There are two elements which can make an art-wuxia film so engaging. The first is that martial arts are as much of a performance art as they are combat, most especially at the cinema. Using martial arts as a vehicle for both love ritual and an expression of hate certainly elevates it above your average fisticuffs. Second, the elegance of the fighters in combat is contrasted with their helplessness in something as complex as love. King Hu understood this. Ang Lee and Zhang Yimou most recently have understood this as well. So, also does Finnish director Antti-Jussi Annila. Unfortunately the key difference between the masters wuxia epics and Jade Warrior is that they can advance the story and emotions through the fight sequences, and that they actually, well, have more than just a couple fight sequences! Jade Warrior is has the brains but not the brawn. It is nearly all tease. In a martial arts film, that is cruel.
Taking its thematic story from the national poem of Finland, the 22000 verse Kalevala, which I am told contains some of the saddest stories ever told and blending with elements of Chinese and Tibetan mythology, Jade Warrior mixes the past legend of two friends and warriors caught in a love triangle with a woman warrior that has no solution. They are all engaged in war, not with another army, but a demon, the son of Nocktess, who is Hate, Greed, Lust, Blindness and Fear. Notably, nearly all these elements come into play when there is a love triangle regardless of time period. This conceit gives the film a real intelligence. Jade Warrior is really an extended meditation on the nature of love and self-sacrifice. In scandanavian cinema this is usually told with two lonely urban people bumping together in a crowded city, but here it is clothed in an a (slightly half-hearted) genre picture. The films structure, which combines the story of the lovers and the war in China in 2000 B.C. with a contemporary story set in Finland in 2006 may be reminiscent of the Highlander, or The Fountain (judging from that films trailer anyway), or even Hellraiser. But Jade warrior is a very different animal: laid back and deliberate in pace not going for cheap thrills and setting up and setting up and setting up. It stumbles ,fatally I believe, by setting expectations with the opening scenes as being a genre picture, but it never actually becomes one. It does lay out a wonderful premise and set up, but the follow through is lacking in visceral content. I could convince myself that perhaps I am a victim of my own expectations (an issue I had with Myung-se Lee's The Duelist, which, admittedly, has grown a lot on me since the initial viewing) but I think knowing the ending will remove any desire to see the film again.
But I digress. The story involves a Pandora’s box about to be opened, The Sampo, and the modern-day smith who has the capacity to open it. The box will either bring eternal happiness or hell on earth. The smith has the ability to open it, and sets out to do so, as his girlfriend has just broken off their relationship, and presumably this will take his mind off his depression. When he begins to go through the forging process with the help of a Finnish scholar, his girlfriend is compelled to come back towards his rural smithy. This is all inter-cut with the love story of a loner warrior falling in love with a beautiful woman in a Chinese village at the edge of the swamp where the war against the demon is taking place. Naturally, these stories begin to dovetail together revealing the extent of various curses and prophecies put in place in ancient times. Will history repeat itself?
The acting, cinematography and effects (one involving an insect and an eye is particularly memorable) fight-choreography (what little there is) are all top shelf. Unfortunately the script is a victim of its own intelligence and fails to actually inject any heart (probably also due to so little time spent) with the two leads who have the talent to make their characters believable, but lack the right chemistry to believe in their eternal love. And, why only three fight sequences? Two of these hint at greater things to come, but never arrive. The final battle which is good, but more is more mental than physical. Perhaps this is because it is the first collaboration of its kind, the full potential of this story was lost in translation (The director admitted during the Q&A to not speaking any Mandarin, and thus he had to direct over half of the films dialogue through an interpreter). I've no doubt that the second time around there is the potential for greatness here. I've no doubt that the second time around there is the potential for greatness here. Jade Warrior suffers the pangs of not only a first feature, but a first time cultural collaboration, and ultimately is just a tease.
looks really interesting.. any info on release dates and so? does it have many chinese ppl in cast and crew or its all finnish?
