Furies

Furies was a good movie. I have yet to see the sequal but i can tell from this that it must be good. Furies is the first netflix original from vietnam. And i think it was a good star. It has good slick action and a fighting style that blends in well. The movie is also a little sad in some ways with the subject mater and films of rape are said upon. The movie is all about this young girl and after a childhood incident she is found by this woman that takes her in and decides to train her along with two other girls. All three have great characters and acting and it is entertaining to watch. The revenge element works well and overall furies was a pretty good movie.

Veronica Ngo, star of Furie, plays Jacqueline, who rescues three young women from a tough life on the streets, training the girls to defend themselves against nasty, sex-mad men. When ready, Jacqueline sends the trio -- Thanh (Toc Tien), Hong (Rima Thanh Vy) and Bi (Dong Anh Quynh) -- on a mission to wipe out a gang of human traffickers, who are led by the despicable 'Mad Dog' Hai (Thuan Nguyen). After risking their lives doing so, Bi becomes suspicious of Jacqueline's real motives...

I felt that the Vietnamese action film Furie (2019) suffered from serious pacing issues: the finale was great, but the fight scenes leading up to it were sporadic and not handled very well. This sequel-in-name-only, directed by its star Ngo, remedies that issue, with regular bouts of adrenaline-pumping action, each set-piece wilder than the one before. Ngo is perhaps a little too ambitious at times, such as with the motorbike/moped chase that suffers from some noticeably weak visual effects, but that still doesn't prevent it from being fun -- in some ways, the rather cartoonish look of that particular sequence suits the outrageousness of the action unfolding before our eyes.

Ngo certainly handles the film's martial arts scenes like a seasoned pro, the complex choreography and kinetic camerawork combining to deliver plenty of excitement; the director has clearly been studying the great action movies of recent years, with close-quarter combat scenes reminiscent of The Raid 2 and Oldboy. Ngo also gives the whole affair a wonderfully gaudy, comic-book aesthetic, befitting the rather trashy storyline: the entire film is drenched in neon lighting and there is some nice use of De Palma-style split-screen.

7.5/10, rounded up to 8 for IMDb. A marked improvement over Furie -- I would definitely welcome another Furies film with Ngo at the helm.

Furies deals with three vigilante killers put together as a team by Jacqueline to bring down a crime syndicate. As the story is set in the past, the narrative resorts to a grim tone right from the beginning painting the town run by brutal, women trafficking, drug peddling crime syndicate. The three girls too are wronged by men and humiliated by the society making it easier to train them as a team to achieve the goal of Jacqueline. Will they achieve it forms rest of the story.

The problem with Furies is it sticks to one tone, a grim one and tries harder to narrate a messy screenplay. The three characters despite all the pain they went through in the past hardly leave an impression neither any of the villains stand out. The action set pieces remain the sole saving grace considering when the action stops, the drama gets tedious. As there is no attempt to break the monotony, the motorcycle action scene goes down due to poor vfx.

The third act blows up with a lengthy action scene and a surprising twist. On paper this might sound better but what happens on screen, loses it's impact. Even the final reveal doesn't really explain how or why this character could simply turn out to be the very person she dreaded. The ambition to turn this into a credible franchise is visible but with hardly any memorable characters, the film suffers a lot.

Shortly after this film, set in '90s Saigon, opens young Bi is attacked by one of her mother's clients. In the ensuing fight her mother is killed and she kills her attacker. Living on the streets of Saigon is dangerous and she is taken under the wing of Jacqueline, a woman who is also looking after two other girls, Hong and Thanh. They are trained to fight so they can defend themselves and others. One day, when they are considered ready, Jacqueline has them take on a gang that is abusing women. This will lead to fighting with martial arts, knives and guns and a climax that features a surprising twist.

If you are a fan of the action genre this is definitely worth watching. The action starts in the opening scenes and rarely lets up until the credits roll. This action is full on and nicely varied. There are some effects used, a fight on motorbikes would be impossible without them, but for the most part they aren't too obvious. The fights are all fairly gruelling and one constantly feels that out heroines are in real danger. We know deep down that three women couldn't take down scores of gangsters but while caught up in the action it isn't too hard to suspend ones disbelief. The camerawork is highly kinetic giving the viewer the feeling that they are almost in the action at times. The cast does a solid job; sometimes the villains are a bit OTT but this is clearly a deliberate choice. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to fans of the action genre.

These comments are based on watching the film in Vietnamese with English subtitles.

Well, its above the average netflix production. Does not say that much tho.. Acting is ok, story is fairly intresting, you do care for the characters. Action scenes are lackning sadly enough, could have gotten one or two stars more if they were good. Only one of the main characters that really pulls it of. But I absolutly love the dirty 90's neon city center, full of the fumes from cars, industry and cigaretts (Yeah, smoking is bad, but it adds to the atmosphere). Really well made that.

Mixed feelings about the strong women approach, I do very much approve of it, and some elements are very good (wont elaborate that one because of spoilers). But you cant really shake the feeling that somone in the production has a thing for young skinny girls.

Worth two hours of your time, but you probaly wont remember it in a few days.