Le guerrier de jade

The first major genre-film in Finnish history, Jadewarrior is a slick and stylish movie of epic proportions. Combining both Chinese Wuxia and the national epic, Kalevala, into a seamless whole the movie creates a beautifully realized vision of alternate history and mythology.

Kai is a blacksmith, living in the outskirts of Helsinki. After his girlfriend leaves him, and meeting a mysterious store owner with an obsession of the Kalevala - Kai is thrust into a battle between good and evil that has raged since ancient times. Should Kai fail, it would cost the lives of not only his beloved, but everyone in the world.

Since it's conception, Finnish films have been in stuck in a rut of bad and repetitive storytelling, with films that you couldn't distinguish from each other without looking at their names. With only dozens upon dozens of war and drama films to our credit, Jadewarrior presents finally visions of grandeur of what Finnish cinema could become. Effortlessly switching between modern magical realities á la Neil Gaiman and the epic scopes of Zhang Yimous Hero and House of Flying Daggers, Jadewarrior is brimming with talented storytelling and visual delivery to match it. First time helmer, A.J Annila charges with leaps and bounds to the very small minority of interesting Scandinavian filmmakers to look out for.

Filmed in locations around the world, such as China and it's home country of Finland, Jadewarrior boasts with visually powerful locales to match it's breathtaking action. With production values most Scandinavian films would die for, the film has the look and feel of a major Hollywood blockbuster, but with wit and heart to match it's brawn. Never force feeding it's centuries spanning plot, Jadewarrior constructs a surprisingly intelligent and heartfelt tale of tragedy without ever feeling forced or calculated.

With actors ranging from Finnish newcomers (Krista Kosonen) to Chinese pro's (Jingchu Zhang), the film delivers. First time leading man, Tommi Eeronen works wonders with his challenging dual role as Kai and Sintai. Switching between his native language of Finnish to fully realized Mandarin Chinese effortlessly. Markku Peltola also succeeds in making his character both tremendously threatening and charming with small nuances, also delivering his performance partly in Mandarin. Chinese actress Zhang Jingchu has the fragile beauty of a young Michelle Yeoh, balancing her performance between the maiden in love and the battle hardener warrior. And while some of the Finnish dialog may sound cringe worthy to native speakers - thanks to it's melodramatic inspirations, Kalevala and Wuxia - the subtitled Chinese segments work better than anyone would have dared to imagine.

With 2006 still having a good way to go before it's end, calling Jadewarrior one of the best films of the year may be a slight gamble. But calling it the best Finnish film in memory isn't. Beautiful, heartfelt, with action and set-pieces to die for - Jadewarrior marks hopefully the beginning of a new wave in Finnish film-making, and deserves all praise coming for it.

I can't understand why so many movie fans from Finland loved this film,in my opinion,"Jade Warrior" is the worst so-called blockbuster I've seen this year!Not only me,but also most people of China who have seen it.

It is said that the story of "Jade Warrior" came from the myth "Kalevala" of Finland.As to the story which is adapted from the myth,I have to say,it's attracting,here is the general storyline :2000BC,Sintai,son of a blacksmith,has the power to destroy the 10th son of the Monster and eradicate the evil,which survived from Sintai's selfish desire,for he falls in love with a beautiful Chinese girl named PinYu before killing Monster's 10th son.But PinYu has already been engaged to another man,Sintai expects to see PinYu in his next life,which he wants to repeat again and again until she loves him.Unfortunately,love always comes at a cost,which is to let the 10th son of Monster slip away so that he has the chance to meet PinYu.Sintai did it over and over in his every new life,and so does the evil doing harm to the human being.Eventually,Sintai realizes that he couldn't satisfy his own desire while disregarding the entire human beings' safety.Once,in Sintai's new life of modern time,who is named Kai,made up his mind to kill the 10th son of evil finally,after which he has to leave his lover.

The storyline is beautiful,however,As to the film,"beautiful" deteriorates to "awful",and I doubt how many people understand it under the the director's awful direction.So many direct flashbacks between the past and the present,which easily make the audience confused,and the dialogues,which sounds almost retarded,Especially Sintai/Kai in his Chinese talking,it's not people's usual talk at all!!!I am not pointing his strange accent,I mean his words meaning.

About the love between Sintai and PinYu,at the beginning,PinYu refused Sintai,then without a day,PinYu changed her mind and decided to marry him!!!What happened??Not enough pavement for her behavior,and there are so many sudden turnings like this.I guess that may be the main reason we are not touched by the love story.

Let's focus on the most acclaimed parts,the kung fu scenes and cinematography,oh,god,if that were kung fu,"Hero" and "Crouching Tiger,Hidden Dragon" must be the best film in the world ever!!!!!!!when they fight,it's like two people dancing slowly with the music!!How ridiculous is that!!!And the cinematography,I would say it's just OK,without a engrossing,lively screenplay attracting the audience,best cinematography counts nothing.

