Spirits of the Dead Spirits of the Dead
Jul
13
2007

Fantasia Report: Jade Warrior Review

Posted by Todd Brown at 7:41am.

Posted in Film & DVD Reviews , Martial Arts, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Asia, Continental Europe & Russia, Toronto Film Festival 2006.

jadewarriorstill.jpg

[Fantasia info page here.]

The temptation when writing about Jade Warrior—available on DVD here—is to make a big deal about how this is both young Finnish director AJ Annila’s first feature out of film school as well as it being the first ever Finnish martial arts film. The problem with doing this, of course, is that it by attaching the ‘worthy first attempt’ tag on to it you risk also implying that the film is flawed in some way that more experience would likely cure. But whether it be a first film, fifth film or tenth film, Jade Warrior is, quite simply, a very good film.

A lifelong fan of wuxia film Annila’s goal with Jade Warrior was to make a film that honors both his own heritage and the conventions of Chinese wuxia film and he has succeeded admirably thanks to a fortuitous, and relatively recently discovered, link between the Kalevala—a famous Finnish epic poem filled with legends and lore—and Chinese language and culture. A key artefact in one of the stories of the Kalevala is the Sampo, a magical machine said to be the hidden source of happiness created by a legendary Smith to help win the love of a woman. What has since been learned is that the Sampo may very well have its linguistic roots in China, where there are reports of a legendary Tibetan temple known as Sang Fu—pronounced Sampo by the Mongolians—whose name translates roughly to ‘the wellspring of happiness’. Throw in the discovery of mummified northern Europeans in China and you have a legitimate, if tenuous, link between the two cultures, certainly enough for Annila and company to build a quasi sequel to the Smith story blending elements of Finnish and Chinese culture while remaining true to the spirit of the original Kalevala tales.

The story goes like this: following the creation of the Sampo it was stolen by a powerful nameless demon that believed it could be used to create a literal hell on earth but the demon was stymied in his plan when it discovered that the Sampo could only be operated by the Smith’s son, Sintai. Sintai, for his part, has been prophesied as the man who will destory the demon and free the land from its threat, in return from which the gods will grant him freedom from the cycle of reincarnation. He will simply die and be no more, free of the continual trials and tribulations of life. But having lived his life among monks training in the martial arts to prepare for his prophetic role Sintai wants to first spend a day living as a normal human, a day in which he falls in love with a beautiful and deadly village girl.

Cut forward four thousand years to the modern day. Kai is an old fashioned smith locked in a deep depression following the departure of his girlfriend, Ronja, who he believes is the only woman he will ever love. The mummified remains of a four thousand year old man have been discovered clutching a metallic case of craftsmanship well beyond anything that could possibly have been imagined in its era, a case that responds to Kai’s touch, opening to release a powerful being within and triggering waves of visions that clearly link Kai to Sintai. But how is this possible? If Sintai carried out his mission and slew the demon his spirit should be permanently gone and free from this world ...

Shot on a budget of merely two and a half million Euros Jade Warrior is a simply gorgeous film to look at, beautifully designed and detailed and shot in a series of dramatic locations. When CG is used to bolster the imagery Annila wisely chooses to leave his stylistic tweaks slight, giving the film a just slightly otherworldly, yet still recognizable, feel. The film is pitched primarily towards drama—as befits its epic poem ambitions—with martial arts sequences sprinkled throughout to bolster the story without ever dominating it. This is a tragic romance first, a supernatural fight film second and it never loses sight of that fact. That said when the martial arts come they are well choreographed, very well shot, and well executed with the Finnish stars proving more than up to the task of selling the physical end of the film despite their never having trained in martial arts prior to this project. The script is a lyrical piece of work, drawing on a host of ancient archetypes lifted liberally from two cultures and always resisting the urge to oversell the more extreme elements.

What really makes Jade Warrior sing, however, is the cast. Zhang Jin Chu is a known quantity as Sintai’s would be lover, having recently been seen in Seven Swords and Peacock, while co-star Markku Peltota is also well familiar to fans of Scandanavian film thanks to his repeated collaborations with celebrated auteur Aki Kaurismaki. Tommi Eronen, then, is the unknown quantity cast in the dual role of Kai and Sintai and Erronen is definitely a face to watch, a deeply emotive lead who easily carries the emotions of the piece while also providing a strong physical presence. An epic poem requires an epic hero and he easily fits the bill.

The wuxia genre covers a wide spectrum of possibilities, from high art to low pulp, and Jade Warrior clocks in somewhere closer to Crouching Tiger than to The Bride With White Hair. The fusion of cultures makes for a fascinating new spin on the venerable genre and Annila executes with style and flair. Strongly recommended.

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Reader Comments

  1. asiafan 09/09/2006 @ 2:45am

    looks really interesting.. any info on release dates and so? does it have many chinese ppl in cast and crew or its all finnish?

  2. Swarez 09/09/2006 @ 4:27am

    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.

  3. Meeks 09/09/2006 @ 5:39am

    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.

  4. LT Roberts 09/09/2006 @ 8:18am

    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?

  5. Todd 09/09/2006 @ 9:07am

    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.

