Title: The Furious
MPA Rating: R
Director: Kenji Tanigaki
Starring: Miao Xie, Joe Taslim, Brian Le
Runtime: 1 hr 53 mins
What It Is: Wang Wei (Xie) is a mute man who loves it when his daughter visits. During one of these visits she is taken by unknown assailants who are tied to a human trafficking ring. Simultaneously Navin (Taslim) is trying to infiltrate the ring in order to find what happened to his journalist wife. Now these two men, who start out as strangers, are bonded in the vengeance they are seeking, and they will do what they must to find and rescue the people they love. By any means necessary.
What We Think: This movie kicks all the ass and takes no prisoners while doing so. Miao Xie needs not a single word for us to root for him full throat. Dude is straight up beating the piss out of hordes of garbage traffickers and I’m smiling ear to ear with every punch, kick and counter. Tanigaki-san is brilliant behind the lens and everything in camera is visible, visceral and a damn good time. Joe Taslim brings the pain up close and personal with his Judo background. This is one of those movies I’ll rewatch many more times simply for the bonkers fighting set pieces.
Our Grade: A, Make sure you check out our interviews from this junket, we did a whole bunch of them. I implore my entire audience to seek this one out. True action cinema is one of life’s biggest treats. This is the toppest tier of that medium. Not since The Raid 2 have I left more satisfied in an action film than I did so here. It’s really an astonishing picture and something we desperately need more of in the year of our lord 2026. I say all of that to say…see it!