We discuss the ending of the 2023 Netflix film Furies which will contain spoilers.
Furies starts by introducing our lead, country girl Bi (Dong Anh Quynh), who explains through narration how darkness has always been a part of her. The first few minutes are tough to watch.
Bi’s mother used sex work to pay for her education. When one of her mother’s johns assaults a young Bi, she tries protecting her daughter and ends up murdered by him.
In retaliation, the child stabs him to death before making her way to Ho Chi Minh City (formerly known as Saigon).
Life in the city isn’t any easier for Bi, who’s been pickpocketing and living on the streets, so when a mysterious woman named Jacqueline (Veronica Ngo) rescues her from a gang of would-be attackers, she follows her.
Jaqueline leads a group of vigilantes formed of two other young women – girly-girl Hong (Rima Thanh Vy) and tough-girl Thanh (Toc Tien) – who lovingly refer to her as Aunt Lin. Each woman was a victim of assault, with Thanh having been previously sold into a brothel.
As the group of ‘Furies’ take Bi in and train her, Jacqueline explains their purpose is to destroy the criminal gang led by the big four – Their leader, Hai (Thuan Nguyen), his muscleman Son (Gi A Nguyen), the brains of the drug operation, Long (Song Luan), and the group’s lead sex trafficker, Teo (Phan Thanh Hien).
Let’s dive into the ending of Furies.
Furies Ending Explained
Why was Jacqueline seeking revenge?
As the film progresses, the situation becomes more complex than initially sold to Bi. Long is plotting with Jacqueline to bring Hai down because he murdered her family. Lin’s husband was the previous leader of the criminal gang, and Hai killed him to usurp him.
But Long has an even better reason to get rid of his leader; he’s in love with Hong.
The three young women become very close while training under Jacqueline’s command. Their bond strengthens even further after they successfully take down Teo and rescue some of his trafficking victims.
But when Aunt Lin sends them on a mission to kill Hai himself, they fail, resulting in Hong’s death at Son’s hands.
Losing Hong during the failed assassination attempt leads to Bi questioning Jaqueline’s true motives for training the three girls. While Thanh remains loyal to their leader, Bi packs up and leaves Aunt Lin’s operation for good.
But, sadly, Hai and his gang already murdered the kind Di Sau (Nsnd Hong Van) while searching for the girls, leaving Bi with no choice but to join Jaqueline and Thanh in a showdown against the crime lord.
Who helps the women plan their attack?
Also devastated by the death of a woman he secretly loved, Long arranges for Son to go on a fool’s errand, making it easier for the three women to get to Hai. Meanwhile, Jacqueline forms an alliance with Hai’s rival, A Thoong (Ns Nguyen Duong), who supplies her with several of his men and weapons.
During the epic showdown, most of Hai’s men are brutally beaten, shot, and killed by the women. Thanh gets badly injured, and Jaqueline fakes her death (again) to give Hai a false sense of security, while Bi wins a fight with one of the crime lord’s zombified junkies.
When Son finds out his beloved leader is under attack, he quickly returns, only to be met by Long. The two men fight, and Long doesn’t hesitate to murder his former associate.
Once the three women and Long enter Hai’s office, Jacqueline is finally ready to avenge her husband and son’s deaths. But first, she unexpectedly shoots Long in the face before explaining that he had it coming for not intervening during her family’s assassination all those years ago.
Hai’s attempts at reasoning with the woman he wronged are futile, and she takes great joy from finally putting a bullet through his head.
Why did Jacqueline really go after the Big 4?
But Jacqueline is not done. Her plan was never about saving trafficking victims from Hai’s gang, nor was revenge her sole motivator.
What the woman wanted was power and to take her rightful place as the new leader of the criminal underworld. When the two girls try to leave, she orders Tahnh to shoot Bi. Luckily for Bi, Thanh tries turning the gun on her former mentor, but Aunt Lin is faster and fires first.
After watching her chosen sister stop breathing, an angry Bi fights Jaqueline. By the end, Bi managed to put a gun through her former mentor’s stomach.
In what’s probably the coolest death scene I’ve seen this year, a dying Jacqueline sits down, lights up a cigarette, and congratulates her opponent before succumbing to her injuries. Shortly after, Bi passes out on the floor, but when the police arrive at the scene, we learn she’s still alive.
The movie’s final scene is set 15 years later in a prison, where a middle-aged woman is about to be released. Has Bi spent a decade and a half behind bars for her crimes during the runtime?
It seems so. Yet, the woman being released now goes by the name of Thanh, and she will go on to become the main villain in 2019’s Furie.
Before dying, Jacqueline warned Bi that she was too deep inside the darkness ever to drag herself out. And she was right.
What did you think of the Ending of the 2023 Netflix film Furies? Comment below.
