“The Furious” – Interview with Joe Taslim

Joe Taslim grew up in his native Indonesia diligently practicing multiple forms of martial arts, and rose to become a national Judo champion before jumping into the world of action movies. Throughout his career, Joe has been in everything from 2012’s modern action classic “The Raid: Redemption”, teamed up with action-horror maestro Timo Tjahjanto for “The Night Comes For Us”, appeared in all three seasons of the Bruce Lee-based series “Warrior”, and brought the supernatural warrior Bi-Han to life in the 21^st century “Mortal Kombat” movies. However, like countless martial artists around the world, Joe grew up enamored with Hong Kong action movies, and long aspired for his career to bring him into one. Thankfully, with enough skill and determination, any dream can become a reality, as Joe proves with his role in the acclaimed Hong Kong martial arts action ensemble “The Furious”!

In “The Furious”, Joe portrays Navin, a journalist working undercover to bring down a Southeast Asian human trafficking operation after his wife and fellow journalist Matia (Jeeja Yanin) went missing in her preceding investigation of the trafficking ring. Navin runs into an unexpected ally on his mission in mute handyman Wang Wei (Xie Miao), himself in hot pursuit of the same trafficking gang after his daughter Rainy (Yang Enyu) was snatched by a team of their hired henchmen. Together, Navin and Wang Wei dive head first into bringing down the trafficking ring, while in the process helping to deliver one of the most exhilarating Hong Kong action movies in year!

Today, KFK sits down with Joe Taslim to discuss the making of “The Furious”, working with director Kenji Tanigaki and the movie’s ensemble cast, using his Judo background as his character’s primary fighting style, and being a key player in one of the most incredible martial arts showdowns in ages in the finale of “The Furious”!

Hi Joe, good to see you again today!

Hey Brad, Kung Fu Kingdom, you guys are awesome!

Thanks Joe! Well, let’s go ahead and dive right into the making of “The Furious”? How did you come aboard “The Furious”?

It started from a phone call from Bill Kong. He reached out and told me the plan for “The Furious”, and then after that, a couple of weeks later, I got a message from Kenji saying he wanted to come to Jakarta to meet me, and he proposed “The Furious” to me as trying to make the ultimate action film. I’m a huge fan of Kenji, I’ve been following his career for so long, and I said “All you needed to do was just text me and I would say yes!”, because it was a dream come true to work with Kenji.

So, what would you say were some of the challenges in the making of “The Furious”?

One of the challenges was the fight choreography itself, because it was the first time I had been in a five-way fight scene on “The Furious”. What Kensuke Sonomura and Kenji designed was so chaotic but so beautiful at the same time and so dynamic. That was probably the hardest fight that I’ve ever done. To perform that fight, we had to really work together, because it’s not one-on-one, so it’s kind of double the obstacle where you have to understand four other guys being in the fight.

The final smackdown of The Furious is an absolutely historic milestone of Hong Kong action!

Kensuke also likes to do long takes, and Kenji said “no doubles” on anybody, so there were a lot of things in the process of shooting the final fight of “The Furious” that needed patience and needed collaboration and needed synergy from everyone involved. We did that and we survived, but it involved a lot of pain and agony!

(both laugh)

You also have a very diverse martial arts background, but “The Furious” is also the first time where your character’s fighting style is mainly drawn from your Judo background. With each character in “The Furious” having their own unique fighting style, was the intent always for Navin to primarily be a Judo exponent?

Yeah, that actually was not my idea, but it was all Kenji’s. He wanted to introduce Judo more to the action world, and knowing that we had five characters who fight differently here. Yayan is Silat, Xie Miao is Wushu, Joey has all his lightning-fast kicks, and Brian is like the gorilla, the wild card of the ensemble. So, Kenji really wanted to have a differentiation and that each character would not fight the same way, and at the same time, he also wanted to introduce Judo and show how a Judoka fights to the action world. So, I asked “So, you want me to fight like I did when I used to compete in Judo?”, and he did. So, how Navin fights is how I fought during my athlete’s life when I was in Judo.

So, other than the incredible final showdown of “The Furious”, what were some of your favourite action scenes in the movie?

Well, the final fight, definitely, but I really loved the one-on-one with myself and Xie Miao. I think it’s something important in the action genre to see Judo fighting kung fu. I don’t know if that’s ever happened in action movies before, and the way the characters fight are both very authentic. That fight also tells a lot about the two characters trying to get to know each other, so it’s not just a fight, it’s also storytelling about two characters before they team up. They’re both suspecting the other is a bad guy, and then they don’t talk or expose information about themselves. In that fight, they try to understand each other, so that’s an important fight for my character, and after that, you see these two become the Double Dragon trying to beat all the bad guys.

Yes, that one was awesome, too! Thank you Joe for our interview today. Good luck with the release of “The Furious”, and, of course, we hopefully also see more adventures with Bi-Han in the “Mortal Kombat” franchise!

Yes, fingers crossed that we get to see more Bi-Han!

“The Furious” is now playing in theaters in China, Hong Kong, Macau, and the U.S. on June 12th, and will hit theaters in the U.K. on June 26th! Have you seen “The Furious”? What are your thoughts on the movie’s the out-of-this-world martial arts action and incredible ensemble of “The Furious” at last? Are you excited for the possibility of “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 bringing “The Furious” to life, grab your exclusive KFK gear and subscribe for more amazing martial arts action on YouTube, as well!)

The Furious is ready to electrify audiences around the world this summer!