While illness held me back from attending the first couple of days of Beyond Fest at American Cinematheque, I was more than thrilled with what came out of my first trip to Los Angeles’ annual genre film festival. There’s a good chance that director Kenji Tanigaki may have delivered the best all-out martial arts brawler I’ve seen since The Raid films. The Furious is an action-packed thrill ride, featuring a multinational cast that allows for a variety of fighting styles to collide in the most intense of ways. Knowing who’s involved, the surprising formidability of some on display, and the choices made to ramp up the stakes of the various fights make this ingeniously choreographed piece of work a true masterclass of showmanship when looking for what defines incredible action filmmaking.
The story focuses on a mute tradesman (Xie Miao) who lives with his daughter somewhere in Southeast Asia (the movie plays coy, but it was shot in Thailand). Unfortunately, an unexpected ruse leads to the girl getting kidnapped, and the father is stopping at nothing to get her back. While facing multiple opponents, often at once, he’s fortunately eventually joined by Navin (Joe Taslim), a journalist with his own reasons for investigating the numerous reports of missing children in the area. Their work together means taking on a criminal empire, but it’s far from an easy task.
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It should be noted that, while serving as the debut screening for an American audience, Tanigaki, who was on hand for both an introduction and a post-screening Q&A, made it clear that the film was still a work in progress. The sound mix has not been completed, and the movie was presented in dubbed form, which detracts from some of the dramatic urgency of a film ultimately rooted in emotional stakes. Nevertheless, the spirit of what was in mind, and the amount of work on display in all the other filmmaking aspects necessary to capture these fights, were all in fine form. (Additional note: having now seen the completed film, while the core aspects have not changed, I can only commend areas like color timing, score, and sound as being handled to a fantastic degree.)
From an editing and cinematography standpoint, The Furious capitalizes on maximizing the number of moves that can be shown in single takes, while the editing finds the exact rhythm necessary to keep the momentum of these fights consistently high. Being able to watch a camera come in tight as needed to convey the nature of specific spaces balances well with wider locales featuring mobs of antagonists being fought at once.
I can recall old Shaw Brothers Kung Fu flicks and the way those films utilized the elaborate sets created for fighting spaces, and this film is no different, just modernized. Now, there are multiple levels, strobing lights, bright and neon colors for some sequences, which balance out against the dingier, grimier settings. Even the costume design is given proper focus, allowing us to subconsciously track where anyone stands in a given moment thanks to the attention to detail.
The results are a painful delight. Watching Tse’s mute father ferociously battle his way through endless goons is so consistently satisfying, only for Taslim’s slightly more graceful character to show his own form of strength, unleashed from the bounds of other movies that have limited his style. The inclusion of other creative fighters like Brian Le (who I recently commended for his work in the upcoming Gladiator Underground, seen at the Big Bad Film Fest) means getting even more fighting styles, challenges to mix up the battles, and an unknown sense of danger, given that it’s unclear how this can all play out. Plus, given that The Raid’s Yayan Ruhian (Mad Dog himself) is also teased early on, you just know things are only going to become more difficult for our heroes.
While the speed, strength, and acrobatic nature of our main performers are key to watching these fights unfold, the production design and Tanigaki’s innovative ideas about what to include in the various clashes allow for a wide range of violent styles. Along with feet and fists, this movie has hammers, machetes, ladders, ice blocks, bike pedals, chains, guns, knives, katanas, arrows, rebar, and more that really add more than just insult to injury. Given the nature of a movie like this, sure, some of it can feel gratuitous, but that’s not really the point. More importantly, it’s about assigning various dangers and objects to these fights, which allows them to have their own shapes and individual narratives. Fortunately, Tanigaki, who has worked as an action choreographer for years, along with his team, knows the ins and outs of this sort of thing and delivers with aplomb, even when it gets bloody.
Is there any more to say regarding the story at hand, let alone the performances? It only amounts to so much. While relying on human trafficking can easily be a sore spot, it’s merely a framework to make sure there’s no need to worry about any gray area. The villains are larger than life, and our heroes are going to get down to business. That means dealing with some silly subplots, such as the connections among various characters, a half-hearted effort to address police corruption, and a low-key ending, given the astonishing high-wire act that serves as this movie’s finale. Still, these are not the matters I find concerning, given how much satisfaction comes from what The Furious’ true aims are. With that in mind, the film essentially ends its core plot somewhat early to make room for a character-focused, multi-person brawl as the true final set piece, which speaks to what’s more effective in continuing the build towards maximized action satisfaction without betraying a narrative.
I had a blast with this film, knowing that there’s a finished cut that will only enhance what’s already been witnessed. The action work in The Furious is top-notch, with elaborate choreography properly shot, and fully designed to be as brutal as it is crowd-pleasing. With a variety of different types of fighters, there’s a real swell of good fortune working in this movie’s favor as far as delivering all the different battles we see, with ranges of size and scope. It all serves the purpose of a narrative that relies on some solid core ideas, heightened as this reality may be. Far from furious, I was elated by this one.
The Furious opens June 12, 2026.
Beyond Fest at American Cinematheque takes place from September 23 to October 8, 2025.
For the full lineup, tickets, and more information, check out the Website.
