate of child abductions across the country, Navin is joined in his quest for justice/vengeance by the mute Wang Wei, a father whose own young daughter, Rainy, has been kidnapped. The combined combat skills of these two desperate men unleash a tidal wave of choreographed violence that is breathless in terms of pacing, style and execution, making their rescue mission one of the most exciting and often exhilarating sights you will see onscreen in many a year.

It could be argued that the thin plot is just an excuse or a thin framework to tack on all manner of fight sequences. Even if this was true it would hardly matter. Each fight scene is so inventively staged with a streak of self aware humour that will take several viewings to take in the full breadth of the frankly astonishing choreography and inventive direction that is on full display here. This is due in no small part to the work of Japanese director and action choreographer Kensuke Sonomura. Primarily known on these shores for his work on the BABY ASSASSINS franchise and 2024's excellent action comedy GHOST KILLER, Sonomura brings a much more frenetic and scrappier style to his fight sequences. His signature close combat style carries a more desperate and immediate inventiveness that breathes new life into a still exhilarating genre. Now with a bigger budget, and a cast of stunt performers and fighters, Sonomura’s signature moves of close contact hits and evasion soars to greater, bloodier and even more bone crunching heights than ever before. The fact that we now get to see such established stars as Xie, Taslim and Ruhian execute such moves, combined with all manner of weaponry including microphones and motorcycles, lifts the film to a kind of action movie nirvana that will have audiences, both familiar and unfamiliar with the genre, knocked senseless with glee and disbelief.

Also at play here, like the best martial arts and action films, is a sense of escalation. Already we have been spoiled with a more bloodthirsty Ruhian, but things only get wilder from here with the introduction of the literally headstrong Ho, played by Brian Le, who propels himself across the screen flying headfirst into his unlucky opponents like some live action superpowered character from Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat. Most surprising however is Iwanaga’s Paklung who breathes new life into the seemingly ineffectual businessman character looked down upon by his ruthless father in law. Paklung’s own storyline provides some of the films biggest surprises setting the scene for a no holds barred facedown of bloody, lightning fast action that keeps getting more and more inventive, fun and exciting as it goes along.

There are faults. Although the majority of dialogue is delivered in the actors own native tongue, there are a number of actors dubbed into a manner of English that looks and sounds suspiciously digital. A shame that this lingers in the mind of this viewer, when everything else looks, and feels, so authentic. The slimness of the story and its characters just prevents the film from reaching the heights of THE RAID films and Timo Tjahjanto’s masterpiece THE NIGHT COMES FOR US, also starring Taslim. What could be argued though, is the fact that the action here alone could actually be the most impressive out of all of these films, making it more than worthy of standing proudly alongside them. In an age where digital trickery is employed in making Hollywood stars carry out all manner of derring do sometimes all you need is an unassuming yet pissed off martial arts expert with steel toed boots and a hammer absolutely battering seven shades of shit out of a child kidnapper. That THE FURIOUS does this in a couple of hundred different and equally impressive ways makes it a must see and probably the best action film of this year and the next.

Iain MacLeod