Le guerrier de jade

I watched this movie on DVD just the other day, and wow what a movie. This is certainly the best film I have seen out of Finland. The martial arts scenes are great, the story is great. I watched it without subtitles in the original version, it is way over the top. If you can find it, get it, it is well worth it. Being a first time director, this guy has done the most amazing job. He has taken all sorts of talent and blended them into a seamless film. The composition of the filming is incredible, as well as the use of a very detailed story. When it is purchased by a major studio I hope they do not edit it from it's original form, because itg is perfect.

I am a big fan of kung fu movies. This is not so much of a kung fu movie, although the action scenes are very fluent and clear. You often see much worse scenes in actual Asian kung fu action films. Sometimes the action is too fast, too sloppy and edited like crap. Not here. The fights are used sparsely and with good taste. The comment posted by wujie is off considering the choreography in comparison. And I'm finding it hard to believe the comments about this film, because the name suggests he/she is Asian origin. If you've seen 10 Asian kung fu flicks, you've most likely seen 5 films with worse action than here. The plot is good. Acting is good. Occasionally you might be a little confused about the progression though. But overall it binds you to your seat for the duration. I guess you can call this an epic drama spiced with occasional action scenes. In Finnish standards this film rocks. And even if you're not a Finn you will most probably be happy with the experience after watching this. Of course the differencies with cultures may be an issue. But to European and American taste this is definitely worth watching. And compared to Asian cinema I find this more "normal", if you'll allow me to say this without being offended. Asian cinema often has weird characters that are strangely eccentric and odd. Here I found the characters to be human, normal, not perfect (wujie comments on this being a bad thing). So along the good fight scenes, which are meant at times to be like dancing to represent other issues than mere fighting (again wujie commented on this subject), there is content to keep you interested in the plot all the way until the end. If you read this comment, read also the comment from Asian perspective (wujie) and then make up your mind.

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.

We haven't seen any attempts to combine Kalevala, the old stories, gods, myth, etc with any other culture or epic before. This film deserves a high rating score for being bold enough to try and manage it quite well indeed. A different kind of movie, feels and tastes fresh, contains enough little oddities and elements to be of cult stuff. I hope somebody will take it from here: develop the excellent old stories even further into something equally fresh. Same thing could be done with the equally rich stories of Aesir and the norsk gods etc. Along the lines of Neil Gaima's "American gods" and other such brilliant works.