The Best Action Movie of the Year Is One Most People Haven’t Seen

The arguable strongest contender for 2025’s best action movie has not yet been released, but the hype for it is swiftly building up with the movie’s upcoming debut at 2025’s Toronto International Film Festival. 2025 has seen no shortage of exhilarating and electrifying action and martial arts movies for action fans to sink their teeth into, and many action fans have had their eyes increasingly locked in on news on the upcoming Hong Kong martial arts ensemble The Furious. Billed as a throwback to Hong Kong action glory days, The Furious is a co-production of the Hong Kong-based Edko Films and stateside distributor XYZ Films. Moreover, everything that’s been revealed about The Furious thus far has been nothing short of music to the ears of action fans.

The Furious centers upon Konggu (Xie Miao), whose mission to rescue his kidnapped daughter leads him to join forces with journalist ally Navin (Joe Taslim). The Furious is officially set to premiere in September at the Toronto International Film Festival, with formal release date details still pending. With everything revealed leading into it and even reported plans for it to spark a potential franchise, The Furious not only has a great shot at being 2025’s best action movie, but potentially even a genuinely game-changing martial arts action ensemble.

The Furious Is Helmed by a Long-Time Donnie Yen Collaborator (& Has a Great Martial Arts Ensemble)

In the director’s chair of The Furious is renown Hong Kong fight choreographer Kenji Tanigaki. Western audiences probably know Tanigaki best for his acclaimed work as action director on the live-action Rurouni Kenshin movies, along with 2021’s Snake Eyes: G.I. Origins. However, Tanigaki is well-known among Hong Kong action fans for his many collaborations with Donnie Yen, Tanigaki having orchestrated the stunts and action of such Yen vehicles as Sha Po Lang, Flash Point, Bodyguards and Assassins, and Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen, among others. With Tanigaki having also designed the outstanding fight choreography of 2024’s Hong Kong monster hit Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In, he’s becoming an increasingly revered maestro of action among martial arts fans (Tanigaki’s fellow rising fight choreographer Kensuke Sonomura also on board The Furious as action director).

With that kind of action movie talent behind the camera, The Furious is no less stacked with those in front of it. The ensemble of The Furious features a Pan-Asian who’s who of martial arts stars, including Xie Miao, Joe Taslim, Yayan Ruhian, Jeeja Yanin, and Brian Le (the latter known for his work on YouTube’s Martial Club and hits like Everything Everywhere All At Once and Shang-Chi & the Legend of the Ten Rings). The overall team tasked with bringing The Furious to life is one full of names of the utmost reverence to martial arts fans, cementing The Furious as an absolute must-see for all action fans, and one that, as an added bonus, is getting a worthy red carpet treatment ahead of its debut.

The Furious Is Getting the Same Kind of Premiere That One of 2024’s Best Action Movies Did

The Furious is set to be showcased at 2025’s Toronto International Film Festival as part of the Midnight Madness slate. Toronto International Film Festival programmer Peter Kuplowsky describes the film as “a Pan-Asia action extravaganza” that culminates in “a five-way fight that is one of the most thrilling martial arts fights I’ve ever seen since Dragons Forever with Jackie Chan, Yuen Biao, and Sammo Hung”. Invoking a Hong Kong action classic like Dragons Forever as a point of comparison with The Furious is sure to get the attention of action fans, but so to its the movie’s TIFF premiere due to its similarity to another recent action hit.

Specifically, Timo Tjahjanto‘s 2024 martial arts actioner The Shadow Strays itself premiered as part of TIFF’s Midnight Madness slate ahead of its debut on Netflix. Essentially, The Furious is being given the same kind of grand premiere that The Shadow Strays received with the same kind of pre-release hype, to boot, a fact that will surely not be lost on action fans as excitement builds for the official release of The Furious. All of that together along with the aforementioned franchise goals for The Furious also set it up for something even grander in larger scheme of its release.

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Why The Furious Could Be a Martial Arts Action Game-Changer

Much of the cast of The Furious have been seen movies regarded as martial arts classics. Former child star and Wushu champion Xie Miao has built quite the kung fu movie career with hits like the Eye for an Eye movies and Hunt the Wicked, while Joe Taslim has The Raid and The Night Comes For Us to his name (alongside his ongoing role Bi-Han in the big-screen Mortal Kombat franchise). Yayan Ruhian is also known for his portrayal of tiny but domineering villains in The Raid movies, John Wick: Chapter 3: Parabellum, while Jeeja Yanin is highly regarding for her break-out performance in 2008’s Chocolate and other action hits like Raging Phoenix and Triple Threat. Alongside Brian Le’s rising profile in martial arts films like Shadow Master and Bangkok Dog, the total package of talent involved with The Furious is one of martial arts movie pros in a throwback to classic Hong Kong action of the Dragons Forever variety.

Combined with its TIFF premiere and the goals for it to continue as a series, The Furious is shaping up to be a martial arts action bonanza with truly gaming-changing potential. With the sheer energy it is presenting ahead of its premiere at TIFF and subsequent mainstream release, Kenji Tanigaki’s The Furious already looks poised to blow audiences around the world away as an early contender for the best action movie of 2025.