Jade Warrior is one of the finest Finnish films to have been released in recent years. Finnish films on the whole suffer from indifferent acting, boring stories and the fact their genres are limited to comedies, dramas and period pieces. An experimental film which combines the film making styles of the East and West while taking advantage of the typical weaknesses of Finnish films and turning them into strengths.
The story which has its basis in Kalevala works as a basic setup and essentially gives a film a nice fantasy-element to it. Though the film only really focuses on one aspect of Kalevala it would be perhaps unnecessary to probe the whole epic for one film with a pretty intimate storyline.
The visual-effects and fight-choreography enhance the film's look which is complemented with the audio-design which is by far one of the most competent in any Finnish film. A typically weak aspect of serious Finnish film, stiff dialogue scenes, add to the film with their inherent comedy value and thankfully the small cast of Finnish actors provide with enough mood to allow you to neglect the complete lack of moving character performances. The only weakness this movie suffers from is one faced by many Wuxia films: at times the film feels a little too still.
However, as an over-all achievement a great Kung Fu film.
The story which has its basis in Kalevala works as a basic setup and essentially gives a film a nice fantasy-element to it. Though the film only really focuses on one aspect of Kalevala it would be perhaps unnecessary to probe the whole epic for one film with a pretty intimate storyline.
The visual-effects and fight-choreography enhance the film's look which is complemented with the audio-design which is by far one of the most competent in any Finnish film. A typically weak aspect of serious Finnish film, stiff dialogue scenes, add to the film with their inherent comedy value and thankfully the small cast of Finnish actors provide with enough mood to allow you to neglect the complete lack of moving character performances. The only weakness this movie suffers from is one faced by many Wuxia films: at times the film feels a little too still.
However, as an over-all achievement a great Kung Fu film.