Sakra, la légende des demi-dieux

I don't want to go into the details of the movie. Donnie yen simply killed my entire childhood on demigods and demigods. It is true that Chinese TV series have always been annoying with adding or subtracting characters and events from novels, but this series reaches another level of destruction. Of course, the martial arts in Jin Yong's novels are hard to believe, but there is still logic involved. Anyone who reads Kim Dung's novel knows that the character can't move or fight like in the movie. The action scenes are even colder than the drama, I think they would be better if this was a movie? Or did Donnie Yen even read Jin Yong's novel?

Sakra, a martial arts fantasy film produced and co-directed by Donnie Yen, delivers a grounded and gloriously detailed vision of Louis Cha's wuxia world, featuring spectacular martial arts choreography and beautiful production design.

While Sakra soars with its action, it falls short on storytelling. The script starts solidly but rushes to set up the sequel in its final act, sacrificing character depth for scope.

Adapted from Louis Cha's classic wuxia novel Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, the story is set during the Song Empire. Qiao Feng, the orphan leader of the Beggar's Sect, is framed for murdering sect leader Ma Dayuan and his adopted parents.

Qiao Feng is revealed to be a Khitan, the warring enemy of the Song Empire, and is banished from the Beggar's Sect. Wrestling with his new identity, Qiao Feng seeks the murderer of his adopted parents among the martial arts clans...

For Sakra, Donnie Yen drew from his experience choreographing 2006's comic book adaptation Dragon Tiger Gate and absorbed the lessons from the CGI-driven Storm Riders series, and creates a realism with its own set of rules.

There are long horse riding sequences through real Chinese landscapes, in which the film invests its time in. This grounds the wuxia world and presents a sense of geographic scale where heroes ride for days.

Every martial arts move, whether realistic or fantastical, is motivated, has weight, and flows well.

The stunt team has meticulously worked out all the power levels for the fighting. The way the fights escalate from sparring to superhuman feats to eventual chi blasts flows exceptionally well. You never question why a fighter didn't begin with their ultimate finishing move as there are physical limits in place and using a powerful move comes with immense strain.

People do fly, but sparingly. The way the film presents chi, as a steamy wave of hot air, was perfect.

All that said, the appeal of Louis Cha's wuxia stories is story and characters, not just fighting. The biggest challenge of adapting Louis Cha is condensing the material, which is why the best adaptations have been for TV.

Sakra uses its screentime disproportionally, devoting a lot of time to developing the Qiao Feng character in the first half. As we move to the second half, the script struggles to downsize the immense scale of Louis Cha's novel and plays like a showreel. New characters pop up to set up the next movie in a Marvel-like fashion. Being unfamiliar with the source material, I was confused and lost.

While there are many great things about it, Sakra ends up being a big missed opportunity and will be remembered most for its fight sequences. A Louis Cha wuxia cinematic universe would be awesome.

You know when a football player is about to score a goal and then fumbles the ball, and the sports fans scream passionately at the television? Sakra made me feel that way.

It's... almost there... if it can only... Sigh...

Tin Lung Baat Bou, internationally known as Sakra, goes back to Hong Kong's wu xia trademarks that have marked the art of cinema between the late eighties and early years of the new millennium. References to movies such as A Chinese Ghost Story, Once Upon a Time in China, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero and House of Flying Daggers can be observed throughout this film by genre fans. While this movie is a sincere homage to these influential classics, it however never quite reaches their memorable quality.

The story is rather interesting. Kiu Fung is a child abandoned by his unknown parents who grows up in a remote farming community and is taken precious care of by his loving adoptive parents. He learns the art of Shaolin, becomes an outstanding martial artist and rises the ranks to become the leader of a martial arts organization. Things turn sour when Kiu Fung is accused of several murders he hasn't committed and is now tracked down by former friends, partners and supporters. The protagonist goes on an epic journey to clear his name and find the true culprits with the help of beautiful servant and thief Azhu.

On the positive side, this film is based upon the novel Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils by Jin Yong and adapts the source material's twisted story line and profound characters. The cinematography is stunning with calm, precise and swift camera work that avoids shaky sections, rapid movements and nervous cuts. The settings vary from poor farms over wild steppes to elegant palaces that deserve to be admired on the big screen.

On the negative side, the action scenes are exaggerated to a point that they become unintentionally funny. Exaggeration has always been an important element of wu xia cinema but this idea is pushed to new extremes right from the opening fighting scene that is completely blown out of proportions and doesn't suit the movie's overall gritty, serious and realistic tone at all. This film is filled with so many plot twists, diversified characters and changes of location that the directors could have made an entire television series out of these elements but instead opted for a movie of two hours and ten minutes that simply feels overloaded and tough to digest. The film's scenes during and even after the credits indicate a potential sequel as more new questions are being asked than old questions are being answered. If you don't want to feel obligated to follow a new epic franchise, you should not watch this movie at all.

At the end of the day, Tin Lung Baat Bou, better known as Sakra around the world, is an entertaining experience for fans of period martial arts films. The visual effects, epic soundtrack, wonderful settings, tense plot and interesting characters should keep most viewers hooked from start to finish. However, some action scenes are even more exaggerated than the material of some shallow contemporary superhero flicks, the film feels overloaded with promising ideas that don't give it any air to breathe and most questions aren't even answered when this film eventually ends. To be fair, genre fans should appreciate a very decent wu xia movie but potential new or even occasional fans should stick to the classics mentioned in the introduction first before being able to fully appreciate this new movie.

The only problem , for me, remains the beginning of story. It is pure unrealistic and seems only pretext for choreography of fights.

The real good point remains the elegant hommage to classic films of genre. And , sure, the return to history of Song dynasty , suggesting the context and the difficulties of period.

So, against temptation to be critic, a correct martial art film, including for romance and for performances, silly in few scenes, exagerated in others but , the target being clear, to see it as poor movie starting from the story reduced at sketch level ( or only petext ) can be pretty unfair.

I'll make this short and sweet...

The script is predictable and unoriginal...

The direction is poor...

The editing extremely disjointed...

CGI is very good...

Overall, this is a visually stunning action ride but that is not enough to keep me entertain for 2 hours. The plot and editing is all over the place making it very frustrating to follow and I find myself waiting for just the action scenes without caring for any of the characters or story.

As much as I enjoy Donnie Yen's work I'm not sure that directing this film himself is the right choice for this project, but that's just my opinion.