The Furious is a lean, 113-minute pan-Asian action film about Wang Wei, a mute handyman and martial arts expert, who tears through a corrupt Southeast Asian city to rescue his kidnapped daughter. Teaming up with journalist Navin, he battles a trafficking syndicate in brutal, improvised fights that critics hail as some of the year’s most exhilarating action.
The Furious, the new pan-Asian action film directed by Kenji Tanigaki, opens in Indian cinemas today, a week behind its worldwide release on 12 June. Early reviews out of Toronto and Busan have called it one of the most purely satisfying action films of the year, the kind of unapologetic genre exercise that mainstream cinema rarely attempts anymore. Here is a full breakdown of the plot, the cast and everything else worth knowing before you book a ticket.
The movie is set in an unnamed city in Southeast Asia and follows Wang Wei, a mute handyman whose unassuming day job conceals a lifetime of martial arts training. His daughter, Rainy, visits him from mainland China during her school holidays and pushes him to relocate and live with her instead. Wang refuses, the two argue, and Rainy storms off into the city.
While she’s out alone, a boy fakes an injury to lure her away from a busy street, and within minutes she is kidnapped by a trafficking ring with police officers on its payroll.
With no authorities to help him, Wang goes on a gruesome rescue mission to get back his daughter, and joins forces with Navin. Navin is an investigative journalist searching for his own missing wife, Matia, a reporter who disappeared while building a case against the same syndicate. The two men spend the rest of the film fighting their way through the city's underworld using whatever happens to be within reach: hammers, ice blocks and the occasional household appliance standing in for the usual arsenal of guns and blades.
The Furious premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival's Midnight Madness section last September, then played Busan's Midnight Passion strand, building a reputation as a crowd-pleaser long before its theatrical run began. Reviewers have repeatedly singled out a centrepiece five-way fight sequence as being the highlight of the movie. Every punch, fall and improvised weapon on screen is the product of stunt performers and choreographers working at the highest level of their discipline, and it all reflects well on the final product that is the movie, making "The Furious" this year’s breakout action movie.
The film assembles a genuinely international roster of action talent, most of whom perform their own stunts. Beijing-born action-movie actor and former wushu champion Xie Miao plays Wang Wei. For anyone who grew up on the golden run of Hong Kong action cinema, Xie Miao is a familiar name. As a ten-year-old wushu champion in the 1990s, he played Jet Li's son in The New Legend of Shaolin and My Father Is a Hero. Yang Enyou plays Rainy, reuniting with Miao after 2024's An Eye for an Eye 2, where Miao's blind swordsman reluctantly takes Enyou's character under his protection. Indonesian actor and former national judo champion Joe Taslim plays Navin. You might know him from his role as Jah in Fast & Furious 6, Manas in Star Trek Beyond, and Sub-Zero in Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat II.
Other roles include Jeeja Yanin playing Matia, Yayan Ruhian playing one of the film's standout henchmen, Brian Le (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) and Joey Iwanaga (Alice in Borderland).
Kenji Tanigaki, the Japanese director and longtime action choreographer behind sequences in Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In and Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins, takes the chair here with one stated goal: to make, in his and producer Bill Kong's words, the ultimate martial arts film. Kong's own resume is just as impressive (he produced Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, FYI).
Cinematographer Meteor Cheung, better known for prestige dramas, shoots his first martial arts film here, and the score pairs composers Elliot Leung and Olivia Xiaolin with electronic musician and filmmaker Flying Lotus.
The Furious opened worldwide, including in Hong Kong, on 12 June 2026, distributed internationally by Lionsgate. Indian audiences waited an extra week, with the film releasing in cinemas across the country today, 19 June. At 113 minutes, it runs lean by modern action standards, with little room left for anything beyond the much-hyped fight choreography it was built around.