Lionsgate has released a new trailer for The Furious, the martial arts “brawler” that stars some of Asia’s best martial arts actors and stunt choreographers, including The Raid veterans Joe Taslim and Yayan Ruhian. At the helm is Kenji Tanigaki, the renowned martial arts movie director/choreographer, whose Hollywood credits include Blade II and Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins.
Leading the cast is former martial arts child actor, Mo Tse (Jet Li’s The New Legend of Shaolin and My Father Is a Hero), and behind him is a cast of martial artist stars that includes Jeeja Yanin, Brian Le, Joey Iwanaga, and a gang of stunt performers and fighters, with young actress Yang Enyu playing the imperiled daughter of Tse’s character, “Wang Wei.”
As you can see in the trailer above, the brutal action of The Furious starts from a very dark premise. The Liam Neeson film Taken also featured a father trying to save his daughter from kidnappers. The Furious is clearly putting much more emphasis on this being part of the larger world of child trafficking. At a time when the entire world is reconciling with new revelations about how prevalent child trafficking and exploitation really are, globally, a film like this could be a perfectly-timed cathartic revenge fantasy. After all, who doesn’t want to watch a “furious” father take down a bunch of the worst kind of scum in the world? The real world may be layered and complex, but cinema can make it all blessedly simple to process.
The Furious was first released overseas in the fall of last year and at select festivals in the US; Lionsgate acquired the international distribution rights to the movie in October, after seeing the kind of buzz the film was generating. It currently holds a “100% Fresh” score on Rotten Tomatoes, after twenty reviews were submitted by critics.
“In terms of action, director Kenji Tanigaki… delivers the goods. His staging is dynamic and unrelentingly brutal,” writes Chris Bumbray of JoBlo. “On top of that, the whole thing is propelled forward by a hard-driving soundtrack from Flying Lotus.”
“While The Furious lacks the slick polish of the best recent South Korean, Chinese, or Indonesian action blockbusters, it makes up for it in sheer adrenaline and crowd-pleasing ferocity,” Bumbray continues. “It’s the kind of movie designed for high-fives in the theatre, where you’ll find yourself grinning like an idiot as wave after wave of mayhem unfolds on screen. I had a killer time with it, and anyone considering themselves a fan of action cinema should put this one very high on their list.”
The Furious will be released in US theaters in 2026. Discuss upcoming movies with us on the ComicBook Forum!
