Picking a Fight
Donnie Yen dons three hats for ‘Sakra’, based on Louis Cha’s eternally popular and eternally adaptable novel.
SAkra
Director: Donnie Yen • Writers: Many, but no one will tell us
Starring: Donnie Yen, Grace Wong, Cya Liu, Eddie Cheung, Yuki Chen, Kara Wai, Wu Yue, Ray Lui, Tsui Siu-ming, Yuen Cheung-yan, Yu Kang, Xu Xiangdong
Hong Kong / China • 2hrs 10mins
Opens Hong Kong January 19 • IIB
Grade: B-
There’s a lot going on in Donnie Yen Ji-dan’s Śakra | 天龍八部之喬峯傳, and we’re not just talking about the plot, which has been adapted multiple times before this – in 40 or 50-part television series. So yeah, there’s a lot of plot. What we mean, though, is it’s a Donnie Yen movie, and it’s Donnie Yen all over. Admit it, when you heard Letitia Wright was an anti-vaxx, conspiracy spouting borderline lunatic it coloured the way you watched Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Shuri wasn’t quite as much fun as she was the first time around – and this is outside Chadwick Boseman/T’Challa’s death. Same goes for Yen. To call him divisive is an understatement. That said, Ip Man 4: The Finale (2019) and Raging Fire (2021) both topped the box office the weeks they were released. Clearly, someone still wants to see him do his thing, which is fight, and which, undoubtedly, he does really well.
So Yen’s latest ambitious wuxia actioner as producer, director and star is Śakra, based on the enduring 1960s novel by Louis Cha Leung-yung (AKA Jin Yong), Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils. Adapting that million-plus character story into a two-hour movie is a huge ask, which Yen clearly understands given the film ends on a cliffhanger – quite literally actually – and could easily be the first entry in a franchise. God knows the source material exists for it. Whether or not Śakra is strong enough to warrant it is another story. Its direct-to-streaming release in China is curious: was it a COVID-safe release strategy, to get as many eyeballs in front of the film as possible during a massive lockdown (which is now over)? Or was it deemed too weak for theatrical release (as was the case with Born to Fly)? The truth of the matter is probably somewhere in the middle.
Can you tell who directed?
Okay deep breath. Śakra pivots on the adventures of the orphaned Qiao Feng (Yen) during the Han Chinese-dominated Northern Song Dynasty, with the rival Khitan-led Liao empire lurking in the wings. As the respected leader of the Beggar’s Gang, Qiao Feng travels the country doing righteous deeds, like freeing a dude in a cage in the opening segment establishing just how fair and powerful Qiao Feng is: he waits until the last minute to unleash his Eighteen Subduing Dragon Palms. But tragedy strikes as soon as he gets back to the Gang stronghold. Their deputy boss, Ma, has been murdered and Ma’s big mad wife, Kang Min (Grace Wong Kwan-hing, Line Walker) claims her husband’s dying words fingered Qiao Feng. Not only that, but he claimed Qiao Feng was actually Khitan. Exiled, he sets out to find out who killed Ma, clear his name, and unearth his true identity. His first stop is home and his adoptive parents – who’ve been murdered. Next stop is the Shaolin Temple where he studied – where his teacher has been murdered.
While all this is going on, Qiao Feng meets A Zhu (relative newcomer Yuki Chen Yuqi) and of course they fall in love after a magical doctor, Xue Muhua (veteran Yuen Cheung-yan), refused to heal her from a fight they had, and vow to get married in about 12 minutes. But first he must confront rival kingdom boss Duan Zhengchun (Eddie Cheung Siu-fai, Throw Down, G Storm) and his consort, Ruan Xingzhu (Kara Wai Ying-hung), who are A Zhu’s parents, but not. But they are her sister A Zi’s (Cya Liu Ya-se, i’m livin’ it) folks, and she tags along with Qiao Feng to his boss fight with Yan leader Murong Fu (Wu Yue, Ip Man 4) – who’s actually the heavy here – after a tragic misunderstanding. Also: Fu’s father Murong Bo (Ray Lui Leung-wai, Raging Fire) returns from the dead.
That description sounds as though we’re taking the piss out of a beloved classic, but that’s far from the case. Hopefully, though, it demonstrates just how narratively sprawling, complex and layered with almost un-capture-able Buddhist imagery the source material is: it’s like The Lord of the Rings and The Iliad, combined… on meth. Its density shows in the pacing – frantic one minute, sludgy the next – and in the paper thin sketches many of the characters are reduced to, assuming you can figure out where the hell they came from. It’s as if the six writers (we counted six names on the screen but they’re credited no where in press materials) got assigned a story segment and never spoke to each other. Things are not helped along by the fact that for all of Yen’s martial arts acumen, he’s not a visionary director; this is just his fifth directorial effort, and his first since the CNY comedy Protege de la Rose Noire in 2004, with Barbara Wong. He’s not going to take the script’s disparate parts and stitch them back together. His primary goal is to move the plot forward and get to the next action set piece. And if he happens to get a few hero shots that highlight his ’80s glam-rock hair along the way, so be it (that was taking the piss). In fairness, even on the cusp of 60, Yen delivers the action.
The scene everyone will leave talking about is the “We’re done!” drinking ceremony, where all of Qiao Feng’s sworn enemies come in for a drink and a fight. The protracted segment is balls-to-the-wall insane in its sheer scope, and the heir to Yen’s action choreography throne, Kenji Tanijaki, does a bang up job marrying wirework and actual hand-to-hand. It almost makes you recall the 1980s and ’90s glory days of Once Upon a Time in China and Wing Chun. Śakra’s a bit of a hot mess, and it’s self-aggrandising (Yen is our Dwayne Johnson), but it does have the year’s best fights so far. I know, the year is 19 days old. Shhhh. — DEK