Furie (2019)

My quick rating – 6.4/10. If Furies leaned into stylized vigilante action and over-the-top brawls, Furie (Hai Phuong in its original title) strips things back to something rawer and more emotional. It’s the classic “you messed with the wrong kid” setup: when a child trafficking ring snatches a young girl, they unknowingly cross paths with her mother, Hai Phuong (Veronica Ngo), a retired gang leader who has both the will and the fists to tear through anyone standing between her and her daughter.

The story is straightforward, but it works because of the emotional stakes. Where Furies was about revenge in a broader, more stylized sense, Furie is laser-focused on a mother’s desperate fight. The film doesn’t need much exposition—once you understand who Hai Phuong is and what’s at stake, you know exactly where this ride is going. And even though the trajectory is familiar, Veronica Ngo sells it with a fierce combo of vulnerability and determination.

The fight choreography deserves a lot of credit. Unlike Furies, where the action occasionally took on a flashy, video game sheen, the battles in Furie feel dirtier and more believable. There’s still a high level of technical skill on display, but it’s grounded in the desperation of a woman fighting for her child rather than stylized spectacle. The train sequence is easily the highlight, a claustrophobic, relentless battle that ramps up both the physical intensity and the emotional stakes. It’s the kind of set piece that sticks with you and cements Ngo as a powerhouse on screen.

What also elevates Furie is the sense of scale. This isn’t just one kidnapping; Hai Phuong stumbles into a much larger child trafficking operation, which raises the stakes beyond her personal struggle. It never loses sight of the intimate mother-daughter bond at its heart, but the backdrop adds weight to the story. Watching Hai Phuong tear through street thugs and hardened criminals alike while carrying the emotional burden of possibly losing her child makes the fights hit harder.

Of course, with Furie and Furies being billed as connected, there’s the inevitable question: how? Veronica Ngo plays two completely different women across the films, and the connections are so flimsy that even IMDb seems confused about how to link them. The supposed “prequel” status of Furies feels more like a branding decision to me than an actual narrative link. In practice, the two films stand entirely on their own, and it doesn’t really matter which you watch first.

Taken on its own terms, Furie is a tightly executed martial arts thriller with heart. It capitalizes on Ngo’s screen presence and fighting skills while giving her a character you can actually root for. It’s not reinventing the genre, but it delivers where it counts: well-choreographed action mixed with emotion and a lead who carries the film with absolute conviction.

There are plenty of streamers to choose from, including Amazon.