Asian Invasion: Fight Night, Round Two

The Furious (2026)

The latest Hong Kong martial arts import, The Furious is making its way to theaters in America, courtesy of Lionsgate. The truth is, martial arts fans, like myself, have already known about the film since last September. The film was previously not translated for the American market, but about half the film is in English, and the other half – who cares? The story is not really something you go to this movie to see. It’s all about the action, baby.

The buzz for the film is unbelievable. For the most part, they should be excited about the film. It is pretty non-stop action. That’s the attitude that you need to take with you when you see the film.

I can see a lot of influence from contemporary action films, such as John Wick, The Raid (particularly Hammer Girl from the second film)… and even Ong Bak and The Man From Nowhere. Most of these films involves Yayan Ruhian (“Mad Dog”), who first choregraphed Merantau in 2008. Since then, he’s been involved in all the popular martial arts film, most recently I saw him in Boy Kills World.

As for The Furious, there’s no denying – it has great action fight scenes. It’s very light on the story, and I did have many problems with the story and logic. For example, I had a very hard time believing some random newspaper reporter is a superstar kung fu artist… much like I had a problem with the mute repairman as a deadly fighter. Or a young businessman is suddenly some deadly killer and fighter. It seems everyone in this town can fight – and fight well! There are no efforts in trying to explain why they know kung fu – it is just the way it is.

The child-trafficking plot is just stupid. I hated all the kids. Child actors are just the worst. And why do you need a three-man team to kidnap one little girl? Why did the reporter and repairman have to fight each other in the beginning? It’s stupid. We know the police were corrupt (it’s just a given in these movies), but how naïve was the police sergeant? Like I said, it was so stupid. I personally wouldn’t have even involved the police or the child-trafficking plot or that kung-fu fighter/reporter. I personally would have just have the repairman as a loner who witness a murder or something nefarious… we didn’t need all these other characters.

I did like that they made the hero a mute. It makes for some difficult situation, where he couldn’t just talk his way out or shout for help. He just has to communicate through action.

The best fight in the five-man throwdown at the end of the film. Some people might say it went on for too long, but I thought it was a lot of fun. It did get repetitive as one fighter would go in and out and another guy steps in and out, etc. I’m sure the choreographer had a blast organizing all the sequence. I think my only complaint is that two of the fighters we were literally just introduced to at the end. From my perspective, I didn’t know how skillful the bow hunter guy was or how dangerous the final boss was (he didn’t give off as being dangerous). I think they could have done a better job on hyping up the final fight characters.

So yeah, highly recommend the film for action fans. For those looking for a solid story, look elsewhere.

Baki-Duo (2026)

Netflix’s Baki-Duo: The Invincible Samurai is the latest installment in the long-running Baki Hanma saga. I’ve been a fan of the series since I first rented Baki the Grappler on DVD from Hollywood Videos in 1994. At that time, grappling was all the rage with the mix martial arts world, despite the fact that the technique dates back to the invention of ancient wrestling. I certainly didn’t know much about grappling, but the anime series taught me that it was an ever-evolving fighting style.

I’ll never forget that the first fight in the original Baki the Grappler was INSANE. Baki, some 10-year-old boy, had the body of a 30-year-old had his first fight in the arena and he barely limped out of the alive! It was so unbelievable that I’m sitting there wondering, how the f are they going to top that first fight?

The cool thing was you’re introduced to various fighting style that Baki has to overcome. Each style, from Karate to Muy Thai, had their advantages and disadvantages, and it’s up to the Grappler to triumph. I really enjoyed that that first OVA (original video animation).

From the OVA, we have the first season in 2001, then Baki (my favorite) in 2018. The 2021’s Baki Hanma was my least favorite. The reason is because instead of focusing on Baki, the series just went on with the other fighters, developing all their backstory and technique. And then the worst – for the second part they introduced a caveman fighter called Pickle. He doesn’t have a fighting technique; he just fights on instinct. It’s dumb.

I’m afraid the dumberly (that’s not a word) continues with Baki-Duo. The whole plot involves the cloning of Musashi Miyamoto (the famous two-swordsman from 400 years ago). He’s such a skilled fighter that he can cut people down with invisible swords. It’s dumb. Of course, one by one, Miyamoto defeats (or fight to a draw) against all the Baki fighters – from karate guy Doppo to ninja master Motobe to the yakuza strongman Kaoru. It’s great to see them back in action, but obviously I was more interested in seeing Baki fight in round two.

The problem with Baki-Duo is we see very little of Baki. He’s easily defeated by Miyamoto when they first met and Baki spends the rest of the series training or sometime. Baki really doesn’t show up until the last two episodes, when the two have to fight in the ring. When you have a character like Baki, who is basically a god when it comes to fighting, it is really hard to challenge him. How can someone defeat Baki, especially when he’s in top form?

My other problem is that previously, the fights were fair because you were not allowed to use weapons, but because Miyamoto is a swordsman, they allow him (and him alone – except for the ninja guy) to use his two swords. The show wants you to believe that it’s nothing against these trained unarmed fighters, but I felt it was just not fair.

It’s still enjoyable overall, and more Baki anime, I am happy to get in any form… even if I think this 2026 series isn’t as good as the 2018 series.

P.S. I ended up reading a ton of the comic book via the Humble Manga Bundle: The BAKI Collection that I purchased in 2023. I got pretty far, but I think I just stopped halfway through … maybe because I didn’t really like the art style. Maybe while I wait for the next Baki show, that I will finally finish reading the remainder of the manga.

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