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...
