‘The Furious’ Director Reveals the Last-Minute Decision That Turned a Simple Showdown Into an 18-Day Cinematic Beast

Martial arts cinema has been waiting for its next cultural landmark since ‘The Raid’ reshaped the genre more than a decade ago. ‘The Furious,’ helmed by Japanese director Kenji Tanigaki, is being positioned as a true pan-Asian action event, built around a story following a mute tradesman who tears through an underworld of criminals in a desperate attempt to rescue his kidnapped daughter. Early word is electric, and critics are not holding back their enthusiasm.

Tanigaki has spent more than 20 years as Donnie Yen’s key creative collaborator, and for ‘The Furious’ he assembled one of the most formidable rosters of fighting talent seen on screen in years. The film’s pan-Asian cast features China’s Xie Miao and Yang Enyou, Indonesia’s Joe Taslim and Yayan Ruhian, Thailand’s Jeeja Yanin, and Vietnamese-American Brian Le. Action choreographer Kensuke Sonomura joined Tanigaki to ensure that every sequence felt unlike anything the genre had offered before.

In a recent exclusive interview with SlashFilm, Tanigaki spoke candidly about what has become the film’s most talked-about achievement, the climactic police station brawl, calling it both “innovative” and “very complicated.” The sequence is a five-person melee built around three competing factions with shifting allegiances throughout the battle, and it has been described as one of the most ambitious continuous-action sequences assembled in recent memory. Producer Bill Kong, whose credits include ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,’ called the set piece “bigger than anything because it’s something that you rarely see.”

What makes the sequence even more striking is that it very nearly looked nothing like what ended up on screen. Speaking to Variety, Tanigaki revealed that the confrontation was originally planned as a straightforward two-versus-two fight. “In the ending fight, it was originally two guys versus two guys,” he said, explaining that his admiration for the character played by Brian Le drove him to bring that villain back into the fray, ultimately reshaping the melee into a five-way battle involving three distinct parties. That creative impulse reportedly required an extraordinary 18 days of filming to fully realize.

On Rotten Tomatoes, ‘The Furious’ has earned a 97 percent approval rating from 107 critics, and 96% audience score, and the site’s consensus praises its breathtakingly inventive martial arts choreography. Sonomura’s fight design has drawn particular attention for treating combat more like an environmental puzzle than a conventional bout, compelling the protagonist to outmaneuver opponents by using their own bodies as obstacles in ways that feel genuinely new to the genre.

Tanigaki has been consistent in his commitment to this approach, stating plainly that he is not interested in making actors who cannot move appear as though they can, and that his cast’s real skills from multiple martial arts disciplines meant everything in the film could be executed practically.

That philosophy runs through the entire production, with Tanigaki describing his approach as a return to basics, a kind of unplugged mode of action filmmaking that leans into Southeast Asian martial arts traditions rather than competing with Hollywood spectacle.

With a 20-minute climax built from a last-second creative gamble and a director who treats authenticity as a non-negotiable, ‘The Furious’ seems to be landing exactly as intended. Which fighter from that chaotic five-way showdown are you most eager to see in action, and do you think this is the martial arts film that finally fills the void left by ‘The Raid’?