SAKRA - Mark Reviews Movies

Sakra, Well Go USA

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Review by Mark Dujsik | April 13, 2023

The opening of Sakra is very much in a rush to get to its plot, and the plot is in quite the hurry to arrive at the movie's action sequences. As for that action, it's quite impressive, but what else should one expect when Donnie Yen is responsible for performing, choreographing, and shooting those sequences? It's everything else about the movie that comes up short.

Yen pulls at least triple duty here, starring as hero Qiao Feng, overseeing and working with his team of stunt experts, and directing the whole of this adaptation of Louis Cha's novel Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils. The story is set in a divided 11th century China and follows the traditional style of wuxia storytelling, in which the tale's heroes and villains possess the kind of supernatural skills and powers that befit figures of legend.

You surely know the sort of action: leaps and flips that defy gravity, punches and kicks that exert more force than a human body is capable of producing, and fighters who are capable of summoning elements like fire and wind to be extensions of or add even more power to their blows. To get it out of the way, Yen and his team stage, perform, and film all of these sequences with verve, clarity, and an increasing degree of violence, letting us appreciate the skill of imagining and executing such intricately choreographed scenes that involve practical wire work, visual effects, and old-fashioned physical ability.

The problem, though, is that all of this is service of a story that is thinly developed, contains overly complicated layers of betrayals and secrets, and amounts to little more than an anticlimax. An epilogue that interrupts the end credits suggests the real plot won't even begin until and unless the filmmakers get to make a sequel, so other than serving as an excuse for the action, what is the point of all of the winding and weaving plotting here?

As for the basics, Qiao is an orphan, found and raised within the Song Empire to become a master of the Beggars' Gang. He is wrongly accused of multiple murders, making him an outsider to the gang and their primary target. While trying to clear his name and discover the true culprit(s), Qiao quickly falls for Azhu (Chen Yuqi), a master of disguise, and their romance is about as unconvincing as that brief description suggests.

Qiao travels from place to place, looking for clues and suspects, but mostly, his journey is about getting him from one battle to the next. Again, Yen's talent for bringing all of these scenes to life is undeniable, but the ambitions of Sakra are more significant than that. As a narrative, the movie is unfortunately simplistic in its aims and convoluted in its implementation.

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