The Furious (2026)

“If we fail, “The Furious” will only be as good as ‘The Raid’ or ‘Taken’” – producer Bill Kong, speaking to Variety in 2024 on his ambitious vision for “The Furious” ahead of production.

If that’s the baseline for failure for “The Furious”, the end result is a far cry from it. Two years in the making, with a ten-mile red carpet already rolled for it after it’s much heralded run on the festival circuit, “The Furious” doesn’t simply live up to the hype. Nor, for that matter, does it significantly surpass it. Under the direction of acclaimed Hong Kong action veteran Kenji Tanigaki with Kensuke Sonomura on hand as action director, “The Furious” is the “Enter the Dragon” of the Tik Tok generation, a cyclone of Hong Kong action history unfolding before the eyes of its audience with electrifying intensity, one instantly destined to become the new standard for action filmmakers to follow in the footsteps of, and presenting what is, in effect, a new language of fight choreography both retro and revolutionary all in one package!

Trailer

Cast

Xie Miao lets his fists and feet do the talking in “The Furious” in the role of silent protagonist Wang Wei, with Joe Taslim jumping into lethal Judo mode as the movie’s other main protagonist, journalist Navin, along with Jeeja Yanin appearing as his equally formidable wife Matia. Yang Enyou portrays Wang Wei’s teenage daughter Rainy, with Joey Iwanaga kicking down walls and enemies left and right as the movie’s bloodthirsty antagonist Pak Lung. Martial Club’s Brian Le brings impressive agility combined with the blunt force of a cannonball to the role of burly, daunting Ho, the son and partner-in-crime of local crime kingpin Mr. Song, played by Sahajak Boonthanakit. Yayan Ruhian also steps back into his signature trademark of a villain of tiny stature who nonetheless gives all who oppose him a tremendously fearsome adversary as Pak Lung’s bow-and-arrow wielding right-hand man, Tak. Manatsanun Phanlerdwongsakul also appears as sympathetic cop Yadong, with Guo Junqing appearing as Rainy’s fellow abductee by the human traffickers, Marky.

Plot

Mute handyman Wang Wei lives a quiet life in Southeast Asia with his daughter Rainy, doing his best to instill kung fu wisdom and fighting skill into the rebellious teenager as she prepares to return to China. While Wang Wei and Rainy’s relationship has been strained ever since the death of her mother, their family issues quickly get swept to the side when Rainy is kidnapped by a local human trafficking ring. Wang encounters mostly bureaucratic stonewalling in his efforts to report Rainy’s abduction to the police, leading him to pursue the kidnappers himself to a local club. As Wang blasts through dozens of opponents in the ensuing brawl, he encounters a man named Navin, who reveals himself to be a journalist in pursuit of the same human trafficking gang after his fellow journalist and wife Matia went missing in her previous investigation into the crime ring. With both men having loved ones caught in the mix, Wang Wei and Navin join forces to rescue Rainy, Matia, and a dozen other abducted children in order to finally stop the trafficking operation in its tracks.

Action

“The Furious” Is A Dream Come True For Fans Of Asian Action – & Especially Hong Kong Action!

In the two years since it was first announced, the hype of “The Furious” has been one of nostalgic promise and trendsetting leadership – a Pan-Asian ensemble of some of the most talents martial artists on the cinematic landscape, aiming to embody both a throwback to the ‘80s and ‘90s golden age of Hong Kong action, and a boastful flag plant meant to raise the bar for stunt work and fight choreography the world over. If any action movie this year deserves to take a victory lap of the most chest-pumping, prideful sort with both fists in the air, “The Furious” is most assuredly it.

