rednikki

It is so hard to review this movie without giving away some of the plot twists that occur. I liked that rather than leaning on quippiness, the non-action scenes relied on real human emotion. I also liked that it didn't get preachy. The characters use their immortality to try to help people where other folks can't, but they don't give grandiose speeches about it. It's just what they do. Even the unexpected consequences of their actions isn't presented in a preachy way. It's just really cool.

The issues some of the characters experienced are exactly the issues you'd expect an immortal to have. I loved the various ways we saw how the characters pop up in history. (And, for a history buff like me, the way they did it made sense.) The action scenes were a blast too! I loved that the characters used both modern weapons and, in some cases, versions of weapons they'd probably used for centuries. There was enough of a world behind this that I could easily see how you could turn this into a TV series. But if I can't have that I'm on board for a film series.

I lived in Finland briefly, and watching this film made me homesick for my time there. It has an excellent sense of place and effectively evokes both Finnish and Chinese cultures. It's a quiet, thoughtful movie that takes its time. Showing an evolving romance between people from two famously reserved cultures takes special skill, but the tender performances really make it land. There were a couple of places where I felt things could have been heightened a bit, but that may also be because of the culture I'm from. I really enjoyed this, and I'd definitely watch it again.