O Guerreiro Banido

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.

It is an adaptation of the "Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils," from Jin Yong's Wuxia novel. Well, the storyline is pretty simple and straightforward, very much like KungFu Cult Master, whereby the main character is accused of many incidents, and all sects attempt to kill him, and that's where the fight starts and ends.

The pace is alright, packed with action, BUT it could be slow at certain parts! I thought it had ended several times, but it keeps going with a runtime of 130 minutes!

In terms of actions, I like it very much! You could feel the strengths and forces of every hit, and the CGI has enhanced the visual excitement to another level! They really did a great job of combining the "wirework + CGI" and martial arts into a more effective action movie.

A few drawbacks as follows:

Firstly, the movie slows down due to the relationship between Qiao Feng and A Zhu. Yet, it's NOT well managed in such a way that it disrupts the flow and momentum of the movie!

Secondly, Donnie Yen appears to be only good in action, BUT not in romance! There is no spark of chemistry between Qiao Feng and A Zhu! Donnie's acting is rather stiff when it comes to intimate moments with A Zhu. Somehow it's more like a father-daughter relationship than a lover's.

Thirdly, the sub-plot in the 2nd half is rather odd, especially on the introduction of new characters of A Zu's parents and her rebellious sister. It could be due to time constraints, things are rushing off, so it does not gel well to the overall movie and looks disconnected!

Finally, with the ending, we could predict that there may be Part 2 in future. Since it will be a sequel, why NOT break this movie into 2 decent movies, instead of rushing everything out, causing an uneven focus on some details. Also I believe that audiences could enjoy it better, rather than having watched a lengthy movie without proper addresses of some plots.

I gave 6/ 10. Despite the weaknesses above, it's an ok movie for casual entertainment. As said, I love the action and fighting scenes, with the right speed, strength, and force! A watch-able one for this Chinese New Year! Go, Go, Go!!

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?

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.

Of course I opted to sit down and watch the 2023 Chinese action movie "Tin Lung Baat Bou" (aka "Sakra") as I had the opportunity to do so. Why? Well, because of my fascination with Asian cinema, but also because the movie was starring Donnie Yen.

The storyline in "Tin Lung Baat Bou", as written by He Ben, Chen Li, Sheng Lingzhi, Lejing Shen, Xu Yifan and Wei Zhu was quite good. I am not familiar with the novel "Demi Gods and Semi-Devils" from Louis Cha that the movie is based upon, so how true it is to the source material, I have no idea. But the storyline in the movie proved to be rather enjoyable and entertaining, which was the sole purpose of the movie. So thumbs up to all the writers for accomplishing that.

The acting was good in the movie, though I was only familiar with Donnie Yen on the cast list. I have to say that "Tin Lung Baat Bou" definitely sees Donnie Yen back in top form on the screen, and it was quite the pleasure to watch him in this movie.

The action and martial arts scenes throughout the course of the 130 minutes that the movie ran for was good. Nay, strike that, it was intense and adrenaline-packed. I have never actually witnessed such intensity in a martial arts movie as I did here from directors Ka-Wai Kam and Donnie Yen. It was amazing and really added a lot of enjoyment to the movie. Again, it was phenomenal to see Donnie Yen in top form as he brought the action to the screen here, both in front and behind the camera.

The cinematography in "Tin Lung Baat Bou" was good and dynamic. I liked the way that they moved the cameras about and added a dynamic range to the martial arts scenes.

Visually then "Tin Lung Baat Bou" was quite good. The special effects looked good and worked well in favor of the movie.

If you enjoy Wuxia martial arts, I believe the term is, then you should definitely find the time to sit down and watch "Tin Lung Baat Bou". I was genuinely entertained from start to end. And even with a play time of 130 minutes, the movie didn't feel sluggish or slow at any time.

My rating of "Tin Lung Baat Bou" lands on a well-deserved eight out of ten stars.