Movie Review – Furie

Furie (Hai Phượng)

Vietnam (2019) Dir. Lê Văn Kiệt

Never underestimate the will of a mother on a mission, especially when it involves the welfare of her child. She may be pretty, slightly built, even downtrodden if life hasn’t been kind to her but don’t expect her to be a pushover, you may regret it.

Former gangster now single mother Hai Phượng (Veronica Ngo) has raised her 11 year-old daughter Mai (Mai Cát Vi) alone in a small fishing village since leaving her former life behind after falling pregnant. Now working as a debt collector, they live hand to mouth as Hai saves for Mai to have good education, except Mai is being bullied at school for not having a father and for Hai’s occupation.

One day at the market, Mai finds a dropped wallet is about to hand in it when she is accused of stealing it. Hai questions Mai’s version of events so she storms off, ending up in the arms of a criminal gang of organ traffickers. Hai gives chase, following them to Saigon where she seeks help from her old contacts who refuse, citing fear of the gang’s boss Thanh Sói (Trần Thanh Hoa). Dissatisfied with the police response, Hai resorts to her own mettle to save Mai.

Almost two years ago, I reviewed Furies which, unbeknownst to me at the time, was a prequel to this 2019 actioner. Prequels can be tricky (just ask George Lucas) in part from having to make the connections between the extant story cogent and credible, and also from maintaining the quality of the first film. The interesting facet here is the prequel isn’t obvious about what or who it is defining having now watched this first entry.

This raises a lot of questions about how the choice was made for this direction when making Furies although it doesn’t explain everything - in fact, it is even more confusing from watching the films in reverse (or chronological) order. But that is a discussion for another time, this is about Furie, Vietnam’s first film made for Netflix and the gateway for director Lê Văn Kiệt to get a foot in the door in Hollywood, with apparent mixed success.

Having a hand with the script, Lê Văn Kiệt shows no intention of reinventing the wheel here nor does he need to. Taking his cues from the likes of The Raid, Lê Văn Kiệt may have jumped on a current Asian cinema bandwagon but when you get it right, there is no shame in hitching a ride with a clearly successful formula. The twist of having a female protagonist may also not be totally original but is a welcome one in lieu of its testosterone lead counterparts.

Unlike those films there is no action in the first act, which is dedicated to word building and establishing the mother and daughter relationship. Hai’s past is revealed through flashbacks, only sharing information relevant to the moment at hand. Mai is Hai’s everything; witnessing Mai’s bullying first hand, Hai asserts self control we learn from our first flashback was once unthinkable. Mai wants to leave school and buy a fishing basket to earn enough money to leave their squalid domicile.

With this now laid out, the story begins in earnest beginning with Mai’s abduction. It is a little far fetched that Mai can be dragged kicking and screaming through the market and nobody except Hai leaps into action but that is cinema for you. Fighting her way through a line of tooled up thugs (again with no assistance), Hai ends up stealing a motorbike to chase the kidnappers up river, but ends up losing them.

Saigon may be Hai’s old turf but things have changed, including her clout. The police offer the usual procedural platitudes which Hai feels are disingenuous as the detective in charge of her case Lương (Phan Thanh Nhiên) is somebody she has history with. So, Hai goes it alone, only to come up short at first until Lương finally capitulates. Seeing a woman as the boss of the child trafficking gang is harder to accept than seeing a man, which probably sounds like gender assigning, although with the hindsight of seeing Furies first, it is a little clearer.

Despite putting Hai through hell to reach her daughter, the script does somehow find some room for gentle humour, namely an escape scene from a hospital, which isn’t as incongruous as it seems from tying in with the idea of empathy between mothers. Unfortunately, Thanh Sói and the numerous thugs Hai encounters are lacking this, showing no compunction in trying to kill her - and of course, failing.

Because this is a genre film, the fights are staged in a variety of challenging situations and locations, from a tiny repair shop to the top of a moving train. Choreographed by Kefi Samuel Abrikh, the action is fast and frenetic, a mix of weapon assisted and barehanded combat based on the Vovinam style of martial arts. The highlight is a single-take punch up in which Hai faces a gang of gun wielding thugs at the end, flawlessly executed like a violent ballet.

It is irrelevant how generic the story is due to the convincing performances of Veronica Ngo and Mai Cát Vi as Hai and Mai respectively, their chemistry supplying the emotional foundation for it. The script makes Hai suffer both physically and emotionally, which Ngo relays through a deft interpretation. The cinematography is another important factor here, capturing the grit of the slums and the neon lit bustle of Saigon via a pristine lens, calibrated to Lê Văn Kiệt’s fluid direction.

Kick-ass women are becoming a norm now in Asian cinema at long last and like its prequel, Furie is a gloriously vibrant and violent addition to this expanding catalogue, with a captivating and capable lead in Veronica Ngo who should be a household name by now. Hell, Trần Thanh Hoa should also be in more films too proving a commanding presence and a hard nut fighter. You go girls!