A quartet of screenwriters is credited in Kenji Tanigaki‘s “The Furious,” but just a single action choreographer: If you’ve ever doubted the adage that two heads (or indeed four) are better than one, here’s your validation. No one could accuse those scribes of working overtime in devising the barely-there plot and barely-care dialogue for this barn-burning martial arts movie, but said choreographer, Kensuke Sonomura, is considerably better value. An astonishing bloodbath of brute hand-to-hand combat, highly resourceful weaponry and gnarly bodily contortions, “The Furious” is such a feat of mass physical coordination that such niceties as character and narrative can afford to be an afterthought. Here’s a film where you come for the fighting and stay for the fighting, and are unlikely to feel shortchanged.
The third feature directed by Tanigaki — himself an accomplished action choreographer and stunt coordinator — this culture-blending Hong Kong production was scooped up for international distribution by Lionsgate following a noisy fall festival run that saw it come second in the People’s Choice voting in Toronto’s Midnight Madness section. Sure enough, it’s a crowdpleaser of the most raucous variety, likely to prompt mid-film bouts of applause after certain especially vigorous action setpieces, not to mention approving laughter at the more absurd aspects of its construction. With a good portion of its admittedly sparse dialogue in clunkily dubbed English — Mandarin, Thai and Tagalog also feature — this flamboyantly violent and brashly enjoyable affair is clearly targeting crossover cult status as it opens globally tomorrow, and could just get there.
