BRWC Reviews: Furious (1984)

31st July 2015

‘Mystic aliens fight karate heroes for control of the universe’…or at least that’s what the tagline is.

Furious is a film that’s hard to summarise. Supposedly about aliens; but with almost no suggestion of extra-terrestrial life that I could see and no dialogue to explain it, in fact almost no dialogue at all, Furious seemed more an experiment in strange than a feature film. The film roughly follows the story of Simon (Simon Rhee), a martial arts teacher whose sister has been killed by white Mongols and Simon is set about avenging her death. On his journey Simon faces mysterious boxes, killer chefs, men who can change into chickens and pigs as he battles through office complexes, desolate fields and restaurants filled with elderly American ladies who struggle to eat their chicken all whilst aided by men in Hawaiian shirts and his band of trainee karate kids.

Not your typical film to say the least, it’s not even your typical B-movie martial arts film; It’s riddled with curiosities, including a 1980’s electro pop band who inhabit the office complex of the evil sorcerer Mika (Mika Elkan) but seemingly do nothing, as well as magical spinning tusks and a talking Buddha. The film has almost no dialogue, with no one speaking until about 12 and half minutes in. Not only that, the film’s longest section of dialogue is done by a talking pig. Furious is rescued somewhat by the magical B-movie fight scenes and the obvious skill of Simon Rhee; though the poor sound effects detract from that somewhat as well. Furious can’t seem to decide if it’s serious or a joke and I can’t either. If it was clearly intended to mock martial arts films I think this would be on my ultimate list, but it doesn’t quite do that which leads to it teetering on the edge of awful and outstanding, but not close enough that I could recommend anyone to watch it.

If you’re looking for an alternative to hallucinogenic drugs, or something to melt your mind, Furious is for you! It will have a certain appeal amongst B-movie lovers and those who adore films that make absolute no sense. If you however don’t enjoy a spot of nonsense, I’d avoid this film.

Furious is directed by Tim Everitt and Tom Sartori.

You can watch the trailer here.

Facebook

Google

Twitter

We hope you're enjoying BRWC. You should check us out on our social channels, subscribe to our newsletter, and tell your friends. BRWC is short for battleroyalewithcheese.