“The Furious” Teaser Poster
Martial arts stars Xie Miao (My Father is A Hero, Eye for an Eye: The Blind Swordsman), Joe Taslim (The Raid, The Night Comes for Us), Jeeja Yanin (Chocolate, Triple Threat) and Yayan Ruhian (The Raid, Beyond Skyline) are teaming up for the Edko/XYZ Films English-language actioner, The Furious.
Out of all the aforementioned names, lead star Xie Miao is most likely the one most are unfamiliar with. For fans of Hong Kong action cinema, Miao will most likely always be remembered for his co-starring turns as a child martial arts prodigy in the Jet Li outings The New Legend of Shaolin and My Father is a Hero during the mid-1990’s. While he largely stayed off the radar in the succeeding years, he made a comeback in 2008 with the Tsui Siu-Ming directed Champions, a rousing tale set during the 1936 Olympics that was made off the back of Beijing hosting the event during the same year. Since then he’s appeared onscreen regularly, and in the mid-2010’s found his calling as one of the go-to leading men (probably only rivalled by Fan Siu-Wong) for kung-fu web movies. In the 2020’s alone he’s already headlined 15 of them, and is one of the few actors who can claim to have played the iconic characters of Ip Man, Sun Wukong, and Na Zha (and all within just a few months of each other!).
The film also stars Brian Le (Everything Everywhere All at Once, The Brothers Sun) and Yang Enyu (Lighting Up the Stars).
The Furious is being helmed by Tanigaki Kenji (Enter the Fat Dragon, Legend of Seven Monks), who is also handling the action choreography. Producing will be Bill Kong, whose past producing credits include Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Fearless and Hero.
As far as the film’s plot: When his daughter is snatched off the street, simple tradesman Konggu (Xie) fights his way through a complex web of criminals in a frantic attempt to win her back by any means necessary. His only ally is tireless journalist Navin (Taslim). The two men from utterly different backgrounds must learn to trust, collaborate and draw on combat skills from their own hidden pasts (via Variety).
“I’m going to do an action movie that rocks the world. And to prove that Hong Kong still has something to give the film industry. I want to show that Asian people can still make an action movie that is better than the rest of the world,” Kong told the same source.
The Furious is currently in production. We’ll update you on this project as we learn more. Until then, here’s a look at what Xie Miao and Tanigaki Kenji can do in the Trailers for Eye for an Eye: The Blind Swordsman and Enter the Fat Dragon, respectively:
I hope this lives up to the hype. I guess Phillip Ng and Andy On’s Without Remorse has some big competition.
Oh, I’d say so!
I won’t call it a renaissance, but we are in an era where more people who care about action cinema are putting in a great effort.
Even though too many producers want CGI to replace real action choreography, there’s enough film makers out there who prove that screen fighting and learning choreography is not a lost art.
Totally agree. The geeks are finally taking over. CGI may be the norm, but we get enough of the old-school stuff that I’m happy.
Yeah, with that cast and with Kenji in the director’s chair…this should rock.
No Jeeja Yanin in this film, sadly..
Do you know something we don’t?
LP…… you can’t just come in and out, give us hard info, then disappear. That’s a dick move if you ask me. You must be from the Philippines.