The 2010s were a landmark decade for action cinema. While we got big-budget spectacles like multiple Mission: Impossible movies and Mad Max: Fury Road, filmmakers also pushed boundaries in what was possible with hand-to-hand combat. One of the most notable action movies of that decade was The Raid, from director Gareth Evans, in which a police task force gets trapped in an apartment complex and has to fight their way out. In addition to the narrative premise being thrilling, the movie also showcased the intensity of the martial art of Pencak Silat, making the entire experience feel fresh and exhilarating.
Virtually ever since the release of the movie, every martial-arts movie has attempted to replicate not only the narrative hooks of The Raid, but also the movie’s brutality. A movie like Dredd had the same premise, though it swapped martial arts for sci-fi weapons. The John Wick series has similarly pushed boundaries of hand-to-hand combat, yet the characters still rely heavily on firearms. While it seems like every action movie for more than a decade has been compared to The Raid, it’s hard for any successor to live up to that legacy, until one of this year’s most intense releases.
The Furious first premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in Sept. 2025 and immediately won over critics. Despite the buzz the movie earned, it wasn’t until earlier this year that it was finally unleashed on audiences, and while it held on to a 100% Rotten Tomatoes rating up until recently, it still boasts a promising 98% positive review score. According to Dread Central, we’re only weeks away from the movie’s release on Digital, as it’s reportedly arriving on Jul. 16.
Directed by Kenji Tanigaki and starring Xie Miao and Joe Taslim, the premise is pretty straightforward: Miao plays Wang Wei, a man whose daughter gets kidnapped, kicking off an investigation into the people who stole her. Wang crosses paths with Navin (Taslim), a journalist whose wife also went missing, and the two men team up to uncover the truth. As one can imagine, the result is a brutal and bloody path of revenge.
Even with all of the buzz surrounding the movie, The Furious was never expected to reach the same heights as other movies released in June. The film had to compete with titles like Disclosure Day and Masters of the Universe, while holdovers from May like Obsession and Backrooms continued to dominate theaters. Additionally, even if it’s an action thriller, it hails from Hong Kong, so it didn’t have the immediate appeal with American audiences that all the other movies it competed with had.
Luckily, after its upcoming Jul. 16 Digital release date, its availability on other streaming platforms will likely follow.
4
/5
Release Date
June 10, 2026
Runtime
113 minutes
Director
Kenji Tanigaki
Writers
Mak Tin-Shu, Shum Kwan-sin, Frank Hui, Lei Zhilong
Producers
Bill Kong Chi-Keung, Frank Hui, Tam Chi-San