Jade Warrior by Yu Yan Kai (2006)
1 November 2007I had really been looking forward to this one since I heard about it, I mean a Finish directing mixing the epic national Poem of Finland the Kalevala and Chinese and Tibetan mythology is certainly an interesting goal, but I must say I came out a bit disappointed. First it seems to be a Wuxia film, intertwined with an ancient story in China and Finland and the characters modern incarnations in modern FInland. Maybe it is just my unfamiliarity with the myths involved, or that it seems like it will be much more of an action film than it actually is (there are very few actual action sequences in fact), or the fact that the smithing scenes in fact seem to have nothing to do with smithing, and more about melting things down and watching them take different shapes based on the characters past, no actual smithing involved. Not only that but the script is a bit overly complicated, and sometimes doesn’t make sense, like some people are re-incarnated from the past, so they are not affected like normal people, but some characters aren’t affected and it is never explained. I just didn’t feel most of it came together very well. It had good elements, but didn’t really work as a whole. Really the high point is the gorgeous Zhang Jing Chu and her amazing fight scene with her fan blades on a pole is really worth checking out, but the rest of the film just didn’t feel very satisfying.
Kai (Tommi Eronen) is a mediocre blacksmith living out in the country on the outskirts of Helsinki whose girlfriend Ronja (Krist Kosenem) has left him. Before Rongja leaves she takes some of Kai’s smithing things at an antique shop named Sang Fu, owned by 2 researchers who are studying the Kalevala named Berg (Markku Peltola) and Weckstrom (Elle Kull). The poem is a mythic poem about the struggle between good and evil, with a hero smith named Seppo, who created a machine called the Sampo with the power to be a source of happiness or to bring hell on Earth. In Chinese mythology, the evil Nocktress had nine sons named after all the vices of the earth, except the 9th who has no name and who has stolen the Sampo to bring hell on Earth. Back in the past Sintai (also Tommi Eronen) is the son of Seppo, and he is destined to defeat the demon 9th son, but in doing so he will never again be reborn, nor will the demon, and he is OK with that, but wants to live one night as a normal man. Sintai’s best friend is Cho (Dang Hao) who lives in a village near the swamps where the demon is waiting, and Sintai goes to his friends village to live one night as a real human, and let the armies advance on their own.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…
In the present, Berg accidentally gets some of Kai’s hair and nails, used for smithing onto the machine he found, and it starts to open, so he takes the device to Kai, and he manages to open it, and things change, Berg becomes someone else, and starts to help remember Kai’s past, since Kai is the re-incarnation of Sintai, and he can reforge the device into the Sampo to bring happiness on Earth, and hopefully lose some of Kai’s loneliness. Ronja doesn’t leave, and goes back to the store and talks to Weckstrom, and finds that she has a bunch of things including what they think is the body of Sintai who was holding the device and was with a girl and the skull of a wolf.
In the past Sintai goes to Cho’s village, and tries to have a normal day, but gets into a fight he easily wins, and shows he who he is.He plans on leaving the next day to re-join the army, but he is bewitched by Pin Yu (Zhang Jingchu), and won’t leave until he gets her to agree with marry him. She tries to ignore him, and then fights him, and yet he manages to defeat her supposedly un-defeat able style, and agrees to marry him. Just then Cho returns to collect Sintai, and things go bad. It turns out that Pin Yu and Cho were lovers and were split up, and tried to find each other to no avail and the only reason Sintai beat her maneuver was because he taught her to.
In the Present Kai keeps reforming the machine until finally he creates and opens the Sampo, and Berg reviels himself as the 9th demon, as time stops for all humans except him and Kai and Ronja and strangely Weckstrom (who is she supposed to be?). Kai is badly hurt, but is saved by Ronja, who takes him back to Weckstrom’s place, and he knows he must go back and fight the demon.
In the past Sintai goes to fight the demon, but the demon has given him hope that he can be re-incarnated and be with Pin Yu in another life, but only if he keeps the demon alive, so he cuts his head off and puts it in the machine that his father gave him (the one that Kai opened) so the demon will not die and he can be reborn and have another chance with Pin Yu who has been re-incarnated as Ronja. Kai then sets the box onto the back of a wolf and sends it to finland, and kills himself. And Pin Yu and Cho now re-united vow to go and find it and keep it safe as long as they can.
In the Present Kai finally realizes his whole past, and realizes he must name and kill the demon, and live out this one life as his only life.
Ronja leaves him, but he knows this is only the beginning with her.
•••••
Hmm, just left me feeling flat. This could have been much better. It had a lot of potential, but didn’t really live up to it.