Śakra

Donnie Yen in a new historical Wu-xia big film, which he is also directing this time. It looks like Donnie's dream project, but I'd rather see him in another variation on Ip Man or a pure action movie – he chose the least attractive material out of the whole of Asia. (Luckily John Wick 4 is around the corner). The film is based on a well known story, which in China is probably what Arthur and Merlin is to us. The main character is a feared and respected warrior who is accused of murder and voluntarily leaves his group to find answers, and those who falsely accused him, and beats up a bunch of enemies along the way. Visually the film is classy, Donnie has fine charisma and the action is passable (as long as he stays on the ground it's not bad at all). However, once he starts flying and jumping on rooftops my interest went sideways. It's a shame they had to incorporate elements of magic, so instead of Donnie using his martial arts abilities, you see him creating a wind-blow many times. Personally I'm not into that kind of stuff and I like straight up brawlers with hands and guns, unfortunately this has always gone past me, and it's mostly PG-13 stuff. I guess the Chinese are into it though. But those who like movies in the style of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and House of Flying Daggers might find something to like here. 5.5/10, (20.03.2023)