Donnie Yen is still at it. In addition to facing John Wick he’s still making his own vehicles. Sakra is a martial arts period piece that takes Yen’s fighting to another level with modern enhancement.
CGI enhances Yen’s speed but it’s still his movies. That’s an interesting modern technology take on old school Kung Fu. They used to undercrank and use wires, but now they have another tool to make Yen look supernatural. They’ve been using CGI to erase wires for decades, but now they can vary the speed and rhythm of traditional choreography too.
The plot is sort of Donnie Yen’s The Fugitive. He’s framed for a murder so has to defend himself while looking for the real killer. It gets much more complicated, mythological and romantic before the first hour is even up.
Sakra looks gorgeous on Blu-ray with its widescreen fields and forest, historic towns and aerial shots of Chinese rooftops. Rain and mud add HD texture, as do sandstorms with blood on the ground.
The sound mix has fun whizzing and whooshing sounds surrounding the viewer too.