The year is 1595, the 25-year war between Sweden and Russia has come to an end and new borders are being marked between Finland and Russia. Two brothers are part of a crew amending map lines who stumble across an unregistered village, deciding the only solution will be to run the new border straight through the village. On the outskirts of this village in swamped woodland a sauna is found, leading to some unnerving events and a bloody finale...
First released in 2008, Evil Rising is the second feature from Finnish director A. J. Annila (Jade Warrior) exploring murder, revenge, sin and redemption through our sibling leads. Knut and Erik couldn't be more different - one is sympathetic and the other is brutally ruthless, having already slain 74 victims, disappointedly recognising: "peace takes away entitlement to murderous acts". The film begins with a gruesome scene showing older bro for what he really is,...
First released in 2008, Evil Rising is the second feature from Finnish director A. J. Annila (Jade Warrior) exploring murder, revenge, sin and redemption through our sibling leads. Knut and Erik couldn't be more different - one is sympathetic and the other is brutally ruthless, having already slain 74 victims, disappointedly recognising: "peace takes away entitlement to murderous acts". The film begins with a gruesome scene showing older bro for what he really is,...
- 7/27/2011
- Shadowlocked
Director: Antti-Jussi Annila. Review: Adam Wing. The name change is a little misleading perhaps, but there’s much to recommend about Antti-Jussi Annila’s slow burning Finnish horror hit. Sauna was released back home in 2008, a striking experience if ever there was one, but not in the way a name like Evil Rising might suggest. Sauna is a haunting, thoughtful, sombre affair that refuses to conform to modern day excess. Not quite what I was expecting from a film called Evil Rising, all it’s really missing is an exclamation mark, then at least we would surely have a candidate for ‘Most redundant film title of the year.’ It’s 1595 and the end of a twenty-five year war between Russia and Finland. Finnish brothers Eerik (Ville Virtanen) and Knut Spore (Tommi Eronen) have been commissioned to meet with Russian soldiers to form a joint commission that marks the new border.
- 7/14/2011
- 24framespersecond.net
Jade Warrior, or Jadesoturi, is not a full-fledged martial arts film. The cover of the DVD may lead you to believe otherwise but I assure you, there are three major fights in the film and a number of smaller scuffles, and none of them would qualify the film as a “cross-cultural martial arts epic.” On the other hand, Jade Warrior, a Chinese-Finnish production budgeted at $3.5 million, is a film that requires and rewards patience. A perplexing, sometimes downright confusing take on two distinct mythologies, the film works best as a Finnish reworking of Chinese Wuxia themes. This is a martial arts art film, far from the high-flying action of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and closest in spirit to the second reel of Jet Li starrer Fearless. As it is, the film is a pleasant surprise, a mature, professional production that rises well above many shoestring, brainless martial arts would-be epics.
- 4/24/2010
- by Mark Zhuravsky
- JustPressPlay.net
I had never really thought about it, but maybe the world does need a good medieval horror film. The unrepentantly brutal and superstitious nature of the era would seem to lend itself to something pretty burly, and the longstanding cult appeal of Army of Darkness would seem to indicate that the popular interest is there. Evidently, the producers of Sauna agreed, and in making this picture, laid the groundwork for that film, for which we should be eternally grateful. It’s not that Sauna isn’t good and spooky, because it is; it simply has the same reasonable amount of clumsiness that one could expect of any filmmaker feeling out an idea. It’s simply more noticeable because you get the distinct feeling that they’re on to something.
In the aftermath of the war between Russia and Sweden (something I was unaware had even happened), brothers Knut (Tommi Eronen...
In the aftermath of the war between Russia and Sweden (something I was unaware had even happened), brothers Knut (Tommi Eronen...
- 10/30/2009
- by Anders Nelson
- JustPressPlay.net
Chicago – Many editions of the DVD Round-Up have featured a different genre and focus for each title within it. This week seems a little more thematically linked as we have a trio of foreign horror films and a few more independent films than usual. Of course, there has to a holiday comedy to spice things up.
Consider this column informational with synopsis, tech specs, and special features info for titles that might go otherwise unnoticed, but if you’re looking for more critical opinion, we covered “Sauna” when it played at the EU Film Fest, “Medicine For Melancholy” when it was available on IFC Direct, and “Nothing Like the Holidays” when it played in theaters.
“P” and “The Tournament” were released on October 20th, 2009
“The Butcher,” “Medicine For Melancholy,” “Nothing Like the Holidays,” and “Sauna” were released on October 27th, 2009
“Nothing Like the Holidays”
Photo credit: Anchor Bay
Synopsis: “John Leguizamo (Ice Age,...
Consider this column informational with synopsis, tech specs, and special features info for titles that might go otherwise unnoticed, but if you’re looking for more critical opinion, we covered “Sauna” when it played at the EU Film Fest, “Medicine For Melancholy” when it was available on IFC Direct, and “Nothing Like the Holidays” when it played in theaters.
“P” and “The Tournament” were released on October 20th, 2009
“The Butcher,” “Medicine For Melancholy,” “Nothing Like the Holidays,” and “Sauna” were released on October 27th, 2009
“Nothing Like the Holidays”
Photo credit: Anchor Bay
Synopsis: “John Leguizamo (Ice Age,...
- 10/30/2009
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
TORONTO -- A millennia-spanning martial arts epic, fusing folk legends from China and (of all places) Finland, Jade Warrior certainly has a curiosity factor going for it as it steps into the swordplay-and-wire-fu arena. The hybrid is less exotic on screen than on paper, though, unspooling in an overserious muddle that won't have broad appeal in the U.S. market, though one can imagine it appealing to Finnish audiences hungry for their own genre blockbuster.
