Furies

Furies deals with three vigilante killers put together as a team by Jacqueline to bring down a crime syndicate. As the story is set in the past, the narrative resorts to a grim tone right from the beginning painting the town run by brutal, women trafficking, drug peddling crime syndicate. The three girls too are wronged by men and humiliated by the society making it easier to train them as a team to achieve the goal of Jacqueline. Will they achieve it forms rest of the story.

The problem with Furies is it sticks to one tone, a grim one and tries harder to narrate a messy screenplay. The three characters despite all the pain they went through in the past hardly leave an impression neither any of the villains stand out. The action set pieces remain the sole saving grace considering when the action stops, the drama gets tedious. As there is no attempt to break the monotony, the motorcycle action scene goes down due to poor vfx.

The third act blows up with a lengthy action scene and a surprising twist. On paper this might sound better but what happens on screen, loses it's impact. Even the final reveal doesn't really explain how or why this character could simply turn out to be the very person she dreaded. The ambition to turn this into a credible franchise is visible but with hardly any memorable characters, the film suffers a lot.

Shortly after this film, set in '90s Saigon, opens young Bi is attacked by one of her mother's clients. In the ensuing fight her mother is killed and she kills her attacker. Living on the streets of Saigon is dangerous and she is taken under the wing of Jacqueline, a woman who is also looking after two other girls, Hong and Thanh. They are trained to fight so they can defend themselves and others. One day, when they are considered ready, Jacqueline has them take on a gang that is abusing women. This will lead to fighting with martial arts, knives and guns and a climax that features a surprising twist.

If you are a fan of the action genre this is definitely worth watching. The action starts in the opening scenes and rarely lets up until the credits roll. This action is full on and nicely varied. There are some effects used, a fight on motorbikes would be impossible without them, but for the most part they aren't too obvious. The fights are all fairly gruelling and one constantly feels that out heroines are in real danger. We know deep down that three women couldn't take down scores of gangsters but while caught up in the action it isn't too hard to suspend ones disbelief. The camerawork is highly kinetic giving the viewer the feeling that they are almost in the action at times. The cast does a solid job; sometimes the villains are a bit OTT but this is clearly a deliberate choice. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to fans of the action genre.

These comments are based on watching the film in Vietnamese with English subtitles.

This is an impressive "prequel" to Vietnam's martial arts thriller, Fury-although it could easily be a stand alone project. It is a violent, female driven martial arts thriller about a group of young women in Vietnam looking to equalize the sex trafficking violence of a controlling gang. There is more to the story's in any martial arts movie, revenge plays a major role. Not many Vietnamese martial arts, action movies get air time in the west so it is cool and exciting that this one has. It is deserved. It is crafted in filmmaking styler of The Raid and other Indonesian martial arts films. The fight choreography and violence are fun to watch. The use of color and cinematography make this watchable. The heart of it is the underdog nature of the leading characters.

When I sat down to watch the 2023 Vietnamese action crime thriller "Thanh Soi" (aka "Furies"), it was without ever having heard about it. However, that hardly mattered, because I liked the movie's cover, and also with it being an Asian movie that I hadn't already seen, of course I would give the movie a chance.

Writers Nha Uyen Ly Nguyen, Veronica Ngo, Nguyen Truong Nhan, Nguyen Ngoc Thach and Aaron Toronto put together a nice enough script and storyline for the movie. It made for some good old fashioned femme fatale entertainment. There is a lot of action, both shooting and fighting, throughout the 109 minutes that the movie ran for.

Given my lack of familiarity with the Vietnamese cinema, then I wasn't really familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie. I was familiar with a single actor, the henchman with the spiky hair, though I don't know his name.

I have to say that I was genuinely entertained by "Thanh Soi", from star to end, so thumbs up to director Veronica Ngo for that accomplishment.

If you enjoy a good action movie, where you just lean back and enjoy the action, then you should give "Thanh Soi" a chance.

My rating of "Thanh Soi" lands on a six out of ten stars.

I really enjoyed this film a lot, even from the smaller details like cinematography of the bold colours throughout the film, and the 90s music. The main character is the quiet type, but I loved how the voice over of her inner thoughts got some of the plot and her emotions across.

The story is really cool, I did love the female empowerment of girls bonding, and literally fighting the patriarchy because of the men who are putting girls like them through awful situations. There are forced sex scenes in this film, but they actually are plot relevant, because there's a lot of revenge in this film.

The action is very good, everyone looked comfortable with the martial arts, and fighting. The pacing seemed good, and the balance between action and plot seemed nice. Overall very enjoyable film.