Furies (2022)

Furies (2022). 1h 49m | TV-MA

“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 u0026#39;Mad Dogu0026#39; Hai (Thuan Nguyen). After risking their lives doing so, Bi becomes suspicious of Jacquelineu0026#39;s real motives…u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI 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 doesnu0026#39;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.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eNgo certainly handles the filmu0026#39;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.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003e7.5/10, rounded up to 8 for IMDb. A marked improvement over Furie — I would definitely welcome another Furies film with Ngo at the helm.”