Of course I opted to sit down and watch the 2023 Chinese action movie "Tin Lung Baat Bou" (aka "Sakra") as I had the opportunity to do so. Why? Well, because of my fascination with Asian cinema, but also because the movie was starring Donnie Yen.
The storyline in "Tin Lung Baat Bou", as written by He Ben, Chen Li, Sheng Lingzhi, Lejing Shen, Xu Yifan and Wei Zhu was quite good. I am not familiar with the novel "Demi Gods and Semi-Devils" from Louis Cha that the movie is based upon, so how true it is to the source material, I have no idea. But the storyline in the movie proved to be rather enjoyable and entertaining, which was the sole purpose of the movie. So thumbs up to all the writers for accomplishing that.
The acting was good in the movie, though I was only familiar with Donnie Yen on the cast list. I have to say that "Tin Lung Baat Bou" definitely sees Donnie Yen back in top form on the screen, and it was quite the pleasure to watch him in this movie.
The action and martial arts scenes throughout the course of the 130 minutes that the movie ran for was good. Nay, strike that, it was intense and adrenaline-packed. I have never actually witnessed such intensity in a martial arts movie as I did here from directors Ka-Wai Kam and Donnie Yen. It was amazing and really added a lot of enjoyment to the movie. Again, it was phenomenal to see Donnie Yen in top form as he brought the action to the screen here, both in front and behind the camera.
The cinematography in "Tin Lung Baat Bou" was good and dynamic. I liked the way that they moved the cameras about and added a dynamic range to the martial arts scenes.
Visually then "Tin Lung Baat Bou" was quite good. The special effects looked good and worked well in favor of the movie.
If you enjoy Wuxia martial arts, I believe the term is, then you should definitely find the time to sit down and watch "Tin Lung Baat Bou". I was genuinely entertained from start to end. And even with a play time of 130 minutes, the movie didn't feel sluggish or slow at any time.
My rating of "Tin Lung Baat Bou" lands on a well-deserved eight out of ten stars.
