Movie review - Furies

Furies ***1/2 (out of 5) (TV-MA) There have been many action flicks with kick-ass females at the center. On the wholesome glitzy side, Charlie's Angels. Andy Sedaris cluttered the 80s landscape with a slew of soft-core pornish outings for Dona Speir and a bevy of hunks and silicone-enhanced babes as super government agents. (James Bondage, anyone?) Others from here and abroad - especially several East Asian countries - have ranged from the serious to moderately sexy to outright spoofs. The subtitled Vietnamese import, Furies, comes in at the grittiest end of the spectrum, and does so with an above-average plot and cast.

A Saigon woman rescues three young women from living on the streets and trains them in martial arts and weaponry to take down Saigon's biggest psycho gang leader, who deals drugs, runs casinos and clubs, and - worst of all - abuses and traffics scores of young women. The trio have endured their own traumas, and a grateful to find both sisterhood and purpose in their mission.

The three are quite attractive and often shown in skimpy, yet still PG-13ish, outfits. But they're at their peak in the training and fighting sequences. No idea if any of them are actual martial artists, but they look very convincing in combat. And they get plenty of opportunities to showcase acrobatic techniques.

There's no nudity, and most of the sex is forced, not romantic. But they don’t pull any punches on the mayhem. The fights are as furious and gory as any contemporary male-dominated entries in the genre.

Veronica Ngo stars, directs and co-wrote. Her real co-star is fight choreographer Kefi Abrikh. He'd done the same with Ngo as the star of 2019's Furie, for which this is a prequel. No need to have seen that to enjoy this one. When you're looking for this type of guilty-pleasure flick, Furies delivers on all counts.

(Furies, in Vietnamese with subtitles, streams on Netflix as of 3/23/23)