For pure martial arts lovers, “The Furious” doesn’t merely rate high for its talented cast, but for the extremely eclectic collection of fighting styles – including Kung Fu, Wushu, Karate, Taekwondo, Judo, Muay Thai, and Silat – utilized to their fullest capability and with every stylistic trademark in their toolbox in the action. For fans of Asian action generally and particularly Hong Kong action, “The Furious” is a playground of stunts of the most hair-raising sort combined with the environment and props consistently being transformed into traps and weaponry that beg for a (unfortunately absent) montage of end credits outtakes. Nods and references to Hong Kong action classics galore dot the runtime of “The Furious” like a delectable seasoning – an aluminum ladder wielded like a bo staff from “Jackie Chan’s First Strike” and an ice factory brawl referencing “The Big Boss” and “Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story” in one fell swoop being two stand-outs of many. And stand-out action scenes are in abundance indeed with the two leading men and supporting cast of “The Furious”.

Xie Miao & Joe Taslim’s Partnership Highlights Their Strengths In Drastically Different Ways

In what effectively stands as his English-language debut, Xie Miao does a lot of talking without ever uttering a single word in “The Furious”. Giving his entire portrayal of Wang Wei through sign language, body language, quick note scribbling, and the physicality of his fight scenes, Xie Miao delivers a genuinely visceral performance as a quiet, reserved man made unstoppable by a father’s protective instincts and intimidating through the simple act of a frustrated desk slam. That also makes he and Joe Taslim’s more cool but equally commanding Navin a perfect heroic duo, and, of course, “The Furious” doesn’t waste the chance to pit the two heroes against each other before teaming them up. What that also brings to light is the completely new language of action that “The Furious” brings to the table.

“The Furious” Gives New Meaning To The Concept Of Kung Fu “Shapes”

The simple promise of Kenji Tanigaki rounding up the cast of “The Furious” and bringing aboard Japan’s premiere fight choreographer Kensuke Sonomura was more than enough to make it a must see for action fans. However, “The Furious” is absolutely groundbreaking in the way it not only employs “shapes” – memorable poses and stances taken by combatants in martial arts fight scenes, for the uninitiated – but completely reinvents the idea for modern times. The moment a fight scene in “The Furious” kicks off, the combatants don’t merely trade techniques, but slip between one another’s legs, clinch in aggressive group hugs of enemies, climb atop the shoulders of one, or a growing number of opponents, slide and outmaneuver around each other’s bodies, and just about every configuration imaginable between fighters attempting to gain the upper hand on each other.

That also gives “The Furious” a microscope to really highlight the techniques and strengths of the respective fighting styles of each hero and villain. Right in the movie’s first five minutes, Jeeja Yanin goes to work in a smackdown where her Taekwondo skills don’t just deliver some great kicks, but see her suspended in a full split mid-air by two opponents one second, and slipping free to tornado kick into a cluster of them the next. Similarly, Wang Wei’s clear use of tiger kung fu combined with his talent for turning a tack hammer into a deft bludgeon goes up against Navin’s skill as a Judo exponent in their smackdown, and even those are just mere sample sizes of the gourmet meal “The Furious” has in store. From fights in an MMA cage to the aforementioned ice factory brawl to Wang even bringing Rainy into the action as a motorcycle combatant, the martial arts action in “The Furious” is at once impeccably classical and completely new, every battle packed with shapes and highlight snapshots in both singular and group combat. Best of all, with a new formula of action like that of “The Furious” in play and such a constant flow and build-up of non-stop action throughout, the finale is what the designation of “a thing of beauty” was made for.

The Finale Of “The Furious” Is The Pythagorean Theorem Of Ensemble Fight Choreography!

If “The Furious” is spearheading a new science of shape-laden fight choreography, the finale is a master’s thesis – nay, a doctoral dissertation – on that discipline, one that practically demands repeat viewing and liberal use of the rewind button to catch every last refined strike, dodge, flip, kick, throw, and detail in all its glory. It does “The Furious” little service to give a more detailed description plot-wise than to simply say that Wei and Navin go head-to-head with Pak Lung, Tak, and Ho in the local police station in the movie’s final showdown. Far more complimentary to how “The Furious” wraps up is to praise the finesse of Kensuke Sonomoura’s fight choreography as a ballet of martial arts moonwalking treating the human body as a jungle gym of combat. Or to commend the five performers on-screen as perfect avatars of their character’s respective fighting styles – Xie Miao’s anthropomorphic crouching tiger of kung fu fluidity, Joe Taslim’s anti-gravitational Judo master, Yayan Ruhian’s superhumanly ruthless Silat, Joey Iwagana’s Ken Lo-worthy kicking prowess, or the human heat-seeking missile barreling head-first into action that is Brian Le’s man-child antagonist Ho.

