Furies/Thanh Soi: Cuc Dai Trong Dem

Furies was a good movie. I have yet to see the sequal but i can tell from this that it must be good. Furies is the first netflix original from vietnam. And i think it was a good star. It has good slick action and a fighting style that blends in well. The movie is also a little sad in some ways with the subject mater and films of rape are said upon. The movie is all about this young girl and after a childhood incident she is found by this woman that takes her in and decides to train her along with two other girls. All three have great characters and acting and it is entertaining to watch. The revenge element works well and overall furies was a pretty good movie.

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.

Well, its above the average netflix production. Does not say that much tho.. Acting is ok, story is fairly intresting, you do care for the characters. Action scenes are lackning sadly enough, could have gotten one or two stars more if they were good. Only one of the main characters that really pulls it of. But I absolutly love the dirty 90's neon city center, full of the fumes from cars, industry and cigaretts (Yeah, smoking is bad, but it adds to the atmosphere). Really well made that.

Mixed feelings about the strong women approach, I do very much approve of it, and some elements are very good (wont elaborate that one because of spoilers). But you cant really shake the feeling that somone in the production has a thing for young skinny girls.

Worth two hours of your time, but you probaly wont remember it in a few days.

There have been many action flicks with kick-ass females at the center. On the wholesome glitzy side, Charlie's Angels. Andy Sedaris cluttered the 80s landscape with a slew of soft-core pornish outings for Dona Speir and a bevy of hunks and silicone-enhanced babes as super government agents. (James Bondage, anyone?) Others from here and abroad - especially several East Asian countries - have ranged from the serious to moderately sexy to outright spoofs. This one lands at the grittiest end of the spectrum, and does so with an above-average plot and cast.

A Saigon woman rescues three young women and trains them to take down Saigon's biggest psycho gang leader, who deals drugs, runs casinos and clubs, and - worst of all - abuses and traffics young women. The trio have their own traumas and find both sisterhood and purpose in their mission.

The three are quite attractive and often shown in skimpy, yet still PG-13ish, outfits. But they're at their peak in the training and fighting sequences. No idea if any of them are real martial artists, but they look very convincing in combat.

Nothing gets soft-pedaled here. There's no nudity, and most of the sex is forced, not romantic. It's also as gory as any contemporary male-dominated productions.

Veronica Ngo stars, directs and co-wrote. Her real co-star is fight choreographer Kefi Abrikh. He'd done the same with Ngo as the star of 2019's Furie, for which this is a prequel. No need to have seen that to enjoy this one. When you're looking for this type of guilty-pleasure flick, Furies delivers on all counts.

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.