A martial arts mixed bag

IN Chinese fiction, wuxia (meaning ‘martial arts heroes’) is a literary genre that is defined as having stories based around ancient warriors from China, mixing elements of history, politics and romance.

In recent decades, wuxia stories that have endured the test of time have been adapted into television series and films. One of the most popular, and most dense, is Louis Cha’s “Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils” novel from the early ‘60s.

The upcoming film Sakra, which is directed and co-produced by and starring Donnie Yen – will be focused on one of the novel’s three main protagonists, the folk hero Qiao Feng (played by Yen).

In the two-hour film, Feng – the chief of the Beggars’ Sect – is cast out when he is accused of several murders and his ancestry is revealed to be Khitan during a time when the Han Chinese-led Song Empire is warring against the Khitan’s Liao Empire.

Feng, forced to leave the sect, seeks out the truth behind the murders. At the same time, he falls in love with Azhu (Chen Yuqi).

The original novel reportedly has almost 1,000 characters and is several volumes long. It was a behemoth of a task to condense and trim it for a film that’s 130 minutes long, and for the most part, it does a decent job of telling a coherent story, sans the terrible English and Bahasa Malaysia subtitles.

That said, Sakra is easy to understand by just following what is going on the screen.

Yen and the rest of the cast work well together, particularly him and Yuqi, around whom the bulk of the film’s “humanity” is based around. While they are definitely the heart of the film and both have chemistry with each other, the romance feels bogged down, or not clearly conveyed.

The love can be seen, but not felt. And this is largely due to Sakra’s screenplay juggling various different elements, while at the same time, trying to be yet another action film vehicle for Yen, as well as a franchise-starter.

Blunder Fu

For films that adapt classic wuxia stories, the high fantasy plot is accompanied by the beautiful action choreography that showcases a multitude of Chinese martial arts.

We’ve seen this is in something as old as Ang Lee’s classic Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and as recently as Hou Hsiao-hsien’s The Assassin.

The action choreography and stunts are often done with wire work that allows the actors and stuntmen to fight and engage in martial arts by seemingly ‘floating’ in and across the air. Where it looked natural in those films, in Sakra, it becomes comical.

Actually, almost everything is comical.

Yen abandons the largely practical action filmmaking in his earlier films and goes nuts with the ‘high fantasy’.

As Qiao Feng, he breaks every rule of gravity. Each time he jumps at an angle anywhere, he launches himself into orbit. Feng also mainly uses two modes of transportation throughout the film; horseback riding, and running-jumping across roofs.

Whenever the latter happens, the camera is locked on Feng for several seconds. Nothing else is going on. Yen’s literally just running-jumping across rooftops. This happens a lot.

And then, there’s the ‘magic’.

Very early in the film, Feng demonstrates his ability over the ‘Eighteen Subduing Dragon Palms’, a fictional martial arts discipline that allows him to ... do things without actually doing anything. It’s Sakra’s version of the force push from Star Wars or the airbending from the Avatar cartoons.

As much as I like ‘magic’ in films, Sakra is advertised as a martial arts film and Yen is a genuine martial artist. So, why is the final fight in the climax a big, loud CGI mess with Feng and the secret villain force pushing each other into sticks and sand like its the third act of a Marvel film?

Though it adapts modernity, and departs classical wuxia storytelling and filmmaking, Yen’s Sakra dares to be different, and in a way, that makes it unique.

Sakra is currently showing in local cinemas.

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