“Thanh Soi” Theatrical Poster
Director: Veronica Ngo
Cast: Hoa Thanh, Veronica Ngo, Dong Anh Quynh, Toc Tien, Rima Thanh Vy, Thuan Nguyen
Running Time: 112 min.
By Paul Bramhall
Multi-talented star Veronica Ngo has maintained an enduring presence since first coming to international audiences attention in The Rebel and Clash during the late 2000’s, both of which served to briefly put Vietnamese action cinema on the map. Naturally Hollywood came calling, however minor supporting roles in the likes of Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Bright failed to fully utilise her magnetic screen presence. The same could be said for her role in 2016’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny, a Hong Kong production which brought her into contact with producer Bey Logan, and the pair would go on to work together in the capacity of star and producer in 2019’s Furie.
No longer relegated to supporting turns, Furie saw Ngo return to Vietnam to headline a contemporary set actioner, and confirmed everyone’s suspicions that she was able to hold her own as an action lead. Very much a localised version of Taken, she plays a single mother whose daughter is kidnapped by traffickers, framed through a gritty tale of hunting down those responsible via a combination of fists and kicks. While it’s unlikely anyone was clamouring for a prequel, 4 years later we’ve got one in the form of 2023’s Furies, which once more sees the pair reunite, only this time Ngo is directing, contributed to the script, and has a role in front of the camera to top things off.
Thankfully unlike the Taken franchise that the original took inspiration from, Furies doesn’t involve another of Ngo’s family being kidnapped, and instead goes the unexpected route of telling the origin story of Furie’s villain, Thanh Soi (who was played by Hoa Thanh, and is also the Vietnamese title of the movie). The decision is both interesting from a narrative perspective, revealing the characters life before she became the hardened criminal we see in Furie, but also because outside of offering a final fight opponent for Ngo in the original, her character wasn’t particularly memorable or fleshed out.
Thankfully this doesn’t prove detrimental, and as a director Ngo tonally switches things up in Furies. Whereas the original felt grounded and based in reality, for the prequel the underbelly of 1990’s Saigon is portrayed as a pulpy neon drenched cesspool of sleaze, where drugs and booze are readily available, and the threat of violence and rape is never far away. Indeed in many ways the production feels like a throwback to the type of provocative Category III action flicks that came out of Hong Kong in the 1990’s, think titles like Naked Killer and Escape from Brothel, although minus the gratuitous nudity (for the brief sex scenes that are included, props are always strategically placed to prevent anything too revealing). While for some the shift in tone may be jarring, for those willing to embrace the pulpier approach of Furies, there’s a lot to enjoy.
Playing a different role to what she was in the original, here Ngo is a mysterious woman who’s adopted a trio of street kids, each of whom has come from a background of horrific sexual violence, and raised them to be skilled fighters who are dispatched on missions to kill those involved in the trafficking of kids. Furies main character is played by newcomer Dong Anh Quynh (YOLO the Movie), a street pickpocket who Ngo rescues and brings into the fold of a couple of girls who’ve already been under her tutelage for a while, played by pop star and model Toc Tien (Gia Gan, My Nhan va Gang To) and Rima Thanh Vy (Muoi: The Curse Returns). While initially reluctant, Anh Quynh soon finds a sense of belonging in her adopted family, and joins Tien and Thanh Vy to make a trio of lethal ladies ready to take out the underworld scum responsible for supplying the illegal sex trade.
Furies is Ngo’s third time in the director’s chair, following the period pieces The Lost Dragon in 2015 and Tam Cam: The Untold Story in 2016, and she displays an assured hand throughout. Opening with a bloody aftermath that sees the camera pan through a building strewn with bodies, intercut with brief glimpses of what took place, the narrative engages from the first frame, taking us on the journey that eventually leads to the events that result in such a high body count. Complimenting her direction are stellar performances from all 3 of the leading ladies, who despite being relative newcomers, fully embody their characters and have charisma to boot. Anh Quynh in particular brings a searing screen presence to her rage filled character, while Tien brings a hard-faced punk feel to balance Thanh Vy’s more kind-hearted and playful portrayal.
Also returning from Furie is fight choreographer Kefi Abrikh, who in the intervening years has choregraphed the likes of Kung Fu Zohra and The Princess (which also featured Ngo), but here delivers his best work yet. While I was lukewarm to the action in Furie, Abrikh has clearly continued to study his trade, and here delivers a distinctly 80’s Hong Kong vibe to the fights. There are various one or two versus many melees that are fast and frantic, frequently utilising blades and anything else a character can get their hands on (including syringes!), and the constantly moving camera compliments the choreography perfectly, adding both dramatic flair as well as enhancing impacts. Speaking of the latter, Furies also improves on its predecessor by understanding the importance of impact shots, with the stunt crew gamely throwing themselves around when hit, adding a sense of power to the fight scenes that was missing in Furie.