As much as I've had my fill of wuxia films for the time being I really want to see this one. Mainly because it would be the first scandinavian martial arts film.
In Finland the release date is 10.13.2006... Most of the crew is Finnish, I would say about 90 percent or over... Half of the main cast is Finnish, half Chinese. The production companies are from Finland, China, The Netherlands and Estonia, but most of the money comes from Finland.
I can't believe I couldn't get into this screening. I'm so pissed off. TIFF is a total bust this year for me, for so many reasons. But the few films I wanted to see (including this one) have been sold out and I really don't have the time to stand in a rush line, this year. Hmmmm... any chance that this film will come out on DVD?
Haven't heard anything definite yet, but I'll be pretty shocked if this doesn't get bought by a US company this week. It's just plain good, very pretty, and dead simple to market. Someone will take it.
Thanks for the review, nicely written! I'll be sure to check this in the cinema when it premieres here. I've already seen posters for it at my local (small) cinema.
Couldn't agree more (even about "The Duelist", though, granted, I haven't seen it past the first viewing because I *really* hated it).
Jade Warrior had a lot of unrealized potential. Hopefully, if the director gets another go at the genre (I would think he would since he genuinely seems to love it) he'll come up with something great. Just not yet.
Hum, I have to say that it was only "meh" for me. It had a great idea, great visuals, and even a great cast, but somehow, it just didn't click. I'm not sure if it's just poor overall execution but it just felt soulless. At times slow and tedious.
The martial arts was not that great - although it's primarily a love story, the action was just too weak. I will give them bonus points for not doing the flashy motion-cutting type of fights where you have no clue what's going on, there just wasn't really any *wow* factor to the action - for instance, the demon was disposed of way too easy.
I loved how the Finnish actor spoke Mandarin though. A lot of bonus pts there - at times I wonder if it was someone else dubbed in?
I didn't enjoy this film much. It seemed to take itself far too seriously at some points. I wish someone would have asked if the director was a Final Fantasy fan, for some reason the movie and the dialogue reminded me of the game series. The fightscenes in both quantity and quality were weak, even the ending scene was poor. The film was well shot and the story was a great idea, but those are about the only virtues I felt it had.
Especially after seeing The Host the other night, this film was a disappointment.
Kurt and I argued about this one at the pub earlier tonight, I just like it a whole lot better than he does.
"I loved how the Finnish actor spoke Mandarin though. A lot of bonus pts there - at times I wonder if it was someone else dubbed in?"
It was Tommi Eronen (the actor himself) all the way.
If you sped up the first third of this film, you'd have an exceptionally good movie.
I disagree that the action scenes were poorly done. I thought they were quite well done, and looked very good. The visuals were excellent overall.
If anything they needed a bit more action (yes, the flashback demon scene) and character development. I would have been just fine with more camera time for the Ping tu character... very beautiful.
I'm understanding some of this Kurt!!!!
Argh. How come TIFF shows so many cool films, and the London Film Festival shows hardly any of them? We're getting Hana and Invisible Waves and that's about it. :(
Big disappointment
Good idea, but the film itself, argh! I agree James, film take itself far too seriously, tryes too much. Hopefully director has learned something from this... not absolut failure, but almost.
-T
Hi does anyone know whether there are plans to release this film in the UK??? GO SUOMI!! ;-D
I watched the movie here in Finland on Friday, and was a bit disappointed with it. This is probably because of the extreme hype for the movie here in Finland; the expectations were simply too high for me. But, nevertheless, it is a good movie--somewhat different from a typical Finnish movie and also somewhat different from a typical wuxia film. A nice blend of the two, in fact. Still, I felt something was missing to make it truly great.
