Jade Warrior

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.

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.

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.

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.

First of all, not every story can be that ultimate epic saga that makes your heart go hundred and fifty RPM for the three-and-a-half hours of amazing storytelling. Although someone could have brought together Kalevala, the Finnish national epic, and Chinese wuxia mystique in a more theatrical way, I'm actually glad that this time they didn't.

Jade Warrior is a low-budget film in the European or Asian, not to mention American, scale. Exactly because of that, with all the love and passion they've managed to load this story with, Jade Warrior is a delightfully naive yet very one of a kind film. Its unique spirit is in the low-tone acting, in the settings, in the costumes, in the dialoque, in the mixture of these two exotic world-views and beautiful languages - it's everywhere. After it will have been recognized next year with international awards, Jade Warrior will become one of the few Finnish films every film freak will have to see - and hopefully it won't be the only Finnish-Chinese co-production we'll see in this decade or so.