Nguyen Cong Danh’s editing is right on the money here and elsewhere, mixing rapid-fire cutting with much longer takes that allow the audience to see the whole picture and admire the fighting skills of talented cast members. Ngo and action director and fight choreographer Samuel Kefi Abrikh stage their best sequences in cramped quarters such as alleyways and the narrow corridors of Hai’s nightclub hangout, where dozens of the gangster’s goons are dispatched by the trio against seemingly impossible odds. In light of this, it’s easy for viewers to accept Bi’s decision to stay and find purpose in life with her new sisters and comrades-in-arms.Īnchored by the trio’s emotional bonding and Jacqueline’s maternal care even as she whips them into shape for deadly combat, “Furies” delivers plenty of pulse-quickening action. While Hong is a bubbly type who likes dressing up and doing girly things, and Thanh is a tough customer with a punk rock vibe, both have experienced the same kind of heinous sexual violence as Bi. The well-rounded characters offer interesting points of difference and commonality with the shy and traumatized Bi. Though wary of being dragged further into violence that seems to lurk around every corner, Bi is drawn to the security and family environment offered by Jacqueline and fellow recruits Thanh (pop star Toc Tien) and Hong (Rima Thanh Vy).

“From the moment I was born, I was destined for darkness,” she tells us. Currently a pickpocket on the neon-drenched streets of Ho Chi Minh City’s (formerly Saigon) nightlife district, Bi is recruited by Jacqueline to join a girl gang she has formed to destroy Hai (Thuan Nguyen), a super-sleazy, sex-addicted gang boss whose empire is built on trafficking women and drugs.īi’s occasional voiceover narration paints a vivid picture of her deeply troubled soul. Here she’s Jacqueline (also known as Aunt Lin), a tough dame who saves country girl Bi (Dong Anh Quynh) from suffering more of the horrific sexual violence she experienced as a child and teenager in the film’s confronting opening sequences. Closely associated with the steady rise of Vietnamese genre cinema since moving from a successful pop music career to star in seminal works such as Charlie Nguyen’s smash hit “The Rebel” (2006), Ngo serves as director, actor, co-writer and producer in what’s bound to become one of the most widely seen of all Vietnamese films.Ī loose prequel to Le-Van Kiet’s 2019 hit “Furie,” in which Ngo played a petty criminal attempting to save her kidnapped daughter, “Furies” takes place 15 years earlier, with Ngo cast as a different character from the earlier film.

A gritty and often brutal action thriller, “Furies” is reminiscent in tone and texture of old-school Hong Kong heroic bloodshed epics and has a dash of the “indestructible female fighter” films starring Thai dynamo JeeJa Yanin (“Chocolate,” Raging Phoenix”).

Neon Empire by Drew Minh