While watching the eloquently composed fights that power “The Furious” forward, a bliss arises that often comes when honed professionals ply their trade with exacting force. The action star Xie Miao plays Wang Wei, a mute single father searching for his recently kidnapped daughter, Rainy (Yang Enyou). He teams with Navin (Joe Taslim), a journalist investigating his own wife’s disappearance. Scattered clues lead them to a child trafficking ring run by the wealthy racketeer Paklung (Joey Iwanaga). Xie and Taslim’s intricate physical artistry recalls the heights of 1990s Hong Kong action cinema.
“The Furious” is a rousing piece of spectacle. Directed with a sure hand by Kenji Tanigaki, it delivers the kind of pristine set pieces, invigorating camerawork and seamless editing that made “Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In,” on which Tanigaki served as the action designer, a beautifully choreographed picture built on body-breaking blows.
Tanigaki doesn’t want to reinvent the proverbial wheel. He aims to perfect it. This refined film leans on the genre’s familiar themes and common tropes, like children in peril and spouses seeking revenge on behalf of a slain loved one. It also takes place, as the title card explains, “somewhere in Southeast Asia,” which allows the members of an esteemed ensemble hailing from across the continent to combine their martial arts styles to form a unique blend of regionalist combat.
Xie and Taslim shoulder the imaginative desires of Tanigaki and his action choreographer, Kensuke Sonomura, even while the broad screenplay pulls its interest away from them. The two carve their characters’ inner lives through the tenacious athleticism they bring to every scene.
This duo is backed by a cadre of genre legends. In the opening, for instance, Navin’s wife attempts to free an imprisoned child from the clutches of traffickers when the Indonesian actor Yayan Ruhian (the “Raid” films), playing Tak, ends her pursuit with the quickness of an arrow. Later, Wei and Navin track the henchmen to an ice factory where a hulking Brian Le, portraying the dimwitted Ho, moves with astounding speed, dipping and darting around swinging kicks and lunging punches. Tanigaki and his cinematographer, Meteor Cheung, employ wide panoramas intermingled with tight pans that never lose focus on the choreography’s center point.
Tanigaki’s aesthetic approach highlights physical realism and visual clarity rather than glossy fakery. Set pieces like the ice factory and further on, the climactic raid on a police station, which features kaleidoscopic choreography that pits Wei and Navin against Paklung, Tak and Ho, require long takes that test the bodily endurance of these actors and the film’s crew. The material sacrifice on display in “The Furious” is not only noticeable, but it’s also awe-inspiring.
The Furious Rated R for strong bloody violence and language. In Mandarin, Tagalog, CSL (Chinese Sign Language), Indonesian and English, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 53 minutes. In theaters.
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