Vibe
Bi survives a brutal childhood and eventually reaches Saigon, where she is taken in by Jacqueline, a mysterious woman who gives shelter and purpose to young women living on the margins. Bi joins Thanh and Hồng, and the three are trained to fight. Jacqueline directs them against Hải, a vicious crime boss whose organization traffics drugs and exploits women across the city. Their campaign initially looks like a mission of liberation and revenge, but the deeper Bi moves into the operation, the harder it becomes to separate justice from manipulation. The violence that forges the trio also fractures it, and the story ultimately explains how Bi becomes the underworld figure later known as Thanh Sói—the antagonist encountered in Hai Phượng.
Watch for
- Action built around performers: The principal actresses trained for roughly a year, and the choreography is designed to let the camera register bodies in motion rather than hide every impact in rapid cutting. The physical preparation is part of the movie’s identity.
- Saigon 1998 as genre space: The film is less interested in documentary reconstruction than in converting late-1990s Saigon into a heightened action world—clubs, alleys, motorbikes, colored light, cramped interiors, and criminal territories all become part of the rhythm.
- The antihero problem: Because the audience already knows Thanh Sói as a villain from Hai Phượng, the prequel has to create empathy without erasing the future character. Watch how the film turns trauma, chosen family, and manipulation into an origin story rather than a simple redemption arc.
- Ngô Thanh Vân’s action lineage: The film functions as a generational handoff. Ngô, one of the defining Vietnamese action stars of her era, directs younger female performers and appears onscreen while building sequences meant to establish a new group of physically credible action leads.
Production notes
Thanh Sói was produced by Studio68 and directed by Ngô Thanh Vân, who also served as producer and appeared in the film. The project was conceived as a prequel to Hai Phượng and set in Saigon in 1998. Its preparation was unusually physical for a Vietnamese commercial feature. VnExpress reported that Đồng Ánh Quỳnh trained for more than a year—often six days a week—and that the principal women underwent extended martial-arts conditioning. Production itself lasted 74 shooting days with more than 200 personnel, a demanding schedule completed during the pandemic period. The release was repeatedly delayed. In April 2022 Ngô announced another postponement because she was not satisfied with the visual-effects work. A December 30, 2022 theatrical date was later moved forward to December 23. The film entered a difficult marketplace opposite Avatar: The Way of Water and earned only about VND25 billion theatrically against a production investment Ngô discussed as roughly VND46 billion. That local disappointment did not end the film’s life. Netflix announced a global and exclusive streaming premiere for March 23, 2023, positioning Furies as a Vietnamese action title for worldwide audiences. The international release substantially changed the scale on which the film could be encountered and is essential to understanding its legacy.
Trivia
- Đồng Ánh Quỳnh reportedly beat roughly 300 candidates for the central role and trained for more than a year before production.
- The principal women trained in martial arts at high intensity; VnExpress reported schedules of about six hours a day, six days a week during the preparation period.
- Principal photography lasted 74 days and involved more than 200 personnel, an unusually long action shoot in the Vietnamese commercial context.
- The film was once scheduled for December 30, 2022, but the theatrical launch was moved forward to December 23.
- After a weak domestic box-office run, Thanh Sói received a global Netflix premiere on March 23, 2023 under the international title Furies.
Legacy
Thanh Sói’s legacy is more complicated than a conventional hit narrative. Domestically, it was a financial disappointment, and Ngô Thanh Vân spoke publicly about the failure and her disappointment with the market outcome. Yet judging the film only by that theatrical result misses what happened next. Netflix acquired the film for a global premiere, giving Furies an international audience and making its craft visible well beyond Vietnam. For a national cinema still working to establish repeatable pathways for large-scale genre exports, that global streaming circulation matters. The movie also stands as a statement about Vietnamese action filmmaking led by women. It centers a trio of female fighters, builds its action around extensive performer training, and links its spectacle to exploitation, trauma, and solidarity rather than treating women as ornamental additions to a male-led crime story. Its connection to Hai Phượng makes it part of one of the clearest modern Vietnamese action franchises.