Or, furthermore, to revel at how “The Furious” brings all five combatants into play with entirely individual motivations, effectively stacking the playing field with three separate teams. Better still, how the movie’s re-invention of shapes in fight choreography is executed with such precision and flawlessness as to be a guaranteed template for designing fight scenes in the East and West for years to come. And, of course, the cherry on top being “The Furious” clearly not forgetting that Joe Taslim and Yayan Ruhian once had a deadly encounter in “The Raid: Redemption” many moons ago and giving the audience the re-match they’re dying to see. There’s little more that can be said to do justice to the exhilarating, awe-inspiring finale of “The Furious”, or indeed, of the movie in its entirety, other than to simply say “You have to GOT see this for yourself!”

Summary

“The Furious” is what the offspring of “instant classic” and “game-changer” looks like – an utterly rad and utterly non-stop martial arts flick, an ensemble of absurdly talented martial arts stars in top form, a new language of fight choreography re-defining shapes for the 21^st century, the Mona Lisa of climactic fight sequences divided across multiple fighters, and the best Hong Kong action movie of the last decade, by far. Even better, “The Furious” ends in a way that leaves the audience to ask “Where do we go from here?” not just for what “The Furious 2” might have in store, but how Earth-shattering the inevitable impact of “The Furious” will surely be. Buckle up and brace for the impact of “The Furious”, action fans, I know I have!

Favourite Quotes

• “Feint east, attack west” – Wang Wei, writing his battle plan to rescue Rainy on a note to Navin. (This is taken from the ancient Chinese text of battlefield strategy, the Thirty-Six Stratagems.)

Trivia

• Xie Miao is a former child actor and Wushu champion, well-known for portraying Jet Li’s on-screen son twice in 1994’s “New Legend of Shaolin” and 1995’s “My Father is a Hero”.
• Kenji Tanigaki has worked in the Hong Kong action movie industry since the mid-90s, frequently alongside Donnie Yen on such Hong Kong action hits as “Sha Po Lang”, “Flash Point”, and “Enter the Fat Dragon”. Some of Kenji’s other credits include “Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In”, the “Rurouni Kenshin” franchise, and “Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origin”.
• Action director Kensuke Sonomura previously directed the Japanese action hits “Hydra”, “Bad City”, and “Ghost Killer”. Some of his other credits as action director and stunt coordinator include the “Baby Assassins” franchise, “Bushido Man”, “Tekken: Blood Vengeance”, “Ninja Hunter”, and “Resident Evil: Vendetta”.
• “The Furious” was filmed in Bangkok, Thailand from April through July of 2024, with the movie’s final showdown shot over the course of 18 days in an old retail outlet used for the movie’s police station set.
• “The Furious” premiered during the Midnight Movie Madness section of the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival, with Kenji Tanigaki, Xie Miao, Joe Taslim, Yayan Ruhian, Joey Iwanaga, and Brian Le in attendance. This also marked the first time the cast of “The Furious” had seen the finished movie themselves.

“The Furious” is set to debut in theaters in China, Hong Kong, and Macau on June 11^th, North America on June 12^th, and the U.K. on June 26th! Are you ready for “The Furious”? Are you excited to see the amazing martial arts action and incredible ensemble of “The Furious” at last? Are you excited for the potential for “The Furious 2”? Let us know in the comments below; Like, share and join in the conversation on Facebook and follow us on Twitter & Instagram. (Don’t forget to also check out KFK’s FURIOUS FU-niversity of movie reviews and exclusive, in-depth interviews, including our interviews with director Kenji Tanigaki and Brian Le on the making of “The Furious”, grab your exclusive KFK gear and subscribe for more amazing martial arts action on YouTube, as well!)