It has been nearly two decades since Donnie Yen last co-directed a film (2004’s “Protégé de la Rose Noire,” with Barbara Wong Chun-Chun). This year, Yen gets in front of and behind the camera with the new release “Sakra,” a martial arts action extravaganza based on Louis Cha’s epic wuxia novel “Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils.”

Co-directed by Kam Ka-Wai, “Sakra” finds Yen starring as Qiao Feng, orphan raised by a couple from the Song Empire who is at war with the Khitan (a minority of the Mongols) a sect of the Liao Empire, Qiao’s true heritage.