During watching "Jade Warrior",the audience just sit there,trying really hard to understand actors' every abnormal behavior,how tired the audience are!!

Last year,we talked about "Mo Gik",and considered it as the worst legendary movie about myth of 2005.Today,I would say,"Jade Warrior" has already won the title of 2006,sorry.

A good story is not properly laid out,what a pity for "JW",the director's fault?maybe.

There is an old Soviet joke where the punch line is that all is quiet on the Finnish-Chinese border. That is where, psychologically at least, this film is set. It is a pioneering Finnish- Estonian-Chinese co-production, which takes the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala, as its starting point.

It was clearly made on a limited budget, without much provision for travel. The result is that, in effect, we have two films with parallel plots and casts, one set in ancient China and one in a sort of modern Finland, where most of the action is divided between a junk shop, a museum and a subterranean forge. Only Tommi Eronen, who plays both protagonists, Kai and Sintai, appears in both parts. The dialogue is split roughly 50:50 between Finnish and Chinese. In style it is much more Asian than Finno-Ugric - swords-and-sorcery with mysterious sacred items, along with the aerial acrobatics and severed heads that have long characterised Asian martial arts flicks.

I found it intriguing rather than gripping or exciting, and had to work quite hard at times to follow it. Some of the symbolism was mystifying. Why was a yellow plastic duck floating in a barrel in the forge? What is the significance of the fly on the face of a dumb, or at least silent middle-aged woman? Still, trying to work out what is happening brings pleasures of its own. And much about the film deserves praise – the acting is generally good, the special effects work, and the costumes and settings looked good, though without a real wow factor. The musical score fitted the film until the very end, when an English-language rock theme tune rapidly dispelled illusions which had taken nearly two hours to build.

Six out of ten.

Jade Warrior is a new and excellent achievement for Finnish films. Not only is it a martial arts film that was made with a budget of a few million euros (which is still exceptionally high for a Finnish film), but it's also produced and directed as if it was made with a much higher budget by an experienced director. This is no embarrassing first attempt or prototype, but a genre film that's easily on par with modern standards, and also has an interesting, original and intelligent storyline. If you replaced Tommi Eronen with a Chinese actor and removed the parts taking place in Finland, people might conceivably think that Yimou Zhang has released a new movie. Since Jade Warrior is a martial arts film, a lot of attention will naturally be paid to the fight scenes, which are well choreographed and fluidly shot, without excessive closeups and quick cuts. I particularly like the use of flying leaves in fight scenes. While there are some impossible physics, they are used sparsely, and aren't too exaggerated.

The sets, costumes, effects and soundtrack are all outstanding, as are the actors. I think Markku Peltola's portrayal of the demon was especially interesting. Also, I don't mean to sound superficial, but Jingchu Zhang is stunningly and exceptionally beautiful. She's apparently a rising star in China, and is about to do a Hollywood film. I look forward to seeing her again.

Finnish cinema has almost entirely consisted of drama and comedy, with a few war films, so Jade Warrior is clearly a breath of fresh air. Certainly there are many good Finnish films, but they're either drama or comedy. I don't know why we're so reluctant to try something new. It's not just a budget issue, you don't necessarily need millions to do an action film, for instance. The fact that we've restricted ourselves to the aforementioned genres became apparent when I watched the film, because some of the dialogue made me cringe, since films like Jade Warrior are never done here, and the dialogue seems out of place. This isn't the film's fault, of course.

The limited international reaction seems to be very positive so far, and Finnish reviews have also been largely positive. Hopefully Jade Warrior will succeed to the point where we start doing more than low budget drama and comedy. Of course, this was a cooperative project with China, so credit must go to them as well.

The movie mixes together Finnish and Chinese mythology, a very interesting and definitely unique basis. Visually the fighting scenes were excellent and I really enjoyed watching them, there just were too few of them. Of course it's good that the movie is more than just fighting, so there would be plenty of time to tell the - as said, interesting - story. Two stories are told at one time, one from ancient China and the second from present-day Finland, and they mixed very well together. But unfortunately the characters remain blank through the whole movie. I didn't get anything out of them, though the story made me yearn to know everything. The characters are captivating, especially Pin Yu's person and Kai's and Ronja's relationship, but too much stays as a mystery. The beginning half is very entertaining and makes your imagination fly. But then the movie becomes disordered and the spectator becomes confused. There are lots of things that are left unexplained, and some things don't seem to have anything to do with the movie. Sometimes it feels like 'a scene has now been cut away from here, and it would explain what I now don't understand.' Those missing little parts didn't start to haunt me after I went to sleep though, the movie wasn't that special. It was definitely entertaining, worth watching, but perhaps not twice. A big plus for the imaginative theme, good music and the courage to do such a film.