Jade Warrior

I was in one of the few DVD shops in my city (which is more like a bigger village by world standards), and the DVD choice is more than poor. But there, behind the commercially successful blockbusters like “Iron Man”, “The Incredible Hulk”, “Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” and of course “The Dark Knight”, stood a single copy of a film called “Jade Warrior”. On its cover was a cool Chinese lady with a weapon. This immediately caught my attention, because I’m usually a sucker for Asian cinema. No actors were listed on it, just this picture and the English translation of the title. When I came home, I went to IMDB and typed “Jade Warrior” into the search bar and the film’s page popped up and left me in a surprise – the film was Finnish (original title: “Jadesoturi”. Well, I’ll be damned!

The plot synopsis definitely interested me enough to go back the next day and buy a copy (the only copy, as a matter of fact). The film is an epic tale that transcends time and space. It is a mix of the Finnish epic Kalevala, and Chinese mythology. Having fairly recently read a great Neil Gaiman’s novel “American Gods” I was even more warmed up, because “Jade Warrior” has a plot very similar to it, just on a smaller scale.

And speaking of the plot, I won’t go into details, but it is rather confusing, and I admit I didn’t really get all of it so I’ll have to definitely watch it again. The point being: be concentrated or you’ll probably be left with a “WTF?” expression on your face.

The story takes place in ancient China and modern Finland, thus the spoken language is Finnish and Mandarin. I don’t think a dub even exists, thank the gods. On the other hand, it probably doesn’t exist because no one even knows about it… it’s a quality movie, but it doesn’t have Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie in it…

The cast – Tommi Eronen, Markku Peltola, Zhang Jingchu & Krista Kosonen – were totally unknown, at least to me, but they did the job superbly. One other thing where the film shines is the soundtrack. Not too intrusive, but powerful enough to give that little special touch to a scene when needed, and ending with a great song called “Fate”, performed by “Bleak” w/ Ana Johnsson & Kimmo Pohjonen.

The visual are beautiful and the battle scenes are very well filmed and choreographed. They didn’t overuse the CGI.

It is not a film for everyone… it is just for the cool & awesome people who can enjoy really good films, and “Jade Warrior” is one to remember.

Rating: 9/10

- review by Ventilation Shaft