Tin lung baat bou

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.

International martial arts and action superstar, Donnie Yen, wrote, Directed, and stars in this martial arts epic adaptation of Louis Cha's Chinese fantasy novel. It is an action packed, larger than life tale of a respected warrior, betrayed, and forced to defend his name and honor.

The film is visually stunning and packed with fantastic martial arts fight scenes, fanciful costumes, and epic sets. It is a large scale, family oriented action fantasy, despite its significant martial arts and sword violence. It is an ambitious project with a lot of heart. It deliberately has many of the tropes of Chinese Kung Fu films, such as revenge, honor, and the desire to right a great wrong, even at the cost of the star's own life.

The production of the film is somewhere between American Western and Chinese martial arts fantasy, and it works for what it is. What it is not is the gritty, realistic type martial arts action film that Donnie Yen has become known for in recent years. While the cinematography and fight choreography are very good, they are not similar to his work in Flash Point, or John Wick 4.

Yen and the acting from the supporting cast is very good, but it is appropriately hyperbolic to match the script, the story, and the genre.

The film is very enjoyable. If you love Wuxia films add an additional star, and if you love Donnie Yen, add one more. While I am not a huge fan of Wuxi films, or high wire based, martial arts action films I do love DONNIE YEN and this was worth seeing.

This international Wuxi fantasy is distributed by Well Go USA and is in Chinese with English subtitles.

When Donnie Yen steps back behind the camera, you expect a masterclass. Instead, it feels like he skipped the lesson on subtle digital de-aging. With his CGI-smoothened face, Donnie looks like he borrowed Snapchat's anti-aging filter. It's borderline comical watching a "young" 59-year-old pulling off flips and striking Goku-like poses, ready to unleash a Kamehameha. Believability? About as solid as Obelix on a vegan diet.

Where Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was a poetic symphony of martial arts, Sakra is its drunken karaoke cousin. The film flings everything at you-characters flying, fighting, crying, and delivering lines so overblown even Vegeta would blush. It's stuffed with dialogue straight out of a Naruto filler episode, dressed up in big-budget sets and costumes that remind you this is still a Donnie Yen production.

The special effects? Oh boy. Between a digital dragon that looks like a screensaver and chi blasts straight out of a 90s VHS intro, the visuals are far from masterpiece territory. It undercuts fights that might have been iconic otherwise. The choreography is breathtaking, but the overuse of green screens and cheesy effects yanks you right out of the action. Honestly, the 1993 Power Rangers had more credible visuals.

The plot? Shakespeare, but kung fu style-and poorly digested. Qiao Feng, our disgraced hero, drags his sword and tarnished honor through a gauntlet of twists so far-fetched they might have been written by a Red Bull-fueled screenwriter. The stakes are there, but everything feels hollow, like a lightsaber duel without the "vwoosh." It tries to be tragic, but often stumbles into unintentional comedy.

And yet, it's hard to stay mad at Sakra. Martial arts fans will feast on the dazzling fight sequences, which remain the movie's undeniable highlight. Donnie Yen still knows how to deliver jaw-dropping action with a side of airborne theatrics. Sakra is a guilty pleasure-a mix of epic spectacle and sheer WTF moments, perfect for a no-pressure movie night with snacks in hand.

Tin Lung Baat Bou (Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils) reminds us that Donnie Yen can still wow us, even if the CGI occasionally stings the eyes. With its questionable effects, freewheeling plot, and awe-inspiring battles, Sakra is equal parts epic and absurd. Worth watching for the fun-but don't expect a masterpiece... unless you're into dragons that look like they were made in Microsoft Paint.

SAKRA (C-) is Donnie Yen's attempt at crafting a new epic Wuxia classic, bit instead crafts three decent action sequences surrounded by a hot flaming mess of storytelling. I'm not even going to try and give a plot description other than to say it takes place in Ancient China and features a horrifically confusing and unnecessarily convoluted plot with Donnie Yen's good guy kung fu artist constantly being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It's apparently based on a wuxia novel series that's rooted in Buddhist ideas, but it's just not very accessible, even for a charitable and engaged outsider like me. I knew I was in for a confusing mess when even the opening title cards were a confusing mess of an English translation. The good news is that the large budget is all on the screen with incredible looking sets and great costumes. Donnie Yen has been quoted as saying this was his attempt to make a Marvel like film using the wuxia genre and he absolutely failed to do so. He doesn't seem to recognize that the power of the first few phases of Marvel films was in how simple and straightforward they were: Simple plots with instantly likeable characters and great action sequences. Sakra does emulate some of the superhero like abilities into its action sequences, but Yen's character largely mopes about the film while most scenes feature endless talking and complications. The three major action sequences we get are pretty good, featuring impressive wire work and stunts, but they also feature oppressive sound design and CGI that feels like it could have used a bit more love. Skip the film and youtube the fight sequences in a few months from now.

It's an adaptation of Jian Yong's Demi God and Semi Devil, most chinese or Asian would have knew the story path, it's like the story of Arthur and Merlin... Without even any plot twist jumbled into a 30 minuted movie. The original normally spans 40-50 hours long with lots of plot twist.

And the protagonist fails to even decide whether he wants to be a kungfu practitioners or a wuxia fantasy inner strenght no hit everybody fly around

The female protagonist cant act, Donnie has a bit of charisma but lacking acting range.

Overall a convulated mess. I'd still pay to see it for the action but it's nothing more than a superhero movie.

He was written as strong but not all conquering strong.