The female-led Vietnamese revenge film, furies, it’s streaming now, but should I give it a watch? Here’s our review of the new Netflix movie.
Anticipating the impending bloodlust for ultraviolent gun movies during the opening week of the highly anticipated John Wick 4, Netflix smartly took the delay for the Vietnamese action thriller. furies. It will bring it to the platform along with JW4 this weekend.
A loose prequel to 2019’s. ragethe film brings back Veronica Ngo, the original star, with an expanded role as director, co-writer, producer, and one of the film’s female leads.
Set in the brutal, neon-lit streets of Saigon in the 1990s, Furies tells the story of three young women who have been saved from cruel and abusive environments by their leader «Aunt Lin» and trained to be fierce vigilantes and furious on a bend to make the brutally sadistic crime lords pay for their tyrannical control over their world.
The film stars newcomer Dong Anh Quynh as de facto lead Bi, singer/model-turned-actress Toc Tien as the gritty Joan-inspired assassin Jett Thanh, Rima Thanh Vy as the bubbly and optimistic Hong, Thuan Nguyen as «Big Four» leader Mad Dog Hai, and the aforementioned Veronica Ngo (The Old Guard, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Da 5 Bloods) as Jacqueline, aka «Aunt Lin.»
From the start, director Ngo sets a tone of unrelenting savagery and sexual violence in a predominantly patriarchal society. The audience is led into the story from the perspective of Bi, a little girl who is sexually assaulted and assaulted by one of her prostitute mother’s regular customers. Following the tragic conclusion of that ordeal, Bi escapes to Saigon, where more of the same abuse and criminality would be waiting for her on the streets where she now lives.
After being saved and taken in by Jacqueline, Bi quickly trains alongside her sisters, Thanh and Hong, in combat training to help Aunt Lin’s quest to rid Saigon of the «Big Four» crime lords in charge of trafficking. sex, drugs, prostitution and gambling.
While the story may be set in the 1990s, the influences of the action choreography are definitely 2010s. Inspired by movies like the tremendous 2011 Indonesian crime thriller The Raid or its many disciples like John Wick, The Night Comes For Us from Netflix and Atomic Blonde, Furies takes up the hectic action pace and hand-to-hand fight scenes and executes them quite well. Fight choreographer Kefi Abrikh drew on his experience working on the original Furie and his bigger-budget American films The 355 and The Princess to create quality practical martial arts compositions and believable gunplay.
Where the movie doesn’t really live up to its predecessors is with the low-budget CGI effects. The bad tangle behind the motorcycle chases and embarrassing explosions limit the film’s overall action acumen below its elite aspirations.
With important messages about the sexual exploitation of women and abusive power dynamics in patriarchal settings, the film’s script should have been a strength along with its athletic camera and kung fu. However, the story is too thin and too long, with uninspiring dialogue between kicks. Much of the feminist themes in the first half of the film don’t hold up, as the story dives deep into revenge plots and third-act twists, and frankly, they weren’t well-executed or motivational to begin with. The finer points of the film and the script come much later than its audience would expect, as it really takes off with its final mission. But hey, we got to see a high-heeled knife through someone’s neck, so we take what we can.
In general, furies It impresses with its kinetic pacing, punches, and production, but the uninspired dialogue and long running time prevent the film from reaching the heights of its obvious influences. Netflix Adds Another Female-Led Action Actor To Watch Alongside Recent Releases Kate and gunpowder shake.
Look furies on netflix if you like
- john wick
- Kate
- gunpowder shake
- the old guard
- My name
- The night comes for us
Netflix MVP furies
Toc Tien as Thanh.
We always fall for the dark and brooding, right? Maybe it’s just me. However, in the case of this film, Toc Tien’s performance as Thanh holds the film together like glue in a story that sometimes has a power vacuum. After Aunt Lin’s initial rescue, much of the training and leadership falls on Thanh’s shoulders as field commander and sister-in-arms. She is the «Leonardo» of this impressive trio of vigilantes while hers «Splinter» plotted her revenge.
PLAY, PAUSE OR STOP?
PAUSE.
To quote Playstation MC PaRappa The Rapper, “Slash, slash, kick, punch, block! We are all in this together; You know we can’t stop Satisfy your need for revenge and high-level ultraviolence, but don’t expect the motivations to get you.
Will you be watching Furies on Netflix or have you already seen it? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.