The film stars Xie Miao (’ The Thousand Faces of Dunjia’), Joe Taslim (‘Mortal Kombat II’), Yang Enyou (’Lighting up the Stars’), Jeeja Yanin (‘Triple Threat’), Brian Le (‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’), Joey Iwanaga (‘Alice in Borderland’), and Yayan Ruhian (‘The Raid 2’).

Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Joe Taslim and director Kenji Tanigaki about their work on ‘The Furious’, their first reactions to the screenplay, the importance of character, shooting the action sequences, Xie Miao’s performance, working together, and why they chose to release the film in English.

Related Article: Movie Review: ‘Mortal Kombat II’ 

‘The Furious’ director Kenji Tanigaki.

Moviefone: To begin with, Kenji, can you talk about your first reaction to reading the screenplay and when you read it, could you envision how you wanted to direct it?

Kenji Tanigaki: Because this movie is from our producer, Bill Kong, he’s the producer of the ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’, he asked me to direct one movie that had no script at that time. So, me and Bill and Frank (Hui), our other producer, we made the story together. One day Bill brought news. “Oh, there is a lot of crime happening in Southeast Asia, Cambodia or Thailand and it is human trafficking children. It’s very bad.” Our story must be simple because good people are good. Good is good. Bad people are very bad because with our action movie, I hope to let the audience all over the world understand the right way. So with human trafficking, I believe 99% of the people in the world think they are bad, very bad guys. So, because this audience thinks, “Oh, they are very bad. We must beat these kinds of people.” So good and good and bad and bad. That’s why our story is starting from this point. Then we put many Martial arts actors from different places. So, to answer your question, we are making story at the same time. So, the vision of the directing is because the story is coming fast. So first, we are scouting Thailand and Malaysia or Indonesia. Then I think the vision directing is we make the story with the producer, and we make the choreography, and make the characters with our actors. So, this is some of the process of directing. So not only me, “Oh, I must direct this kind of thing.” No, no, no. We create together with our team.

Joe Taslim in ‘The Furious’. Photo: Lionsgate Films.

MF: Joe, what was your first reaction to this screenplay and your character, and what spoke to you about this material?

Joe Taslim: Well, I got to be honest, it’s not really the action. It’s the message of the movie. I played so many villains in my career. In ‘Mortal Kombat’, I killed a child in that movie, and then in ‘Mortal Kombat II’, one villain rose to become another. So, I think the first ten pages of the script, I was like, “Finally, I have a movie that I can dedicate to my kids.” Because a lot of movies that I’ve done, my kids are like, “Oh, why are you always playing bad guys, Dad?” I say, “Because I’m good at playing bad guys.” Then this movie, the first 10 pages, I was like, “Holy cow, this is something” It’s such a strong issue in Southeast Asia, because I’m based in Jakarta, child trafficking and human trafficking. It’s still going on. It’s still happening here while we’re talking. Then as a father, I portray myself that I’m fighting for those kids like I’m fighting for my kids. So, it’s something that I can really dedicate to them, and then I want them to feel like their father would do anything for them and would burn everything with everybody just to save them, the hyperbolic kind of thing. But that thing that I got from the first ten pages, after the tenth page of the script, then I was hyped. Kenji is someone I looked up to for so long. Working in an action movie with Kenji and with this story? This is a gem, and I talked to my agent. It’s like, “No matter what, just put me in it, and then don’t mess it up.”

(Right) Xie Miao in ‘The Furious’. Photo: Lionsgate Films.

MF: Kenji, can you talk about shooting the action sequences and as a filmmaker do you have a philosophy when it comes to shooting action scenes?

KT: I need our action scene to be clean choreography because I hope some of the action is very fast paced. So, I must thank our lovely actors who can move because without their skill, without their performance, I cannot make our action sequence wider, cleaner, and longer. I don’t have any philosophy because I must work for the stories, and I must work for each movie. Our approach is different, but this movie is back to basics because I love the classic films of Buster Keaton or even Gene Kelly, and of course Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan, but their mutual point is to stay clean and stay wider and stay longer like Gene Kelly. I just appreciate his technique and his performance. So, I hope this movie has the same feeling because once we have this feeling, the movie has a long life. I still appreciate this kind of film and I hope this film has a long life.

(L to R) Xie Miao and Yang Enyou in ‘The Furious’. Photo: Lionsgate Films.

MF: Kenji, in an action-driven film like this, how important is story and character to you?

KT: I think characterization is very important. Sometimes it’s as much as important as the story. We are lucky because we can use our actor, their own martial arts background and culture because they have a strong charisma, and they have a strong character. So, we are so lucky.

(L to R) Xie Miao and Joe Taslim in ‘The Furious’. Photo: Lionsgate Films.

MF: Joe, what was your experience like shooting the action sequences?

JT: We’re lucky because Kenji had all talented people there. I’m not talented, I’m learning from them. But I think that the ambition is to achieve something that has never been done before, a five-way fight that’s so complex. It’s a chaotic jazz. So beautiful, balladic, but at the same time, it’s so violent and brutal. If Kenji hired the wrong person, it’s impossible for us to achieve that. Kenji knows that for him to achieve that mission, he needed to hire people that know what to do. So, we’re great singers trying to sing Kenji’s complex song, but if we’re not good, it’s impossible to have a five-way combination of a very complex design. I prepped myself three months prior before the shoot for endurance and for my stamina, because I believe endurance is the most important thing shooting an action movie. I know that in the process of shooting an action movie, I must stay awake and stand up for 10-12 hours. So, we prepped a couple of weeks before mostly focusing on the choreography and then chemistry with the other actors. Every day is a training camp, it’s just chemistry, choreography, chemistry, choreography, and everybody’s super talented. They’re great human beings. It’s not hard to gel with them, to connect with them straight away. I think in the first couple of days, I got connected with Xie Miao, and Brian Le. It didn’t take much for us to gel. I think we call it great casting. I remember one of our producers said, “The hardest thing about casting, you don’t want to hire a bad person in a group, because it will affect everybody.” So, casting did a good job and casted super talented people and great human beings, and we need that to be able to work the impossible.