There's just one very common error in the review here (and on some of the comments) that I have to comment on. Finland is not part of Scandinavia. Geographically speaking Scandinavia consists of Sweden and Norway only, while Finland is located on its own peninsula. One can speak of Fenno-Scandia, which comprises both Finland and the Scandinavian peninsula, but only a small part of Northern Finland is actually situated on the Scandinavian peninsula. Denmark is also not part of Scandinavia but of the European mainland. Of course, all these four countries (and Iceland) have a lot in common both historically as well as culturally, although Finland is the odd one with its totally different language and national personality. This comes through in movies as well. Finnish movies differ a lot from Scandinavian ones--mostly through their melancholical atmospheres than anything else. But if one would watch a lot of Finnish movies without knowing they were Finnish, and then watched, let's say, Swedish movies, that person would not think they were of the same mold (i.e. Scandinavian movies). I know that "Scandinavia" is used a lot to refer to all four countries, even here in Finland, but it still doesn't change the facts. We do have a term that can be used for all of these countries (plus Iceland) as a group and that is "the Nordic Countries". So, one can speak of Nordic movies when referring to movies done in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland.
Sorry if I sound like a nitpick, just blame my scholarly and linguistic personality.
Thank you for this review. I mostly agree with everything you said.
I just saw this movie, and I have to say that - though generally I liked it - it left me with somewhat mixed feelings about whether it met my anticipations. It's definitely one of the best Finnish movies I've ever seen, both cinematographically and plot-wise, but it had its flaws, too. The movie didn't start off particularly well because the opening scenes for the main characters were somewhat unclear, leaving me confused about what had happened prior to the events in the movie, and the first thirty minutes of the film was generally very dragging. However, it gradually became much better as the flashbacks kicked in and interwined nicely with the scenes set in modern times. As the ending was drawing to a close, the movie had already overcame the stiffness it had suffered in the beginning and really felt like a coherent whole, allowing me to leave the theatre with a smile on my face.
The Martial Art scenes were beautiful and poetic, as few as there were of them, and the actors pulled their parts well even though most of them had no prior experience of action roles. However, Jade Warrior didn't turned out to be as much of a Wu Xia film as it was hyped up to be. It was a melodramatic fantasy above everything else. This must have been a disappointment for the part of the audience who specifically came to see a Martial Arts film, but I personally didn't mind the lack of fighting scenes because I think the dramatic and emotional aspect of the plot was fascinating enough to keep the movie interesting. Somehow I had expected the plot to be a little bit cliched or feeble - which often happens when emphasis is on action and special effects - but I ened up being pleasantly surprised with the story. It was original, well-controlled, and even philosophical (on the contrary of being pompous and hollow, as movies featuring dialogue with repetitive use of the words "destiny", "eternal life", and "demon" usually tend to be), and it even offered a few interesting, unexpected twists in the end. I especially enjoyed the ending, which didn't have a hint of the cheesy, over-sentimental, forced feel you get from most Hollywood films.
The cast was very good, especially Tommi Eronen (Kai/Sintai), who pulled his dual roles with both strength and sensitivity. All the emotions of the hero were reflected in his eyes. Zhang Jingchu was also fabulous as the beautiful and strong heroine Pin Yu.
Overall, my general impression of Jade Warrior was mostly positive. I'd recommend this movie strongly, too, but with the small remark that it's more of a drama with Kung Fu influences than a fully loaded Martial Arts film.
Absolutely made with heart and passion and it shows in the film. Story suffers from some problems but over all the film is a great film in its genre. I truely hope it´ll find its audience. Looking forward to this young and promising director´s next work because he obviously has the potential to be a great Finnish director!
-----Is this movie going to be in theaters/DVD in USA?
I saw Jadewarrior as well ... and ...
and Jadewarrior was a big disappointment (for me). I agree, great idea. I dunno alot about Kalevala, but it sounded really interesting: mix up finnish folkstories, chinese mythology and kung fu.great!
