Review by Tim Robins
The Furious is a mostly English Language, Hong-Kong Action adventure with a capital 你 . Directed by Kenji Tanigaki, the film combines a touch of Taken (2008), a pinch of John Wick and a whole bucket load of Kung Fu, in one of the best kick-ass celebrations of the fistic arts since The Raid (2011).
The story follows Wang Wei, an enigmatic father of mystery and martial arts, whose daughter, Rainy, falls into the hot, sweaty hands of child kidnappers. Elsewhere in the city, Navin, the husband of an investigative journalist, suspects his wife has been abducted by the same gang while investigating their child trafficking activities. Cross? He’s furious!
The local police are overwhelmed by the sheer number of kid kidnappings and demotivated by their seemingly indifferent Captain. Eventually, Wei and Navin find common cause and team-up to rescue their loved ones, but not until they have mistakenly beaten each other to a pulp. It’s a trope comic book readers will recognise from the pages of Marvel Team-Up.
The Furious took me back to the heyday of the 1970s Kung-Fu craze, following the release of Enter the Dragon (1973). One of the villain’s henchmen even bears an raggedy-arse afro that would only be shamed by that of Bruce Lee’s co-star, Jim Kelly.
In the end, Kung Fu got a bad name thanks to utter grifters like Count Dante, heavily advertised in the pages of Marvel comics.
Dante claimed to possess the secrets of the Dim Mak (the Death touch), a technique that was said to have vibrated Bruce Lee to death.
Well, I believed it as a young teen. But, as it happened, Count Dante was “full of more shit than a lollapalooza porta potty,” to quote Napoleon Blownapart, the acerbic commentator on, and historian of, the Mixed Martial Arts scene. If Dante had a role in The Furious, it would only be as a hairdresser.
Speaking of the film, our heroes are beset by a fist full of bad guys, including: Tak, a Kukri wielding bowman with a quiver full of hate, and Song, a seemingly indestructible, one man burly brawl with dubious parentage. Eventually, Wei and Navin confront the leader of the child kidnapping gang who they track down through a painstaking investigation that would put Sherlock Holmes to shame.
No they don’t. This would only be a Sherlock Holmes story, if Holmes was played by a master of MMA. Fisting is the first and final solution to every enigma. Dilemmas are best hammered out by wielding a gigantic hammer.
Unlike the vertical action of The Raid, the fighting here is spread across the city and confined to locals such as a fight club, an ice making factory and a makeshift prison called ‘The Snake Pit’. These do provide levels in the sense that the film often resembles a video game.
The plot movements reminded me of one of those James Bond movies where news of a character’s location depends on where and in which country the next scene will take place. Where’s Fekkish? The pyramids! Blofeld’s suicide garden! On a mountain in the Alps!
Director Tanigaki mostly keeps the settings under the city’s heat dome. Here, mist rises from the ground like steam. Even with a functioning air conditioning system in the cinema, the cool, cool water of Ice factory left me rasping for the wet of a cold shower. Be sure to see the film accompanied by bottles of water and packs of ice. Rainy’s name is a nice bit of weather foreshadowing as the film moves towards its finale.
There are a lot of in-jokes and references along the way. I am sure I missed many of them. The film takes us up a social hierarchy, ending with the palatial home of Paklung, the leader of the child trafficking operation and suave but violent son-in law of a top gangster. Much is made of the fact that Wei is Chinese and working class, but the connotations were lost on me.
The performers really add flesh to their otherwise cartoonish characters. Xi Miao is excellent as the mute Wei (surely mute because words would only impede the action). Taslim, Wei’s buddy, has smooth, Hollywood good looks and a way with street fighting acquired from somewhere, I’m not sure we are ever told.
Props, also, to Yan Enyou’s performance as Rainy. We see her father training the child in the ways of Kung Fu but it is the character’s spirit and courage that really counts. I was afraid Rainy was going to defeat the baddies with moves of her own, thankfully that didn’t happen. Instead, watch her friendship develop with a young boy who misguidedly worked with the kidnappers. In a moving moment, the pair confront impending death hand in hand.
My main concern is that, much like Song of Freedom, the film is a kind of cinematic child exploitation in that it offers a ‘magical’ solution to contemporary fears and a story in which Rainy is something of a McGuffin.
It is worth pointing out that, in the West at least, child abductions are most often the result of custody battles between a father and mother. In China, kidnapped baby boys are at a premium due to the one-child policy. The Furious plays on genuine feelings but is far from a documentary.
According to an Associated Press report of 10th March 2012, “The child victims are usually sold to parents who want a child or a spouse for their child. Some are sold to factories for forced labor, or forced to work as prostitutes, maids or beggars. The police generally offer little help or even sympathy”. Again, kidnapping is facilitated by insiders such as relatives.
Given The Furious’ subject matter and genre, I can’t say I would have gone to see it, had I not been invited by a couple of action film fan friends. If you want to explore the film from the hands of a reviewer more clued up in Martial Arts I’d recommend A Case For Better Action Movies, over at the Film Combat Syndicate
As it is, my friends told me that it’s a bonus to get an interesting story, or any story, in Kung Fu action movies. Writers Frank Hui, Lei Zhilong, Shum Kwan-Sin, and Mak Tin Shu, do an excellent job weaving together the many plot threads and adding an extra dimension to the central cast.
The stunt work is also fun. There are moments of grim comedy, including enemies of the traffickers ending up frozen blocks of ice. You believe a human lollipop can be decapitated and have their head slide across the floor in an ice cube.
If you’re willing to wallow in the fantastical side of Martial Arts, The Furious is for you. But, if you want to see the film in a cinema, you’ll need to be fast. It was three weeks late coming to Brighton and is already heading to streaming.
Tim Robins
- About the Author
- Latest Posts
A freelance journalist and Doctor Who fanzine editor since 1978, Tim Robins has written on comics, films, books and TV programmes for a wide range of publications including Starburst, Interzone, Primetime and TV Guide.
His brief flirtation with comics includes ghost inking a 2000AD strip and co-writing a Doctor Who strip with Mike Collins. Since 1990 he worked at the University of Glamorgan where he was a Senior Lecturer in Cultural and Media Studies and the social sciences. Academically, he has published on the animation industry in Wales and approaches to social memory. He claims to be a card carrying member of the Politically Correct, a secret cadre bent on ruling the entire world and all human thought.
Categories: downthetubes News, Features, Film, Other Worlds, Reviews
In Review: Disclosure Day 
In Review: Guido Crepax – “We loved you so much, Valentina” at the Galerie Martel, Brussels 
In Review: One Battle After Another 
In Review: Sirât
Leave a Reply