Xie Miao in ‘The Furious’. Photo: Lionsgate Films.

MF: Kenji, what was it like working with actors Xie Miao and Joe Taslim?

KT: They are lovely actors, and they have a strong difference because Xie Miao is a Chinese Wushu and Joe does Judo. So just this element is a big difference. Chinese Wushu is like punch, punch, and kick. But Joe, because he is a Judo guy, he tries to grab the clothes and to throw him. To me, this is very interesting the distance. If you watch the movie carefully at the ending, Xie Miao is beaten up the bad guy, and he used a Judo throw, not a Chinese Wushu. So, it’s a very beautiful story arc, that he learned something from his friend. Maybe Joe helped save him. I don’t think many in the audience will notice these things, but if some audience members are aware, they might say, “Oh, Xie Miao, this Chinese Wushu guy use a Judo technique to beat up the main villain”. So, sometimes the dialogue is very important, but for our actual movie, some choreography speaks loudly.

(L to R) Xie Miao and Joe Taslim in ‘The Furious’. Photo: Lionsgate Films.

MF: Joe, can you talk about what Kenji was just describing and what it was like for you to shoot that scene?

JT: The one-on-one fight, that was the first fight I shot with Xie Miao, and we were still trying to understand each other because my basic is Judo and his basic in Kung Fu. Then Kenji changed it, which was super genius, and put it in the film that we also, as the characters were trying to understand each other. So, in the process of doing that, I’m learning every second of the way how he fights. But in the process of those two characters fighting, it’s also the same story, because Navin is trying to understand Xie Miao, how he fights, and Navin is asking, “Is he a bad guy or is he a good guy?” And Xie Miao also is asking, “Is he a bad guy or is he a good guy? Why is he investigating this club?” But we don’t know. So that is why the fight is the storytelling. So, it’s two characters trying to know each other, and two different martial arts disciplines trying to understand each other at the same time. I got to say, we’re talking about a five-way fight. It’s complex, but in terms of the storytelling, that fight is also interesting because he put that fight in the first fight. He knows that I need time to understand Xie Miao in real life, but he put it in the first fight. So, in the process of doing that, it’s both things going on at the same time.

Xie Miao in ‘The Furious’. Photo: Lionsgate Films.

MF: Joe, what was your experience like working with Kenji on this film?

JT: It was a beautiful thing that I found out about Kenji. I thought people coming from action usually focus more on the action. But with Kenji, it surprised me because I always came to him talking about the character, talking about Navin, and then he cared so much about the drama and about the storytelling. He told me that, “The action is great. But if the audience doesn’t understand, doesn’t feel, doesn’t follow, doesn’t vouch for the characters, all the action is just a circus. So, people need to understand and fight for you first to enjoy the action scene that you’re doing.” So, the core of it is very real. We’re doing an action movie, but also, we care so much about how people feel about the characters. We want them to feel the characters. That’s why the fight matters. They feel Xie Miao. They feel the father losing a kid. They feel Navin losing a wife and then trying to save those kids, and then we would do anything to save those kids and to help Xie Miao. So, I think when the audience understands the motivations of those two characters, everything else will flow. Of course, we did crazy action scenes still. Practically, it was so hard. It was so complex. It was a lot of pain here and there, a lot of bruises, but the most important thing is the motivation. Without that, it’s just a circus. It’s just like watching acrobatics for two hours. It doesn’t mean anything. It needs to mean something first. I believe that is something that I must hold onto as an actor. Otherwise, it’s just a performance. It’s just a physical performance without any core involved in it. So, for people watching the first time, they probably enjoyed the fight scene and all those crazy actions, but I have a high hope that people will watch it and then see different layers of it. There are a lot of hearts in it as well. A lot of the movie is mostly action scenes, but if people could also see something, there’s a heart in it. There’s a pain going on in those characters. That is something that I’m going to be forever proud about as an actor.

MF: Finally, Kenji, can you talk about the choice to make this an English language film?

KT: English is the world’s language, and another reason to use English is to get a wider audience. So, that’s why.

‘The Furious’ opens in theaters on June 12th.

What is the plot of ‘The Furious’?

After Wang Wei’s daughter (Yang Enyou) is kidnapped by a criminal network and he receives no help from the corrupt police, Wei (Xie Miao) sets out to find her himself. His only ally is Navin (Joe Taslim), a relentless journalist whose wife has mysteriously disappeared. Fueled by a furious vengeance, the unlikely duo ruthlessly battles the kidnappers in this explosive martial arts showdown.

Who is in the cast of ‘The Furious’?

• Xie Miao as Wang Wei
• Joe Taslim as Navin
• Yang Enyou as Rainy
• Brian Le as HD
• Joey Iwanaga as Pak Lung
• Yayan Ruhian as Tak
• Jeeja Yanin as Matia

‘The Furious’ opens in theaters on June 12th.

List of Joe Taslim Movies and TV Shows:

Buy Tickets: ‘The Furious’ Movie Showtimes

Buy Joe Taslim Movies on Amazon