You know I love classic martial arts films. Well, The Furious is the best new martial arts movie you’re likely to see: Xie Miao and Joe Taslim often do their own vehicles. Brian Le and Yayan Ruhian show up in lots of fight movies and Joey Iwanaga was new to me. Even when they’re doing their own styles, The Furious came up with choreography I’ve never seen before.
The Furious offers lots of visual scenarios for fights in 4K. Dank dirty warehouses have lots of dark corners. The open road is brightly sun lit. The neon MMA club is like a John Wick movie. The police station finale brings the most deep shadows surprisingly, in the upper corners with the lights out.
The sound is just as thrilling. Kids cry in the rear speakers. The dynamic choreography whooshes behind you. Debris falls off the truck and passes you. The MMA crowd applauds and throws glass that smashes 360. The ice fight is enhanced when ice blocks break in the rear. Ruhian’s stray arrows also woosh.
A 42-minute behind the scenes feature shows action director Kensuke Sonomora explaining the challenges of choreographing all the different styles against each other. Then they demonstrate with rehearsal and on set footage. Jeeja Yanin had to learn judo for her one scene. You see Xie and Le practice and the stunt team rehearse complex fights. Xie also reveals the heat on the mats when he runs barefoot, so the protection actually added to the pain.
The five-way finale gets its own special feature which illustrates how they kept it coherent and flowing, and why they didn’t just pair off the fighters. There are two short deleted scenes too but the real meat is in the movie.