Bouncing between 2000 B.C. and the present day, the story involves three eternally reincarnated characters and the magic box they seek to control. Made by a master blacksmith using way-ahead-of-his-time technology, the box is a machine designed to produce "happiness and welfare" for a whole society. Inexplicably, its maker never turned the thing on.
Instead he entrusted it to Sintai, "the son of the smith," decreeing that it be opened "only when most needed." Four thousand years and a few fairly nasty wars later, things evidently haven't gotten bad enough.
Playing Sintai and his modern counterpart Kai, Tommi Eronen employs a special talent for looking dumbstruck. Kai doesn't know about his past lives, and cares more about reuniting with his girlfriend Ronja than about the fantastic tale a stranger (a junk dealer who came across the artifact and recognized its significance) is telling him.
A good deal of exposition time is given to spelling out a sketchy mythology about an apocalypse-bent patriarch and his brood of sons bearing names like Death and Fear. There's something about a final, unnamed son, hinting at secret identities and revelations to come, but things are confusing enough already. Back in 2000 B.C., Sintai and his comrade at arms are in love with the same woman, and both use the same seduction technique: a hybrid between dance and hand-to-hand combat that may sound sexy but looks pretty silly onscreen.
In between turgid metallurgical metaphors about the shape of the cosmos, Warrior offers some cliched hyper-dramatic standoffs and slow-mo acrobatics. The action isn't nearly sufficient to carry all the mumbo-jumbo, and the cast doesn't have enough charisma to keep the script afloat on their own. Director and co-writer Antti-Jussi Annila sets up a couple of Zhang Yimou-emulating CGI shots -- one where action kicks up a whirlpool of dried leaves, another with Kai pounding on an anvil as glowing embers storm around him -- that try awfully hard but fail to generate an emotional reaction. By the end, it's a little hard to figure out whether the hero got what he wanted or not -- and harder still to care.
JADE WARRIOR (JADE SOTURI)
No U.S. Distributor
Blind Spot Pictures
Credits: '
Director: Antti-Jussi Annila
Writers: Antti-Jussi Annila, Petri Jokiranta, based on the story by Iiro Kuttner
Producers: Petri Jokiranta, Tero Kaukomaa
Executive producers: Peter Loehr, San Fu Maltha, Margus Ounapuu
Director of photography: Henri Blomberg
Production designer: Jukka Uusitalo
Costumes: Anna Vilppunen
Music: Kimmo Pohjonen, Samuli Kosminen
Editor: Iikka Hesse.
Cast: Kai/Sintai: Tommi Eronen
Berg: Markku Peltola
Pin Yu: Zhang Jing-chu
Ronja: Krista Kosonen
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 102 minutes...
Bouncing between 2000 B.C. and the present day, the story involves three eternally reincarnated characters and the magic box they seek to control. Made by a master blacksmith using way-ahead-of-his-time technology, the box is a machine designed to produce "happiness and welfare" for a whole society. Inexplicably, its maker never turned the thing on.
Instead he entrusted it to Sintai, "the son of the smith," decreeing that it be opened "only when most needed." Four thousand years and a few fairly nasty wars later, things evidently haven't gotten bad enough.
Playing Sintai and his modern counterpart Kai, Tommi Eronen employs a special talent for looking dumbstruck. Kai doesn't know about his past lives, and cares more about reuniting with his girlfriend Ronja than about the fantastic tale a stranger (a junk dealer who came across the artifact and recognized its significance) is telling him.
A good deal of exposition time is given to spelling out a sketchy mythology about an apocalypse-bent patriarch and his brood of sons bearing names like Death and Fear. There's something about a final, unnamed son, hinting at secret identities and revelations to come, but things are confusing enough already. Back in 2000 B.C., Sintai and his comrade at arms are in love with the same woman, and both use the same seduction technique: a hybrid between dance and hand-to-hand combat that may sound sexy but looks pretty silly onscreen.
In between turgid metallurgical metaphors about the shape of the cosmos, Warrior offers some cliched hyper-dramatic standoffs and slow-mo acrobatics. The action isn't nearly sufficient to carry all the mumbo-jumbo, and the cast doesn't have enough charisma to keep the script afloat on their own. Director and co-writer Antti-Jussi Annila sets up a couple of Zhang Yimou-emulating CGI shots -- one where action kicks up a whirlpool of dried leaves, another with Kai pounding on an anvil as glowing embers storm around him -- that try awfully hard but fail to generate an emotional reaction. By the end, it's a little hard to figure out whether the hero got what he wanted or not -- and harder still to care.
JADE WARRIOR (JADE SOTURI)
No U.S. Distributor
Blind Spot Pictures
Credits: '
Director: Antti-Jussi Annila
Writers: Antti-Jussi Annila, Petri Jokiranta, based on the story by Iiro Kuttner
Producers: Petri Jokiranta, Tero Kaukomaa
Executive producers: Peter Loehr, San Fu Maltha, Margus Ounapuu
Director of photography: Henri Blomberg
Production designer: Jukka Uusitalo
Costumes: Anna Vilppunen
Music: Kimmo Pohjonen, Samuli Kosminen
Editor: Iikka Hesse.
Cast: Kai/Sintai: Tommi Eronen
Berg: Markku Peltola
Pin Yu: Zhang Jing-chu
Ronja: Krista Kosonen
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 102 minutes...
- 9/15/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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