Oh yeah, this hit the spot. It gives you the The Raid: Redemption fix you didn’t know you needed. The story is simple: a father (Miao Xie) looking for his abducted daughter and a detective (Joe Taslim, of The Raid: Redemption fame) searching for his missing wife team up to track down the men responsible and bring them to justice. It doesn’t take long before they realize they’ve started a war with a child trafficking ring.
The direction by Kenji Tanigaki, the cinematography by Meteor Chung, and the editing by Chris Tonick are all perfection. The fight choreography by Kensuke Sonomura is fast, furious, and beautiful. It’s like watching a perfectly timed dance. The entire film is pretty much non-stop, high-octane action. The final fight in particular had a big, goofy grin plastered on my face for the duration of it.
The actors all do convincing jobs. It’s good to see Joe Taslim back on the big screen in a martial arts film. Miao Xie impresses mightily as the mute father. His fighting is the best out of all the characters. Yayan Ruhian (also of The Raid: Redemption fame) shines as the second in command of the child trafficking ring. If you’ve seen his previous work you know what he is capable fighting wise, and he does not disappoint. Joe Taslim and him get to fight each other again, which feels great to see.
Brian Le is surprisingly memorable as a dim-witted goon who’s built like a tank and doesn’t know when to stay down. He’s destined to become a fan-favorite character. Joey Iwanaga leaves an impression as the head of the nefarious operation. He doesn’t really take center-stage until the third act, but he plays his unhinged role well.
The only real negatives is some of the blood looks CGI and the dubbing (English over English) is noticeably off. It’s almost like they had some actors mouth the words so an English voice-actor could come in later and dub-over their lip-syncing. That’s it for the bad. It’s really small potatoes when weighed against the scale of everything else this film does oh-so right.
The Furious is an instant classic. It’s bloody, breathless, fast-paced, and totally exhilarating. It’s also easily one of the best films of 2026. If you are a fan of action-films done right, you would do wise to seek this one out ASAP. It will have you leaving the theater feeling bruised, battered, but victorious and screaming for more.
5 STARS
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