Furie (2019)

February 17, 2020 9:34 AM

Veronica Ngo stars as an ex-gangster who is lying low in the countryside after becoming a mother, but she can't escape her violent past when her daughter is kidnapped.

"Shot in luscious primary colors and vibrant neon, and exploiting Vietnam’s natural beauty and evocative locations, Furie has the technical polish needed to play on those big fest screens, and indeed it looks as sharp as anything from South Korea or Hong Kong at those movie industries' peaks." - Hollywood Reporter

"Actually, I didn’t want to film one more because it is difficult for my body to do dangerous scenes. We didn’t find the actress for leading role despite the casting for a year. At that time, the movie crew advised me to accept the leading role, so I had to accept it.

I got hurt a lot, even in the first week of shooting. I was knocked down and my knee beat against the side of the boat when we shot a chasing scene in Sa Dec in southern province of Dong Thap. I rested for two days and on the third day, I inject pain relief into the knee to be able to perform the necessary scenes.

The crew also found two stunt women but both of them were unqualified to act in the dangerous action scenes. Finally, we chose a stuntman for the most dangerous scenes. More than 90 per cent of fighting scenes in the movie were done by me." - Producer, Writer, Star - Ngo Thanh Van (aka Veronica Ngo) in Vietnamenet

posted by Gorgik (4 comments total)

I watched this back-to-back this weekend with a bunch of other action movies, notably The Man From Nowhere, which has a similar plot. But I liked this one more, for a bunch of reasons. I thought Ngô Thanh Vân was a better actor, and her character more compelling in motivation. I liked all the establishing scenes, both in the village market and in downtown Saigon, and thought they rooted the movie, and provided a good background for what Hai Phượng was going through during her search.

I thought the last two actions scenes (the boss, and then the trainyard) were well done, and especially the trainyard had several long take sequences which I thought were great. Not as long as the apartment scene in Atomic Blonde, but maybe a little more complicated.

I particularly liked the fact that this wasn't all about killing, and some of the specific parts where she avoided it. The scene with Truc, in his garage, and his mother pleading first for him to spare Hai, and then appealing to her as a mother to spare her son. The emotional beats worked well for me.
posted by Gorgik at 9:48 AM on February 17, 2020 [1 favorite]

Furie is streaming on Netflix and Hoopla (via local libraries) in the US.
posted by Etrigan at 10:33 AM on February 17, 2020 [2 favorites]

I thought the last two actions scenes (the boss, and then the trainyard) were well done, and especially the trainyard had several long take sequences which I thought were great.

I liked when she smashed a durian into that guy's head in the beginning after the kidnapping. Ouch! (Pretty sure it was a durian, all big and spiky.)
posted by oh yeah! at 3:58 PM on February 17, 2020 [1 favorite]

I saw a trailer for this a few years ago and wanted to see it when it came out, but I forgot the name and didn’t manage to track it down until last month. I’m so glad I did! It’s gorgeous, and the fight scenes are really intensely done. Ngo is amazing (and now I’m really looking forward to seeing more of her in The Old Guard 2).
posted by mbrubeck at 8:44 PM on November 16, 2022