But somehow-Jadewarrior is more like a rotten body of a model; First contact and it looks pretty good, but very fast it starts to smell, slowly it just disappears, and nobody dont even care. Seriously: Script is just a mess! yeah sure, someone told me "you need to see it more than once and everything" gimme a break! It's awful how Jadewarrior copies, like... everything: Lord of the rings, Matrix, Kaurismäki, David Lynch, Hero ...
:(
Maybe next time boys... maybe.
To Pietari: Finland is a part of Scandinavia: we have the "Käsivarsi" area which reaches to the Scandinavian Mountains (e.g. Mount Halti), and the mountains gave the name to the area. Also, one could argue, we are part of Scandinavia because the english speaking world also means Finland when they talk about Scandinavia. Who ever gave the name in the first place? Must be some map writer in ancient Rome, not anyone in the Nordic countries. And we can't ask him what he meant exactly. So no one of us can really say their way of defining the borders of the area is right. That's why there are no reasons of excluding Finland from Scandinavian coutries, but there are more reasons of including it in the area (mountains and millions of english speakers).
To Pecca de Saint-Écrivain: Someone's been sleeping during the geography lessons in school. ;) What Pietari Kortekangas said is right. He even did mention the small part beeing part of Scandinavia (i.e."käsivarsi" (arm)).
I haven't seen the movie yet, but I'm goig to see it tomorrow. I'm not sure what to think. Half of people says it was great, the other half says it was a big disappointment. Because of my Finnish attitude it's safer to think it's not that great, won't get disappointed and might even be surprised! xD But 8,5 Euros for the ticket!!??! That must be a crime of some sort! >.To Pecca de Saint-Écrivain: Someone's been sleeping during the geography lessons in school. ;) What Pietari Kortekangas said is right. He even did mention the small part beeing part of Scandinavia (i.e."käsivarsi" (arm)).
I haven't seen the movie yet, but I'm goig to see it tomorrow. I'm not sure what to think. Half of people says it was great, the other half says it was a big disappointment. Because of my Finnish attitude it's safer to think it's not that great, won't get disappointed and might even be surprised! xD But 8,5 Euros for the ticket!!??! That must be a crime of some sort! >.<
To Pecca de Saint-Écrivain:
Finland is not a part of Scandinavia because
a) Geographically, Scandinavia refers to the Scandinavian peninsula, which consists majorly of Sweden and Norway.
b) Culturally, Scandinavia refers to the people of the countries which share the Scandinavian cultural heritage, such as Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. This excludes Finland.
c) Linguistically, Finnish is not a Scandinavian language - it's a member of the Fenno-Ugric language family, related to Estonian and Hungarian, for instance.
d) Ethnically, Finns are not Scandinavian. Both the genetical heritage and the ancient history are entirely different.
When refering to Finland and the Scandinavian countries as the same region, the correct terms to use are "the Nordic countries" and "Fenno-Scandia". Scandinavia, however, is out of the question for the reasons adressed above - and nope, not even the infamous "käsivarsi" is considered a redeeming factor because the tiny bit of Scandinavia caught inside the Finnish borders it way too small to be of any significance regarding this issue. Also, the argument about Finland being a part of Scandinavia merely because millions of English-speaking people who know too little about the subject to be familiar with the correct terminology is downright stupid. Are you seriously suggesting that it would be best for us to ignore all facts just because most uninitiated people get it wrong? Oh come on!
Just face it - you're wrong. To quote my favourite Arabic proverb, "If one man calls you an ass, pay no attention to him. If fifty men call you an ass, go buy yourself a saddle."
I want to see this movie because of it's basis on the Kalevala and also the good reviews about its cinematography. The last movie I saw was Geisha which was very beautiful, I enjoy seeing Asian environments and culture in film.
Now what's with all these people thinking Finland is a part of Scandinavia? THAT'S STUPID. It's just as stupid as saying the United States is a part of Latin America. Finland is never called Scandinavian (except by some not-so-educated people), but rather a Nordic, arguably even Baltic country.