June 28, 2026
by Carla Hay
Directed by Kenji Tanigaki
Some language in Mandarin with subtitles
Culture Representation: Taking place in Southeast Asia, the action film “The Furious” features a predominantly Asian cast of characters (with some white people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A father goes on a frantic mission to rescue his 9-year-old daughter, who has been kidnapped by child sex traffickers.
Culture Audience: “The Furious” will appeal primarily to fans of vigilante movies with outstanding action scenes.
Inspired by the vigilante story in 2008’s “Taken” and the boundary-pushing action of the “John Wick” movies, “The Furious” delivers intense and dazzling fight scenes, in this story about a man on a mission to rescue his daughter from child traffickers. The basic structure and ending of the story are very formulaic. The fight choreography is not. It will keep viewers riveted to see what happens next.
Directed by Kenji Tanigaki, “The Furious” was written by Mak Tin Shu, Lei Zhilong, Shum Kwan Sin and Frank Hui. The movie had its world premiere at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival. “The Furious” takes place in an unnamed country in Southeast Asia. The movie was filmed in Thailand.
“The Furious” begins with the sounds of a recorded telephone conversation between a journalist named Matia Pham (played by Jija Yanin) talking with her husband Navin (played by Joe Taslim), who is also a journalist. Navin says, “I haven’t seen you in days, Matia. Please come home.”
Matia has been away from home because she’s been deep in an undercover investigation of children living in poverty that have gone missing in the area. What she uncovered is that many of these children have been kidnapped by a major criminal gang involved in child sex trafficking. The gang will stop at nothing to prevent their operations from being exposed.
The movie later reveals that an unnamed wealthy crime lord named funds this trafficking through money laundering of what he presents to the public as his legitimate business. This crime lord has a son-in-law named Paklung (played by Joey Iwanaga), who is desperate for the crime lord’s approval and to prove that he is a worthy successor to take over the business. Ironically, for someone involved in child kidnappings, Paklung is very protective and concerned about his pregnant wife, who is due to give birth in the upcoming weeks.
An early scene in the movie shows Matia rescuing a boy who has been imprisoned in a factory warehouse. Some of the criminals see them and give chase. The boy is captured again and killed. Matia is also captured and faces a sneering Paklung, who tells her: “That boy is dead because of you. I’ll just pick up another one.” Paklung then orders a thug named Tak (played by Yayan Ruhian) to murder Matia with a bow and arrow, which are weapons that Tak uses throughout the movie.
Meanwhile, a single father named Wang Wei (played by Xie Mao) is spending time with his 9-year-old daughter Rainy (played by Yang Enyou), who is scheduled to go back home in a few days to China, where she lives with her grandmother. Wei happens to be deaf and mute. Rainy’s mother is deceased.
An early scene of Wei and Rainy together shows her making a social video of him doing plumbing repairs. She throws a screwdriver backwards to him, and he catches it. Rainy comments on camera that he’s handsome and talented. She later asks Wei if he thinks her grandmother would let Rainy live with him.
This loving father-daughter rapport turns sour when Wei takes Rainy to a hair salon to get her hair cut because he thinks Rainy having shorter hair will help her train better in her kung fu lessons. Rainy doesn’t want to get this haircut and starts to whine and pout. Wei tells Rainy, “I’d rather you be able to protect yourself than be pretty.”
Rainy is so upset, she shouts at Wei that he doesn’t love her. She runs out of the salon into the street. Rainy is approached on the street by a boy who’s about 7 or 8 years old. He tells her that his family has been in a car accident, his young sister is trapped in the car, and they need help.
Rainy doesn’t hesitate the follow the boy so that she can give assistance. However, the boy is actually a captive of the child trafficking ring, and he has been forced to lure another child into a kidnapping trap. Rainy was unlucky enough to be the target. She is kidnapped by some thugs and put in a black plastic garbage bag in the back of a truck.
Just as Rainy’s father Wei goes out looking for her on the street, he sees the suspicious-looking truck and immediately senses that the men in the truck have something to do with Rainy’s disappearance. He runs after the truck in what is the beginning of a non-stop action-adventure story of a father fighting to rescue his kidnapped daughter and to defeat this ruthless gang of predators.
Along the way, Wei meets Navin, who is looking for Matia. At first, Wei doesn’t trust Navin, but the two men eventually decide to form an alliance when they find out that have a shared goal of finding their loved ones who have been the victims of this gang. And what a coincidence: Wei and Navin just happen to have top-notch fight skills, for reasons that are explained in the movie.
In addition to the archer assassin Tak, the gang has another killer is one of the gang’s chief enforcers: a hulking brute named Ho (played by Brian Le), who is brought in for the most vicious kills. The gang also has on its payroll a manager named Mr. Song (played by Sahajak Boonthanakit) and a corrupt police sergeant named Andong (played by Manatsanun Phanlerdwongsakul), who is dismissive of Wei’s pleas for help when Wei files a missing persons report about Rainy. Wei soon finds out that he can’t trust the local police, so he takes matters into his own hands.
“The Furious” has sufficient acting in the dramatic scenes. But this movie’s most memorable aspects are the spectacles of the fight scenes, which incorporate an impressive array of martial arts, including judo, kung fu, Judo, karate, Taekwondo and Muay Thai. Watching these scenes can make viewers feel exhausted and exhilarated at the same time.
Lionsgate released “The Furious” in U.S. cinemas on June 12, 2026.