On the proverbial Mount Rushmore of cinematic martial artists, Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung are gimmes. The debate follows them: Bruce Lee, Tony Jaa, Jet Li, Michelle Yeoh, Iko Uwais, Scott Adkins, Cheng Pei-pei, Stephen Chow, and, of course, Donnie Yen. No matter how you filter and juggle the final two names, you can’t go wrong. That is, unless you leave Yen off—then you’re just plain wrong. The man of quiet dignity is one of the all-time greats at what he does best (read: beating the shit out of people) and Sakra, while not his finest vehicle, certainly shows why he’s one of the best to ever do it.
Based on the classic wuxia novel Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils by Jin Yong, Donnie Yen’s latest film, released under the seriously less cool title Sakra, asks a question you never knew you wanted to see played out: what if Donnie Yen was an air bender? Sakra starts from a familiar plot in these stories: our protagonist is poor and prefers the simple life, and is a stern defender of the good. “I am not a hero, I am just an ordinary person who sticks to the right path,” Yen’s Qiao Feng confesses in a line that starts the trailer. This “right path” is specifically Buddhist. One opponent threatens, “Until hell is empty, you will not become a Buddha.”
He’s so worried about following the right path that it’s unentertainable to believe for a second the charges brought against him by his fellow “heroes” in the Beggars’ Sect: the murders of deputy chief Ma Dayuan and (separately) his adoptive parents. But… this isn’t technically why he’s exiled by his own sect. He’s banished because of a note from the deputy chief revealing his true origins. Unbeknownst even to Qiao, he comes from the Khitan people, an ethnic minority related to the Mongols who are at war with the Song Empire. (I’m too ignorant of Chinese history to know for sure whether or not there are any ethical issues with Yen’s casting here.) While he’s banished, the sect will look at the facts and determine whether or not he murdered the deputy chief. No kangaroo courts here!
The emotional heart of the film is the relationship between Qiao and Azhu (Chen Yuqi), a servant ordered to steal a MacGuffin from the sect. When Azhu is badly injured in a fight, Qiao returns to the Heroes Gathering Manor to request the aid of the sect’s doctor, who for some unspecified reason is the only person capable of saving her. The now de-facto and feuding leaders propose a trade: her life for his. He’s not exactly asked to lay down his life à la Jesus; the deal is in exchange for a fight, him versus the sect with hundreds of perfectly trained fighters (and former brothers).
In the best scene of the film, following tradition, they drink wine together prior to their fight and smash their cups afterward to symbolize an end to their personal relationship and enabling a fight with no personal strings intact. Yen has spoken recently that he’s approaching every action film as if it might be his last—and if this happens to be the case, he’s left nothing on the table with the Manor fight. It contains a little bit of everything: a wonderful set piece, overhead shots, multi-weapon action, all-vs-one, stakes (via Azhu), and severed relations. It’s one of his best.
Imaginative wild stunt work is no new territory for the wuxia genre, where supernatural abilities are sort of a norm. But Sakra leans into the superhero-ness of it all more than recent major entries in the genre. Qiao Feng, with his floating abilities and capability to clap his hands to create tsunami grade winds, will never be mistaken for Yen’s Ip Man or any of his other more recent, grounded action roles. This is in large part because of the way visual effects are married with the action choreography; the effects are used not to hide or make easier the ridiculous choreography or to hide any lack of creativity under a layer of colorful particle simulation but to make the impacts of blows harder, impossible movements possible, and to enable never before seen fights. This might be the most flawless (though still visible) integration of CGI into a martial arts film that I’ve seen because it uses the technology to highlight the film’s strengths rather than to hide its flaws—and that’s precisely because Yen and his team know how to design a good fight. I still think I’d prefer to see more of the raw and less-CGI supplemented Yen—he’s more impressive with the weight of real physicality—but it’s hard to complain when he’s capable of Avatar: The Last Airbender physics.
Fighting aside, Sakra, like its superhero peers, is admittedly a bit overcrowded. Several key characters get introduced after the halfway point and characters repeatedly make decisions that don’t quite make sense in the story we’re presented with (especially a key choice made by Azhu that I won’t specify for those who haven’t seen it) but could possibly make sense in a story with more breathing room allowing the characters to arrive at these decisions. Call it the Game of Thrones (Season Eight) effect if you want because the rushed character development in Sakra encumbers the overall emotional ambition of the climax just like the popular critique thrown at the final season of GOT.
Yen’s direction of himself in the film’s biggest emotional moments also comes a bit rushed. (I’m seeing Kam Ka-Wai is credited by some people as a co-director, but the film itself gives primary directorial credit to only Yen; Kam is listed on his own as “Executive Director”). When Qiao encounters death, Yen (the actor) sort of just yells and quickly moves the scene (the director) into something more kinetic and spectacular. I’m not sure if this is the product of trying to fit too much into 130 minutes or what, but it’s not that Yen is incapable of those moments: his emotional rupture out of stoicism in the first Ip Man (2008) is so good I’m tempted to think of it along the lines of Paul Schrader’s “decisive action,” in which boredom (or in Yen’s case, stoicism) breaks with a cathartic burst of emotion. He’s still capable of those heavy moments, so I’m left with no one to question but Yen the director, who seems a bit uncomfortable keeping his camera patient during these difficult and vulnerable scenes of grief.
Sakra
2023
dir. Donnie Yen
130 min.
Opens in theaters Friday, 4/14
This is the first time i saw Qiao Feng use dog-beating staff of beggar sect when fighting, none of other adaptations ever show that.