There are a lot of things to love about John Wick: Chapter 4 — that insane chase sequence through the streets of Paris, the epic fistfight in a Berlin nightclub, Rina Sawayama being a badass — but chief among them is a scene-stealing performance from the legendary Donnie Yen. Yen turns 60 this year, but his ability to mesmerize the audience with his martial arts prowess (not to mention, his shrewd comic timing) remains unmatched. In John Wick: Chapter 4, Yen is a dark mirror image of Keanu Reeves’ titular (un)retired assassin; both men are getting older, getting more tired, and would really just like to lead normal lives — but they can’t, not until they finally face off against each other. The advancing age of both actors (Reeves turns 59 this year) is a major contributor to their characters’ development on screen even as they continue to kick ass like men decades younger.
So it’s bizarre to me that in the latest Yen vehicle to hit screens this year, he’s chosen to portray a character who is half his real age. Adapted from Jin Yong’s classic wuxia novel Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, Sakra chronicles the misadventures of a martial arts expert (played by Yen, who also directed the film with Kam Ka Wai) after he is wrongly accused of murder and forced to go on the run. He is supposed to have been orphaned as a baby 30 years prior, which means that Yen is pretending to be approximately that old in the film. This is one of a few questionable choices made by Sakra, an overstuffed epic that relies too heavily on exposition-heavy dialogue and computer-generated special effects and not enough on the unique talents of its iconic star.
Fist of Fury
After being orphaned as a baby, Khitan-born Qiao Feng (Yen) is raised by adopted parents from the Song Empire, which is at war with the Khitan-led Liao Empire. A skilled martial artist, Qiao Feng rises through the ranks to become the leader of the Beggars’ Sect — but when his true identity as a Khitan is revealed, the sect kicks him out. That this reveal happens to coincide with Qiao Feng being accused of murdering another sect leader by that man’s traitorous wife (Grace Wong) doesn’t help matters.
Soon after, Qiao Feng is framed for the killings of his adopted parents and a respected elder, and forced to flee with only a woman named Azhu (Chen Yuqi) as his ally. Together with Azhu, he attempts to uncover the conspiracy behind his current predicament, which is connected to the killing of his birth parents in an ambush decades prior. Naturally, he and Azhu develop feelings for each other along the way (despite the fact that Yen is old enough to be Chen’s father in real life).
Dance of Death
Naturally, because this is wuxia, Yen doesn’t just fight with his fists here: he levitates above his enemies, flies across rooftops, and summons the power of the air around him to blast crowds of attackers away with a mere hand gesture. The mystical elements of wuxia are incredibly appealing to me as a martial arts fan, but when I watch a Donnie Yen movie, I don’t want (or need) to see him defying gravity with the help of CGI. Even if his movements aren’t quite as agile as they were circa Ip Man, Yen is still more than capable of impressing the audience with his natural abilities alone, so to see those abilities embellished with obvious special effects feels strangely disappointing. There is a spectacular scene early on in Sakra where Yen fights a monk in a tavern, where after throwing a few punches and kicks he gives a little smirk that packs more power than all of the wind-summoning hand movements in the world. As the film’s main director, Yen should have ensured that Sakra’s expansive 131-minute running time included more little moments like this that showcase his sheer star power. There’s no need to hide his age and pretend he’s still a younger man; it’s the older legend we’re here to see.
However you happen to feel about the way Sakra utilizes CGI, the fight scenes are admittedly stellar, which makes sense given that the film’s action direction was handled by skilled stunt coordinator and previous Yen collaborator Kenji Tanigaki (Enter the Fat Dragon, Raging Fire). But when the film is not in the heat of one of these sequences, it drags under the weight of just too many characters and confusing plot threads. There is a lot of dialogue in Sakra in which it feels like the characters are explaining things for the sake of the audience, though one couldn’t blame them if they needed to clarify these various complications to themselves too. Fortunately, the actors are all capable and up to the challenge, with Liu Yase a particular standout as Azhu’s spirited sister Azi. When Liu bursts onto the screen in her signature purple outfit, wielding a sword just as well as the men around her, you’ll find yourself sitting up and paying attention…even if you’re already exhausted from everything else Sakra has thrown at you.
Conclusion
Donnie Yen might not be King Hu behind the camera, but he’s still a joy to watch in front of it — even in a weaker wuxia like Sakra.
Sakra will be released on DVD and Blu-ray from Well Go Entertainment on June 13, 2023.
Watch Sakra
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