The Furious - Movie Review

The Movie: The Furious

The Director: Kenji Tanigaki

The Cast: Xie Miao, Joe Taslim, Yang Enyou, Brian Le, Joey Iwanaga

The Story: A father fights fiercely against ruthless kidnappers to save his abducted daughter.

The Rating: 9 / 10

The Review:

The Furious has a chance to hold my "number one favorite movie of 2026" spot all the way through to the end of the year. Yes, it's that good. One thing that stood out to me right away is that the cast includes the incomparable Joe Taslim and Yayan Ruhian so I was sold from the start. The two actors also star in The Raid: Redemption which is one of my all-time favorite movies so comparisons will be inevitable. There is no connection between the two films other than the actors, they're just both amazingly well-made movies that have some of the most jaw dropping fight scenes you'll ever see.

A lot of movies are advertised as non-stop action spectacles although this is one of the few that actually lives up to the billing and maybe even surpasses it. The fight choreography is endlessly creative, brutal, and entertaining in ways that has the audience cheering, gasping, and sometimes in joyous disbelief of what is constantly unfolding on screen. At least that's what I assume is happening in the theaters. Being a member of the press, I'm given access to some films online through secure screening links which is how I watched this one so the one thing I feel like I missed out on was seeing this movie in a theater with a crowd although I'll be fixing that as soon as I'm able.

Even watching it at home, I was jumping out of my seat and cheering throughout the film and it's not like there's just a couple big moments here and there, the entire movie is filled with moment after moment of brutality, innovation, and excitement. Even the story itself is entertaining and it's not overly complicated making it easy to jump right in and enjoy the ride. Xie Miao and Joe Taslim's characters both have strong motivations to fight their way through anything and everything that's put in front of them and it's cool to see them go from facing off to reluctantly teaming up and then ultimately becoming a well-oiled, high powered fighting machine duo.

Also, I'm guessing that Yayan Ruhian must have at least had a fair amount of input on all the crazy stunt work in the movie since his work on The Raid is one of the reasons why that movie is so good. Once again, his character is a total badass and almost impossible to defeat. Over the years, he's become the cinematic embodiment of a final boss and I'll never get tired of seeing him do his thing. Also on board is JeeJa Yanin who starred in 2008's Chocolate which was created by the same director as the original Ong Bak movie and it was really great to see her again as well. If you haven't seen Chocolate, it should be next on your to do list. Look it up on Prime Video, Tubi or Pluto TV.

Going back to the stunts and action choreography for a moment, it was nice to see Kensuke Sonomura listed as the stunt coordinator after his successful run directing the Baby Assassin franchise. Kenji Tanagaki, who is listed as the action designer for 2024's Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In, paired up with Sonomura is definitely a recipe for success and holy face kicks did they cook. While I can't let go of The Raid as one of my all-time favorite action movies, this one is definitely right up there with it as elite level martial arts film making.

Not sure what else I can say about this movie, just go see it as soon as you can. Go get that packed house theater experience and enjoy the heck out of it. I really hope the movie has success at the box office because that means we'll get to see more and more movies like this and that will never be a bad thing.

Thank you for reading this review. It's always important for me to be able to shine a bit of a light on films like this that might not otherwise get the proper hype and attention that they deserve.