At one point near the end of “The Furious” (opening Friday) stunt director turned film director Kenji Tanigaki’s virtuoso display of martial-arts madness, a character yells “stop fighting!,” a command as useless as it is nonsensical. In a universe where everyone is a kung-fu master — except, oddly, the cops who are mostly human bowling pins —  exhorting anyone to stop fighting is like telling them to stop breathing.

And that’s the ecstatically visceral appeal of “The Furious,” a head-slamming good time that has stormed out of Hong Kong to become a hit in Asia and on the global festival circuit. Now, it promises to do much the same in mainstream American multiplexes, a rare feat for an Asian action film without a big Hollywood star attached. But, if any film can do it, it’s “The Furious.”

The premise is basically “Taken” with a set of skills that even a ticked off Liam Neeson doesn’t possess. Wei Wang (Miao Xie, “The New Legend of Shaolin,” “My Father Is a Hero”) is a mute handyman barely making ends meet in an unnamed Southeast Asian city (though the film was shot in Thailand). His past is murky but his hope for the future rests with his young daughter, Rainy (Yang Enyou). So when she’s abducted off the street by a gang of child traffickers, he turns into a blunt instrument of kung-fu revenge.

He eventually teams up with the similarly aggrieved Navin (Joe Taslim, “The Raid: Redemption,” “Mortal Kombat II,” “The Fast and Furious 6”) whose journalist wife has also been kidnapped because she was getting too close to uncovering the truth about who operates the ring. And, wouldn’t you know it, he too is a master fighter.

It’s not just the amount of combat in “The Furious,” it’s the intensity. The stunt choreography is brutal, explosive and totally at odds with logic and biology. There’s no way two guys can tumble out of a window several floors up, land on a bunch of bicycles below and live, let alone get up to throw another punch. Two questions arise: how did no one die while filming; and who in the heck is Tanigaki’s insurance company?

If nothing else, if “The Furious” does find a broad audience, it will be great to see the two stars attain a wider level of fame outside of the world of martial-arts fandom. They’ve been at it for years and could still walk the streets of America unrecognized. Also making a big impression are Japanese martial artist Joey Iwanaga and Indonesian martial artist and “Raid” alum Yayan Ruhian. They are part of a five-way face-off near the movie’s end that is absolutely, positively insane.

Many comparisons have been made to the likes of “The Raid” and the “John Wick” franchises and the bone-crunching parallels are obvious. But Tanigaki and his action director Kensuke Sonomura have taken it one step beyond. “The Furious” is even more outrageously over the top, at points having more in common with a classic Warner Brothers cartoon than other action movies. As a result, “The Furious” falls short as a cohesive, coherent film but, as a swift, steel-toed kick to the face, there’s nothing else like it. In terms of pure, unhinged action, it’s the best of its type of the last decade.

Now, there’s word that a sequel is in the works, to which the only appropriate response is the same as when asked if you want another slice of dessert at Thanksgiving: yes, please!