Casa da Fúria

The story tells of Yue Siu Bo(Anthony Wong, The Medallion) who lives in Hong Kong running his own Chinese Health clinic. Here he raises his two children High school student Natalie(Charlene Choi, The Twins Effect) and Ocean World Dolphin instructor Nicky(Stephen Fung,The Gen-X Cops, also the film's director). who he also taught martial arts. Both of them have grown weary of their father because of his constant bragging of how he's defeated many opponents in battle, they have just believed he is always lying.

Then one fateful day, a wheel chair bound man by the name of Rocco(Micheal Wong, First Option) arrives at Siu Bo's clinic looking for a man by the name of Tai Chi-Lung, the man responsible for Rocco's condition. When Siu Bo tells him he has no idea who he is talking about, Rocco leaves and later that night send his henchmen to capture Siu Bo.

When Nicky discovers his father has been kidnapped, he goes to the clinic to investigate only to discover that his father was once in fact a secret agent for British Intelligence.

Soon, Rocco finds out that the information he is looking for is hidden inside two charms worn by both Nicky and Natalie, he dispatches his team of lethal martial arts assassins to retrieve them.

Now Nicky and Natalie, with th help of Natalie's Boyfriend Jason(Daniel Wu, Around The World In 80 Days) and her best friend Ella(Charlene Choi, The Twins Effect) whom Nicky has a crush on, must use the martial arts skills they learnt from their father to defend themselves and save Siu Bo before it's too late.

Phew, now thats a synopsis.

This is the second directorial outing for Star Stephen Fung, who's previous film, Enter The Phoenix, was a fun look at the gangster genre which dominated the box office during the 1980's, so his second film was an eagerly awaited film and boy let me tell you it was worth it.

This movie was so fun, it's probably one of the best movie to come of Hong Kong in 2005. Firstly I'll comment of story and acting.

The story is probably the films weakest point, mainly due to Anthony Wong's character being very open about his past as a secret agent, you thin being part of British Intelligence he'd know the meaning of discretion. The plot as well as an action movie is also in some ways a domestic comedy, with the characters many conflicts being due to the fact that the children think their father is a lair and the father thinks he is no longer fit to look after them.

This is where some of the humour stems from in a way, although the humour is little weak, it did give me a few chuckles here and there. Now plotting and story aside, let's talk about the acting. For a film like this not much is really called upon of the actors. It's worth noting that this was executive produced by Jackie Chan so the end product is very family friendly, so no graphic violence or bad language of any kind, which isn't a bad thing in this case. Anthony Wong gives the strongest performance in the movie giving some much needed gravitas to what is really a flawed character. Stephen Fung does a good job as always as the frustrated and weary Nicky, while Gillian Chung has improved greatly since her performance in The Twins Effect.

Daniel Wu gives fine support considering he does very little in the movie but the worst performances come from Charlene Choi, who is given some of the worst lines, and Micheal Wong, who was just too wooden to make the character seem menacing in anyway. Also veteran Hong Kong actor/producer/director Wu Ma provides strong support as Uncle Chiu.

Now lets get to the good stuff, the martial arts fighting. Which has to be said is the best thing about the movie. They where directed by martial arts action supremo Yuen Woo Ping(The Matrix Trilogy, Kill Bill 1 & 2) who has once again proved why he's one of the best in the business. He does a great job of making everyone who fights in the movie look highly skilled, even thought most of the actor are not martial artists. Each fight is a joy to watch and recalls the glory days of martial arts action cinema in the 70's and the 80's.

To finish off, this is an extremely fun film and I highly recommend that if your a fan of Kung Fu action movies you go and buy the DVD without hesitation as you will not be disappointed.

I gave this film 5/5 stars!

I think House of Fury is Hong Kong movie version of an animated popular movie, Mr Incredible (about retired of family superheroes). Indeed, Anthony Wong is my favorite Hong Kong actor, and in this movie he playing as a retired secret agent from China. The son, Cao, playing by young actor Stephen Fung, and the daughter, Lei, playing by Gillian Chung (the sweetiest from The Twins duet). The handsome actor Michael Wong as Mafia boss with bald head and sitting in wheelchair. The veteran actor Wu Ma as the Old Dragon. The casting is okay, the kung fu fighting by Yuen Woo-ping of course good. Some scene is funny, but the script is too childish and lame ...

An overall well-made movie with excellent martial arts and a nice simple story line... great for a lazy afternoon ! The plot is simple, family of trained martial artists have to save their father after he is held by a villain, western of course, and bald.

Some up and coming Chinese actors shown especially Gillian Wong, the new Michelle Yeoh, in my opinion anyway. Also the weapon work demonstrated by the young boy (obviously a weapons competitor in the US) is truly outstanding. You can definitely feel the hand of Jackie Chan in the fighting sequences.

Xangshuo ! (Enjoy !)

"House of Fury" is a smooth mix of action, comedy and family drama. It's a lightweight film that neither tries to solve the world's problems, not does it turn into the fashionable bloodbath. And yet there is a degree of character complexity here; a couple of people are not who they appear to be, and even the villain of the story (Michael Wong) actually has a very understandable personal motive for his actions. But it is the fighting (co-choreographed by Yuen Woo Ping) that is undeniably the main draw: although there is occasionally too much wirework for my tastes (sometimes justified - like in the opening sequence, giving it a fitting fairy-tale quality - but often not), there is also a lot of solid and intricate ground (and weapon) fighting that's a throwback to the golden era of HK action cinema (hey, the climactic fight is even set in a warehouse!). Nearly everyone in this film can fight: men, women, old people, kids, etc. Sometimes they do so quite creatively too - as when Anthony Wong defends himself against four kidnappers by imitating Bruce Lee! Gillian Chung has speed, technique and flexibility, she is a female action star in the making; she just needs to increase her aggressiveness a bit. Despite her high billing, Charlene Choi has what amounts to a cameo; this should not really be classified as a "Twins" film. *** out of 4.

House of Fury is a fun, neat flick that doesn't waste time with any of the usual junk that gets thrown into most movies these days.

I knew nothing about this movie when I rented it, but I'm very glad I did. It's one of the coolest movies I've seen in years. House of Fury works as sort of a Big Fish/Spy Kids mash-up. But in this film the "Kids" in question are a girl in her late teens and her adult brother. The film opens with a visually innovative fight sequence that segues into an efficient set up: the siblings are routinely embarrassed by their father's nonstop tall tales of his past as a secret agent.

However, the brother and sister discover too late that they were not tall tales at all when their dad goes missing at the hands of a revenge driven former soldier. From here out, the siblings are quickly schooled on their family's secret history before rushing off to save the day in a string of brilliant fight scenes.

Anyway, I don't want to spoil anything. Just rent House of Fury.