The action eventually culminates in a cathartic finale in a dilapidated building where Anh Quynh and co. storm head bad guy Thuan Nguyen’s (Naked Truth) hideout, taking on a small army of attackers with bullets, knives, and their fists. It’s another sequence that proves Ngo and Abrikh understand how to use the action to tell a story, with the sequence being the culmination of a steadily intensifying number of action beats that punctuate the runtime, and allows Furies to go out on a satisfyingly bloody and hard-hitting high note.
If any criticism can be aimed towards the action then it would be directed at the motorbike chase, which was blatantly performed stationery in front of a green screen. With that being said, given the overall pulpy aesthetic, I actually found its hokey execution to be somewhat charming in a blatantly over ambitious kind of way. Throw in CGI flying kicks, and it certainly can’t be accused on not going all in, an approach which can be said to have been applied to all of the action scenes. For those hoping for Ngo to get in on the action, she does get a moment to let loose, and it’s in an unexpected way that once more proves an action movie will always be better if as much attention is paid to story and characters as it is the action itself. Personally I preferred her supporting turn here more than I did her character in Furie.
It’s undeniable that the spirit of 1980’s Hong Kong cinema looms large over Furies, with the leading ladies often feeling like they could have been transplanted from one of the countless Girls with Guns flicks from the era, and the sexual deviance of the bad guys being a mainstay of many a Hong Kong villain. Even some of the songs, especially from veteran Vietnamese crooners Dan Truong (who also gets name checked in the movie itself) and Phuong Tranh, contain distinctive echoes of the 80’s Canto-pop era dominated by the likes of Leslie Cheung and Sally Yeh. I’d argue the result is the best female driven action movie since Korea’s The Villainess, only minus the melodrama. It may be an origin story, but Furies ultimately stands on its own as a modern-day slice of unpretentious action, and announces the arrival of a new talent in the form of Dong Anh Quynh. Well worth checking out.
Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 7.5/10
Paul, what do you think of the big twist at the end? About who Bi really turned out to be. I found it pretty sad.
I liked it, although agree it was sad. I think it reinforced the message that these situations can be a vicious cycle, and that it’s all too common for the abused to become the abuser.
When I first heard of this movie being made, I didn’t understand why someone would want to make an origin story for a person who goes on to traffic children and have their organs smuggled, and that person is supposed to be the protagonist that we feel sympathy for. Considering that Bui Doi Cho Lon was canceled for accusations of glorifying criminals, I don’t know how the Vietnamese censors wouldn’t go after Furies. Did they lighten up or something?
With that said, Dong Anh Quynh was very good, and you would never think that this person would eventually become a villain. I guess we need to be reminded that we’re all angels and demons, and people don’t only do good things or only do bad things.
The action was certainly great and there was a wide variety of it. I can’t help but think that Dong Anh Quynh‘s use of the kerambit was a reference to Indonesia’s martial art films, while the grapple and gun sequence in the restaurant was a reference to John Wick. It’s like the film makers were making the statement “We’re challenging you!”
I was OK with the motorcycle chase being green screen, as it reminded me of the swoop bike chase in Return of the Jedi. But I was not OK with that terrible digital effect of the flying kick off the rooftop. It was so terribly fake and didn’t go with the rest of the grounded action. Someone should have told the film makers that experiment wouldn’t work.
I think we’re getting to the point where that simulated “one take” shot is being overused. I may have accepted it in 1917, Atomic Blonde, and Extraction, but it’s becoming cliché, and film makers need to dial it back now.
Furies was definitely a satisfying piece, and this year has been generous for action cinema so far.
Yeah I thought the same thing considering the main gripe the censors had with ‘Bui Doi Cho Lon’ is that it portrayed parts of Saigon as being lawless, so felt it tarnished the cities image. I can only assume that the final scene in which the cops storm the building and arrest any survivors must have been enough to tick the box!
Despite being limited somewhat by the budget Netflix gave them, its still a very satisfying action flick. Not sure about the twist though, it doesn’t seem deserved
It’s interesting that this is the 2nd comment regarding the ‘twist’, as I think it only applies to audiences watching it under the ‘Furies’ title. In Vietnam the movies name is ‘Thanh Soi’, so it was always sold as the origin story of the originals villain, which I guess made it more of an expected conclusion versus it being a perceived as a twist.
Personally I enjoyed the backstory. There’s some subtle foreshadowing, like when we see Anh Quynh make a reference to how she’s afraid of drowning in her own darkness, and her confession that she enjoyed killing, which give small hints to the path she’d eventually end up going down.