The Furious movie review: Kenji Tanigaki delivers a taut actioner

Four people are credited as writers, and at the very least they ensure that we don’t raise too many questions about where exactly all the action is happening (“Somewhere in Southeast Asia”, says the film), and why are more people not noticing Wang racing down streets bleeding and barefeet behind a pick-up truck or his daughter (Rainy, played by Enyou Yang) hung upside down from it.

Bad things happen in this grungy, gritty, damp and dreary country, and when they do, our men do what they gotta do. And they do a lot, with Wang, who is mute to boot, taking the lead, and ably matched punch to punch, kick to kick by Navin (you may remember Taslim from The Raid, a similar no-frills cracker of an action film). Wang is looking for his daughter, and Navin for his journalist wife who went missing while investigating a gang of child kidnappers.

Don’t dismiss the bad guys either, who are special too, none more than Ho (Brian Le), a giant, bald man in overalls with an agility on his feet that is stunning every time he pulls off a flip, and Tak (Yayan Ruhian, also in The Raid) who fights with arrows and cleavers and a devilish smirk.

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The superbly choreographed action scenes are staged everywhere from the backside of a pickup truck to an ice factory to a wrestling venue to even under sliding desks at a police station. At least two blood orgies strike out of the blue while, towards the end, Tanigaki is just showing off.

When you can bleed with a thousand cuts, and still have skin to spare, why stop at 999?

The Furious movie director: Kenji Tanigaki
The Furious movie cast: Miao Xe, Joe Taslim, Enyou Yang, Brian Le, Yayan Ruhian
The Furious movie rating: 3 stars