Hai Phuong / Furie (2019) - Lone wolf and cub in sinister settings - 7/10 (11/01/20)

Furie is a Vietnamese action-thriller with renowned actress Van Veronica Ngo of Clash, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny and Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi fame. Renowned French fight choreographers were also involved behind the scenes. Furthermore, this is the first Vietnamese movie to be theatrically released in the United States of America. The dynamic lead actress plays a former hostess from Saigon turned debt collector in a rural area. She is also a single mother who doesn't know the father of her daughter. The protagonist faces numerous challenges as she gets several threats due to her line of work and her daughter faces bullying at school because of her origin. One day, a group of kidnappers raid the local market and take the protagonist's daughter with them. She follows a lead that brings her back to Saigon where she faces a grumpy former colleague and a resentful brother who feels that she abandoned the family. Our protagonist realizes that nobody is willing to help her and decides to confront the huge child trafficking organization on her own.

Furie convinces on several levels. The action scenes are mostly realistic, intense and entertaining. The highlights are the chase sequences along the river in the beginning and the fight scenes on the train towards the end. Lead actress Van Veronica Ngo convinces as resilient lone wolf and child actress Mai Cat Vi steals the show as surprisingly brave, clever and mature daughter who actually takes more intelligent decisions than the adults around her. The locations are diversified and vary from poor rural settings to the criminal underworld of a big city. It's refreshingly authentic and honest that this movie shows the dark and ugly sides of life in Vietnam.

There are however a few elements that could still be improved. Most side characters are lacking charisma. The cop is almost unimportant to the story line. The lead villainess only seems to have one single facial expression. The former colleague of the lead actress is extremely antipathic and could have been cut from the movie altogether. It's regrettable that some scenes presented in the making of have been cut from the movie, especially those involving young actress Mai Cat Vi in a cage on a train with other kidnapped children. The simplistic plot features a few elements that are hard to believe. It's strange that the kidnappers raid a market in the middle of the day to take one single child among many others. It's difficult to understand that the lead actress easily finds essential information on the kidnappers at the police station, steals it and walks away without any problems. Another scene that was unintentionally confusing was when the drowning protagonist was saved by the police that had been nowhere to be seen before out of nowhere.

Despite a few plot holes, some cut scenes and a few below average acting performances, Furie overall convinces with two excellent lead actresses, great fight choreographies and sinister vibes in an entertainingly concise movie. Fans of Asian action cinema should watch Furie for sure. If you like Hollywood movies such as Peppermint, you are going to appreciate this film here as well.