  6. nowak 09/09/2006 @ 11:36am

    You liked it a whole lot more than I did. The main love story in the film didn’t work for me. I thought the two actors just didn’t have enough chemistry between them to make me feel like he was actually falling in love with her. It felt like hollow words being forced through the script rather than through the actor. She was quite stunning though, so I could understand why anyone would fall for her.

    To me, everything felt too forced to be worthwhile. I liked the ending, I’ll admit, but I not so much everything leading to it.

  7. Yani 09/09/2006 @ 11:39am

    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.

  8. Todd 09/09/2006 @ 1:22pm

    Weird, I didn’t find it forced at all, nowack, though it definitely has that typical scandanavian emotionalr eserve thing going on. But I’m a sucker for scando film so that’s more a plus than a minus for me. The romance does happen FAST, though, that’s definitely true but considering the character had been raised in isolation and never really exposed to women that sort of fit and with them trying to make the story feel like an ancient myth—where this sort of thing happens all the time—I really felt like it worked within the world they were creating.

    Talking to people around here it does seem to be dividing people a little bit though. Those who like it like it a lot, those who don’t really don’t.

    I’ve actually been having a really good festival that way so far, only seen one film I didn’t like ...

  9. Vincent 09/10/2006 @ 9:04pm

    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?

  10. Mika P 09/11/2006 @ 11:18am

    “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.

  11. Mika P 09/11/2006 @ 11:19am

    “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.

  12. TH 09/11/2006 @ 5:49pm

    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.

  13. Talvalin 09/15/2006 @ 10:28am

    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. :(

  14. MontyB 10/13/2006 @ 11:52am

    Hi does anyone know whether there are plans to release this film in the UK??? GO SUOMI!! ;-D

  15. Pietari Kortekangas 10/15/2006 @ 3:23am

    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.

  16. HeartlessSoul 10/15/2006 @ 12:24pm

    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.

  17. Hanna 10/25/2006 @ 8:45pm

    Is this movie going to be in theaters/DVD in USA?

  18. Wolf 10/28/2006 @ 4:45am

    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.

  19. Pecca de Saint-Écrivain 10/29/2006 @ 11:12am

    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).

  20. Anx 11/03/2006 @ 6:35am

    To Pecca de Saint-Écrivain: Someone’s been sleeping during the geography lessons in school. http://twitchfilm.net/site/images/smileys/wink.gif 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. http://twitchfilm.net/site/images/smileys/wink.gif 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! >.<

  21. Pecca de Saint-Écrivain 11/06/2006 @ 11:00am

    To Anx: you did not say why Pietari is right. Because of the geography lessons? A lesson does not prove anything. There’s a lots of crap teached even during lessons. Read again what I just wrote and think that also a geography book is written by some mortal individual.

  22. Heartless 11/08/2006 @ 8:44am

    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.”

  23. Geography instructor 11/10/2006 @ 1:35am

    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.

  24. Anx 11/10/2006 @ 1:13pm

    To: Pecca de Saint-Écrivain

    It is true that Finland is often said to be part of Scandinavia in English speaking world, but that does not change the fact that it isn’t. The books used in Finnish schools are pretty good, so I think we can trust what is said almost every year in geography. And it’s not only said in school. http://twitchfilm.net/site/images/smileys/wink.gif Heartless there also gave a pretty good explanation for why Finland is not part of Scandinavia.

    So then, let’s move on to the real matter. It’s stupid to fight over such thing.

    The Jade Warrior!

    Yey, I finally saw it! ^___^ I liked it a lot. I don’t understand why some people say it was difficult to follow. Maybe they just weren’t paying attention, because I understood what was happening quite well…

    I know nothing of Chinese language, but I guess the Finnish cast did pretty well with it. It could be heard that the Finnish actors spoke it differently, but can you blame them? I think the Chinese actor had more troubles talking Finnish and I sure can’t blame her for that! She did well. ^^

    I hope it comes out as DVD soon, they already stopped playing it in my town (and it costs so damn much to go to the movies)… I wanna see it again.

  25. Pecca de Saint-Écrivain 11/16/2006 @ 1:41am

    To Heartless:

    since you can’t refer to anybody who has the authority to define the borders of Scandinavia your arguments are no better than others. But I still want correct some misunderstandings:

    a) Geographically, Scandinavia refers to the Scandinavian peninsula, which consists majorly of Sweden and Norway. And more of Finland (the infamous Käsivarsi / Mount Halti area) than of Denmark, for instance.

    b) Culturally, Scandinavia refers to the people of the countries which share the Scandinavian cultural heritage, such as Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. This does not exclude Finland: Finland and Sweden were the one and the same country more than 700 hundred years and we actually have the same culture if one is able to look beyond the normal prejudices.

    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. But we have two languages in Finland Finnish and Swedish, and 200-800 hundred years ago all finns who wanted to get education also had to learn Swedish. This also mixed genetically different language groups in Finland.

    d) Ethnically, Finns are not Scandinavian. Both the genetical heritage and the ancient history are entirely different. This argument is wrong: according to the genetical studies Finns have German genes like the Swedes, it’s only the language that is eastern. Finland was filled with people from the west who came here via the Baltic Sea. They came in so small amounts at a time that the families adapted to the finnish / lappish language. The old story about Finns coming from Russia’s Volga area has been thrown away years ago. It was a theory created by linguistics before it was possible to study genes.

    -----

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