Jade Warrior (film)

Jade Warrior
Film poster for Jade Warrior
Directed by	Antti-Jussi Annila
Produced by	Petri Jokiranta Tero Kaukomaa Jonah Greenberg
Written by	Antti-Jussi Annila Petri Jokiranta Iiro Küttner (story)
Starring	Tommi Eronen Zhang Jingchu Krista Kosonen Markku Peltola
Music by	Samuli Kosminen Kimmo Pohjonen
Editing by	Iikka Hesse
Distributed by	Blind Spot Pictures
Release date(s)	October 13, 2006 October 24, 2006
Running time	110 minutes
Language	Finnish, Mandarin
Budget	€2,7 million
Official website
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Jade Warrior (Finnish: Jadesoturi, Chinese: 玉武士; pinyin: Yù wǔshì) is a Finnish-Chinese co-produced movie. It combines elements of the wuxia genre with Finnish Kalevala mythology. It was directed by Antti-Jussi Annila. The movie opened in Finland on October 13, 2006 with 40 copies. The film debuted at #2, right after The Devil Wears Prada. It opened in China on October 24 with 150 copies in 70 cities. Jade Warrior is the first Finnish movie to be released in movie theaters in China. In addition to China, the movie's international distribution rights have been sold to more than 30 countries.^[1]

Plot

Inspired by a well-known Finnish epic called The Kalevala, the story opens with a down-on-his luck wannabe blacksmith who gets dumped by his girlfriend. She tries to dispose of his collection of Asian artifacts and body carbon at an antique dealer, but this sets off a mythical series of events that hold the girlfriend back. His bodycarbon causes a mythical chest to open and that causes the blacksmith to remember a pastlife where he was a warrior, fated to battle a demon in icy northern Finland, responsible for enslaving all of humankind. The warrior was fated to be rewarded with Nirvana on dying in that lifetime if he killed the demon.The warrior is abetted — and then ultimately disheartened — by a female warrior who has captured his heart.The woman finds her lost lover who is the warriors friend. Thus the warrior uses a magical chest to imprison the deamon and escape Nirvana. He then commits suicide to be reborn as the now wannabe blacksmith, who is being instructed by a now freed demon to build the Sampo a machine that will open the gates to hell.The blacksmith's remembering and the sampo building are transposed to each other. Finally the blacksmith realises what he has done and knows his complete past life and with his lady love now returned to his side he decides to kill the demon. The movie involves enchanted boxes, spectacular sword fights, and supernatural events that come together — simultaneously — in an isolated cabin on the outskirts of Helsinki and in the rural Chinese mountains.

Cast

• Tommi Eronen - Kai/Sintai
• Markku Peltola - Berg
• Krista Kosonen - Ronja
• Zhang Jingchu - Pin Yu
• Elle Kull - Weckström
• Taiseng Cheng - Demoni (as Cheng Taishen)
• Hao Dang - Cho

Reviews

• CineFantastico.com link (Spanish)
• Cinematic Happenings Under Development link (English)
• The Hollywood Reporter link (English)
• Twitch Films link (English)
• Up Against the Wall [1] (English)

Soundtrack

Jade Warrior Soundtrack

According to the Finnish FreeRecordShop website, the soundtrack was released on October 11 2006.

References

1. ^ Aamulehti 10.10.2006, sivu B20

External links

• (Finnish)/(English) Official website
• (English) Jadesoturi at the Internet Movie Database