Furies (Thanh Soi) is the follow-up/prequel to the 2019 Vietnamese film Furie (Hai Phuong), co-written and directed by Veronica Ngô. A mysterious woman, Mrs. Lin (Ngô), takes in three homeless girls, Bi, Thanh, and Hong (Dong Anh Quynh, Rima Thanh Vy, and Toc Tien), saving them from the streets and human trafficking. Lin trains the three as merciless revenge assassins in hopes of having them help her overthrow a ruthless crime lord and his drug and human trafficking ring.
The fights are intense and brutal. The action is non-stop and breathtaking. Samuel Kefi Abrikh, Furie fight choreographer, returned to stage the fight and stunt sequences. There’s no shot spared in filling the film with heart-pounding action. There was a mesmerizing chase scene done by motorbikes that looked lifted off the pages of a dark, graphic novel. My eyes were glued to the screen, and I was scared to turn away for fear of missing one precious moment of some wild fight. And there was a character that I believe I wanted to see more dead than anyone I could ever imagine. It’s okay; it’s just a movie. But I definitely wanted to tear his hair out of his head and make him eat it. Great acting,
Our fearsome threesome was vicious and unrelenting. I loved them and found myself cheering them on in hopes that they would live to fight another day. Their lives were brutal, and their hearts were as big as their dreams for a better future. It was exciting and exhilarating, yet never deterred from its dark plot. This wasn’t a fairytale with a happily ever after for everyone but a John Wick-esque revenge tale where hopefully someone finds peace at the end of it all.
The horror lies in the brutal reality of these young women’s lives, the action is insane, and the story is unforgiving and heartbreaking. This spoiler is necessary- I must insert a trigger warning for extreme sexual violence. There are multiple scenes depicting the rape of minors and women. I have had many discussions regarding the overly gratuitous depiction of sexual assault in film. In this case, I understand that it was an integral part of these women’s desire for revenge. We don’t need silence on these issues. However, it was very difficult to watch.
Furies premieres on Netflix on Thursday, March 23rd, and it’s the action thriller you didn’t know you needed.
