The hero of “The Furious” — let’s call him “Dad” — is a man of few words. Played by the iconic Chinese action actor Xie Miao, he does most of his talking with his fists and his feet, while also employing a few occasional phrases in sign language and hastily scrawled notes. But there’s no mistaking the urgency of his situation: his daughter Rainy (Yang Enyou) has been kidnapped, and he’s going to plow through every single person who stands in the way of her rescue. Unfortunately, that’s quite a lot. And they all fight.

This story is the scaffolding upon which “The Furious,” the latest and greatest Hong Kong-style martial arts movie, is hung. Like the last great action flick of this kind, “The Raid,” we don’t need much in the way of plot, just a man with a blind drive to do something that seems impossible, and the skills and willingness to make that happen, no matter the opposing forces. What matters here is the violence, a ballet of blood and bodies that happily topples over right into the territory of operatic absurdity. This movie is built to deliver hard-hitting action, and boy does it ever.

“The Furious” is a truly international affair, with Japanese director Kenji Tanigaki teaming up with Japanese fight choreographer Kensuke Sonomura for this revival of the Hong Kong-style actioner. The stars hail from China, Indonesia, Thailand and the U.S.; the cinematographer is from Hong Kong, the editor American, the locations Thai. The setting is the generic “somewhere in Southeast Asia,” but these details don’t always matter when the fists fly so furiously.

The story follows a female investigative journalist (JeeJa Yanin), who tracks down missing children in this unnamed city, uncovering a child trafficking ring, ending up on the wrong side of the brutally lethal enforcers and businessmen behind the operation. Her husband (Joe Taslim) tracks her down, ultimately colliding, and teaming up, with our desperate father, Wang Wei (Miao), looking for his own kidnapped daughter.

The cultural specificities are muddled at best, and catered toward an American or English-speaking audience, with characters largely speaking English, even “somewhere in Southeast Asia.” So it’s a good thing our protagonist is a taciturn fellow, or speaks visually, with his hands and writing. He’s mute but not deaf, and his daughter speaks to him in Chinese. But this is not a movie that we come to for authentic representation. This is a movie in which our hero breaks the head off a sledgehammer using another man’s head, and then (spoiler alert), that man later gets up.

This is the kind of martial arts movie where the ante is so upped in every single fight sequence, one can’t possibly imagine how any of these scenes could end, especially with such a literal murderers’ row of global martial arts badasses — who is going to tap out? In addition to Miao (a wushu champion and child action star), we’ve got Indonesian judo superstar Taslim (of “Mortal Kombat”), Brian Le (of “Everything Everywhere All at Once”), Joey Iwanaga (of “Baby Assassins: 2 Babies”), and Yayan Ruhian, the Indonesian pencak silat master, star of “The Raid,” and the guy whose distinctive appearance always elicits a mixture of excitement and dread anytime he shows up onscreen. This time he’s in a red track suit, Onitsuka Tigers, and wielding a bow and arrow. How he ultimately uses it is astounding, but so is everything in this film.

Sonomura’s fight choreography blends seamlessly with Meteor Cheung’s fluid cinematography; long, circular takes capture the action in full, and Sonomura stages sequences that utilize every star’s unique fighting style while also finding a rhythm and flow among the different practices. Miao tumbles gracefully over hordes of attackers, with a gymnastic, elastic quality to his movement, while Taslim is more of the efficient, hard-hitting brutalist. Le’s character is a big, bald guy who uses his body like a battering ram or a bowling ball, and even the carefully pressed businessman behind the operation (Iwanaga) reveals that he can get his hands (very) bloody as well.

“The Furious” doesn’t pull any punches, kicks, machetes or even guns, pushing the envelope in terms of the violence, even involving children — though Rainy gets her whacks in, too. One moment elicited the loudest collective gasp I may have ever heard in a theater. There are also times where you’re laughing at how outrageously over the top it gets, but it never loses it’s moral center or the relationships that drive the action.

If you love “The Raid,” or movies starring Tony Jaa and Don Lee, or if the phrases “‘Old Boy’ hallway hammer fight’” or “‘Akira’ slide” mean anything to you, it’s basically a legal obligation at this point to see “The Furious,” and trust me, it won’t let you down.

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'THE FURIOUS'

(In English, Chinese and sign language, with English subtitles)

3 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: R (for strong bloody violence and language)

Running time: 1:53

How to watch: In theaters June 12

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