Is there anything Veronica Ngo can’t do? Her career resume certainly makes that a pertinent question, with the occupations of Vietnamese pop star, action star, and now action filmmaker to her name.
Ms. Ngo’s directorial outing “Furies”, a loose prequel to 2019’s “Furie”, is a magnum opus of the intense Vietnamese-style martial arts action and stunts, and the righteous fury of a group of female vigilantes unleashing vengeance on the criminal underworld that has wronged them.
Trailer
Cast
Đồng Ánh Quỳnh leads the movie as Bi, with Tóc Tiên playing Thanh. In addition to directing the movie, Veronica Ngo also plays Jacqueline, with Thuan Nguyen playing Hai Cho Dien, Rima Thanh Vy portraying Hong, and Song Luan also playing Long Bo Da. Gi A Nguyễn also appears in “Furies” as Son Lai, and Phan Thanh Hien playing Teo Mat Seo.
Plot
In a small, rural Vietnamese town, a young woman named Bi has her world destroyed when her mother is murdered by a man assaulting her daughter.
After slaying her mother’s killer, the despondent Bi wanders to Ho Chi Minh City, where she is taken in by a woman named Jacqueline after being saved from a gang of attackers on the street.
Jacqueline is the leader of a gang of female vigilantes, seeking to punish the human trafficking operations of the city’s biggest crime gangs. Under the tutelage of Jacqueline, Bi hones her fighting skills as she and Jacqueline’s associates prepare to launch their attack on the sadistic overlords of Ho Chi Minh City’s criminal underworld.
Action
Moving into her third outing as director, Veronica Ngo keeps everything fast-paced and appropriately dark and brutal for the sordid underworld story of “Furies”.
Veronica Ngo’s Direction is Impeccable
While “Furie” was steeped in the simple story of a mother simply trying to rescue her daughter from human traffickers in Ho Chi Minh City, “Furies” has an even more palpable feel of the hellscape that its heroines must navigate.
Like “Mad Max: Fury Road”, “Furies” has much the same kind of themes on its mind as “Mad Max: Fury Road of a revenge fantasy of victims of rape against their predators.
Bi, Thanh, and Jacqueline all have righteous anger to unleash on the scummiest crime lords of the city, but Jacqueline is also not the same kind of leader as Furiosa, but someone who has been far more darkened on the inside by how much her need for revenge has consumed her (in ways that will be avoided for the sake of spoilers).
“Furies” is a Worthy Follow-up to “Furie”
On the necessary criteria of living up to what “Furie” delivered”, “Furies” hits the mark with all the Vovinam-driven fight scenes that fans of Vietnamese action crave.
With the screen once more awash in “John Wick”-esque purple neo, the martial arts fights of “Furies” just hit at every turn.
Dong and Toc make a great tag-team of vigilantes on-screen, and their characters’ training really pays off in the movie’s hallway fights and especially in the action-packed, Hong Kong-worthy pandemonium of the final showdown.
Veronica Ngo, meanwhile, just keeps outdoing herself as an action star. Between both “Furie” films, it’s downright astonishing that more people are not dubbing her the next Michelle Yeoh, but it’s a title she has thoroughly earned.
Let’s Talk about that Oner
Of course, the action movie trend of oners is always dually seductive to both audiences seeing them and the filmmakers assembling them, and “Furies” pulls off quite an astonishing one-shot action scene indeed in Bi and Thanh’s motorcycle chase through the streets of Ho Chi Minh City.
There is admittedly some less-than-great greenscreen work at points, probably for the sake of masking cuts in the sequence to stitch each individual together to appear as one, but it’s a minor problem that does little to distract. The main currency of “Furies” might be fights with fists, knives, and even a bit of gun-fu, but it nabs one of the best chases of the year with fantastic finesse in its one-shot motorcycle chase.
Vietnamese Martial Arts Action Continues to be Rad!
On the heels of the movie’s one-shot chase, nearly the last half hour of “Furies” is practically nothing but kicks and blade-slashing to simply glorious levels.
Compared to the train finale in “Furie”, “Furies” one-ups it with an apartment complex showdown that is a Vovinam-action lover’s delight. It also takes a darker turn than most will probably expect with the final one-on-one unfolding between two opponents unlikely to have been dueling up until that point. And on both physical and emotional levels, that rocks too!
Summary
“Furies” doesn’t tie that deeply into “Furie” other than featuring the character, Thanh, in a prequel setting, but that also works in its favor.
Viewed on its own or as a prequel, “Furies” is as great action-packed fun with its three leads kicking butt at every opportunity. It’s also proof positive that Veronica Ngo’s talents as an action movie director are just getting started.
“Furie 3” already sounds good with the magic she cooks up in “Furies”!
Trivia
- “Furies” was originally slated to debut in April of 2022, before being pushed back to March 2023.
- In addition to directing and starring in “Furies”, Veronica Ngo also co-wrote the screenplay with Nha Uyen Ly Nguyen and Nguyen Truong Nhan.
- Nguyen Truong Nhan was also one of the writers on the original “Furie”.
- Kefi Abrikh served as stunt coordinator and fight choreographer on “Furies”. He previously served both roles on the first “Furie”, as well as Veronica Ngo’s 2022 Hulu movie “The Princess”.
Check out Furies on Netflix – KUNG FU KINGDOM
