What The Furious is about
The Furious centers on Wang Wei, a mute tradesman whose entire world collapses when his young daughter Rainy is taken by a child-trafficking syndicate — and the police, corrupt to the bone, refuse to do anything about it. What follows isn't a procedural. It's not a slow burn. Wei, played by Mo Tse (also credited as Xie Miao), partners with an undercover journalist named Navin to tear through the criminal organization by hand, floor by floor, body by body. The film's thematic engine borrows from the boxer's mindset — that singular, tunnel-vision focus you get when someone has nothing left to protect except the one thing that matters. It's a revenge thriller, yes, but one that earns its fury rather than borrowing it from genre convention.
How The Furious came together — cast, crew, and festival recognition
Directed by Kenji Tanigaki, The Furious is a Hong Kong production with a genuinely international footprint. The film was shot on location in Bangkok between April and July 2024, primarily in English with sequences in Mandarin and Tagalog — a multilingual production that reflects its pan-Asian cast and ambitions. Production credits span ACT 2 Pictures, Golden Screen Cinemas, Astro Shaw, Sunstrong Entertainment, and GSC Movies, with Lionsgate handling international distribution outside Hong Kong, Macau, and mainland China.
The cast is, honestly, a martial-arts dream lineup. Mo Tse anchors the film as Wei, a physically demanding role that requires communicating almost entirely through movement rather than dialogue. Joe Taslim — best known internationally for his work in The Raid and Mortal Kombat — plays Navin, the journalist who becomes Wei's unlikely ally and the film's emotional interpreter. The supporting ensemble includes Jeeja Yanin, Yayan Ruhian, Brian Le, and Joey Iwanaga. That's not a list you assemble if you're planning to fake the action with editing tricks.
The festival circuit has been generous. The Furious premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2025 as part of the Midnight Madness program, where according to Horror Geek Life it was called one of the best action films shown at TIFF that year, finishing as runner-up for the People's Choice Midnight Madness award. It later received a Best Feature Film nomination at the Sitges Film Festival — a genre-cinema institution that doesn't hand out nominations lightly. The film is scheduled for a day-and-date theatrical release on June 12, 2026, in Hong Kong and the United States.
Why The Furious works — and where critics have pushed back
The thing nobody mentions loudly enough is how rare it is to get a film like this — one that treats its action sequences as choreographic events rather than chaos generators. The Cosmic Circus described the film's action as "unrelenting" and bone-crunching, with comparisons drawn to both The Raid and John Wick, which is about as high a compliment as you can pay a hand-to-hand combat film in 2025. With Yayan Ruhian on set — the same performer who made The Raid's hallway sequences legendary — those comparisons don't feel like hype.
That said, critics haven't been entirely uncritical. Weak dialogue and clunky ADR overdubbing show up in multiple reviews as consistent complaints. The multilingual production may have introduced some of that roughness — hard to say if it's a post-production issue or something baked into the shoot — but it's worth flagging for viewers who prioritize sharp scripting alongside sharp elbows.
What saves the film from those technical stumbles is the emotional architecture. Mo Tse's Wei is mute, which means the film can't rely on monologue to sell its stakes. Every scene where Wei's desperation needs to land, it lands through physical performance alone. That's a bold structural choice, and it pays off. Taslim's Navin provides the verbal grounding — a character who can articulate what Wei can only enact. Together they create a pairing that feels less like buddy-cop formula and more like two people who need each other to survive something neither should be doing. The film currently holds 100% positive reviews from 24 critics on Rotten Tomatoes, which suggests the action-cinema crowd has found exactly what it was looking for.
Where to stream The Furious online
The Furious is available on major OTT services — and Movie OTT tracks current streaming availability across platforms so you don't have to chase down each one individually. The Where-to-Watch widget at the top of this page reflects the most current distribution picture as rights are confirmed and regional availability shifts. Streaming rights outside theatrical territories are still being finalized in some regions, so the platform landscape may expand between now and the weeks following the June 12, 2026, release. Movie OTT updates its listings in real time as announcements come through, making it the most reliable place to check back if you're waiting on a specific service to pick up the film.
Frequently asked questions
Q: Who directed The Furious?
The Furious was directed by Kenji Tanigaki, a filmmaker with deep roots in Hong Kong action cinema. The film was shot in Bangkok between April and July 2024 and represents one of his most internationally ambitious projects to date.
Q: Where can I watch The Furious?
The Furious is available on major OTT services, with regional availability varying by territory. The Where-to-Watch widget on this page is updated in real time — Movie OTT monitors platform rights across streaming services so you can find the most current options without guesswork.
Q: Is The Furious based on a true story?
No. The Furious is an original action thriller, not based on real events or adapted from existing source material. The story of Wang Wei and his daughter Rainy is fictional, though the film's themes around child trafficking and institutional corruption are drawn from recognizable real-world dynamics.
Q: What is The Furious rated, and how long is it?
The film runs 113 minutes. An official MPAA rating hasn't been widely confirmed in available sources, but given the film's graphic hand-to-hand combat and subject matter involving child trafficking, a restrictive rating is expected in most markets.
Q: How did The Furious perform at film festivals?
Very well. The Furious premiered at TIFF 2025 in the Midnight Madness section and finished as runner-up for the People's Choice Midnight Madness award. It also received a Best Feature Film nomination at the Sitges Film Festival, and currently holds a 100% approval rating from 24 critics on Rotten Tomatoes.
Who should watch The Furious — final thoughts
The Furious isn't trying to be a franchise launchpad or a crowd-pleasing spectacle with a safety net of CGI. It's a film built around physical consequence — the kind where you feel each hit because the people throwing them actually know how. Fans of The Raid, Ong-Bak, or the more grounded end of the John Wick spectrum will find a lot to admire here. It's not a perfect film — the dialogue issues are real — but as a showcase for what martial-arts cinema can still do when it commits fully to craft over convenience, The Furious earns its title. Keep this one on your radar at movieott.com as streaming dates are confirmed.
