I was fortunate to catch this movie at the Toronto International FIlm Festival. It was a well made movie with some beautiful scenes.

A few elements that I really enjoyed: 1. The romantic expression in the eyes was well captured without being overblown. You understood exactly what was going on, without having to read the subtitles.

2. I loved the treatment of the combat scenes. Particularly the use of dust and dry leaves and the sound that accompanied.

3. There was enough mystery and non-explanation that you didn't feel like the plot was force fed to you.

4. The cross-time, fantasy+mythology+ a little bit of philosophy(?) was fun/unique.

Oh and I love how the hero was not perfect...and he wanted love more than glory.

Overall, just a pleasure to watch. Not a perfect movie but a good one.

It is so hard to rate movies, but approx: 7.5/10

I heard about this movie over a year before its release, and followed the progress of the project with mild curiosity throughout the production. When it finally premiered, I expected to see a campy martial arts film with tongue-in-cheek action sequences, and a feeble plot. What I got was the opposite; the movie turned out to be much less of a Kung Fu film than it was cracked up to be, but I was pleasantly surprised with the plot and the character development. Thus, I left the theatre with mixed feelings, though my general opinion of the movie was more on the positive side.

The first third of the film is rather... odd. It opens with a stunning scene set in ancient Finland, but when the story shifts into modern times, it temporarily loses its touch. The plot is dragging, and characters are introduced in a way that leaves the viewer confused about who they are, what they want, and what has happened to them prior to point where the story picks up with them. I suppose it's the director's fault that half of the time everything the characters do feels irrational and pointless. However, when the plot line set in ancient China kicks off, the quality of the movie immediately improves. The parallel stories support each other, the main character gets more depth, and the pace of the story becomes steadier. By the end of the movie, the two plot lines have neatly entwined into a coherent whole, providing the story a beautiful finale in perfect contrast to the messy beginning. In the end, the plot manages to even out its flaws, though only scarcely.

What I particularly liked about Jadesoturi was the delightfully original plot. Generally speaking, the plots of Kung Fu movies aren't exactly epitomes of originality and great character development, and I expected that the makers of the first and only Finnish Kung Fu movie ever wouldn't even need to bother themselves with a proper script as long as the action scenes work. That's why I was surprised that not only did Jadesoturi manage to tell a tremendously humane story about a man's fear and desperation when facing the inevitable, it also provided believable character development and an unexpected twist ending. And all free of the typical Hollywood clichés! The hero isn't your average sword-shielding action god, but a lonely, insecure man with a painful desire to love and be loved, who consciously disregards the greater good in order to pursue personal happiness. Even his name is an apt pun - Kai meaning "perhaps", and the 'pelko' part of his surname Pelkonen meaning "fear". His inner conflict is the heart of the movie, and the one thing that sets this movie apart from all the rest.

In addition to the good plot, the movie contains lots of beautiful imagery, like the shots of Kai's rundown workshop, and the secluded Chinese village. The action sequences are quite stunning, though more artistic than realistic. I also liked most of the actors. These are the reasons why I personally enjoyed the film enough to be able to forgive the movie for its flaws - such as the weak beginning, the pointless subplot including Ronja and Berg's co-worker, and the Worst Evil Scheme Thought Up By A Villain Ever (seriously, am I the only one why is still confused about what the demon was trying to achieve with his cunning plan in the first place?). Jadesoturi has also been criticized for the lack of Kung Fu scenes, which are limited to the minimum. I personally think the problem isn't the lack of martial arts itself, but the fact that it was marketed as a Kung Fu movie even though the emphasis was on the drama, not on the action. It's more of a fantasy/drama film with Kung Fu elements, rather than the reverse.

My opinion? Jadesoturi is an interesting movie, but not an outstanding one. It has plenty of flaws, but also an original story to tell.

Although it's obvious that Jadesoturi is a modern fantasy-- everyone suffers some interference from their "cultural memory". So audiences with fewer preconceptions about the Kalevala or wuxia will probably get into Jadesoturi more easily-- provided they pay close attention to the first 15-20 minutes of exposition (INSTEAD of any preconceptions they have). I watched Jadesoturi again after reading some (unrelated) comics and it suddenly "worked" for me: the basic "historical" premise is really simple--

4000 years ago, some Finnish-speaking tribes/ civilizations made contact with some Mandarin-speaking ones-- which explains why 1) Sintai looks caucasian and speaks Mandarin (mother-Finnish, father-Mandarin),and 2) Pin Yu knows Sintai's father and speaks a little (bad) Finnish. Just don't ask why they spoke modern Finnish/ Mandarin 4000 years ago and exactly where in Eurasia it all happened-- it's NOT a documentary.

But although I noticed more meaningful details the 2nd time round (e.g someone biting his fingernails...),I still didn't get some of the "mumbo-jumbo" (Iron? Fire?)-- could be the subtitles, or maybe Jadesoturi is just too subtle and foreign to me. And while the whole film was shot beautifully, many big "moments" were hinted at rather than shown-- with some of the "best" ones already in the trailer. So 2 things must be "accepted" in order to enjoy Jadesoturi: 1) it's a derivative genre film, 2) with a relatively small budget.

*SPOILERS*

Now the specifics: LIKED the way it paid "tribute" to all those wuxia-fantasy genre-- it's tough coming up with interesting spins on the wuxia clichés like martial chopsticks, flapping cloaks, exotic weapons, etc (there are at least 5-10 more). It's amazing that this film sometimes felt like a Kalevala-inspired Chinese fantasy, instead of vice-versa.... NOT to be confused with Tarantino's kung-fu "spoofs".

LOVED the Chinese dialogue: directly translating the Finnish script to colloquial Mandarin (with terms like "beloved") avoided the sometimes awkward mimicking of "pseudo-classical" speech in Chinese wuxia/ historical films. And the understated, "world-weary" style of delivery allowed the lines to carry themselves, which added nicely to the sense of desperation pervading the film. The Finnish actors spoke good Mandarin (i.e. comprehensible),though the pronuniciation inevitably slips in the longer or quicker phrases.

LOVED Zhang Jingchu's and Markku Peltola's performances: they were amazingly "spot-on" in all their fighting and speaking scenes-- despite the "fuzzy" premise, they were completely focused and knew exactly what they needed to do in each shot. But unfortunately, Tommi Eronen & most other actors were mostly "required" to look hurt or bewildered. Especially Tommi Eronen-- I think he needs more focus and ACTING in the fight scenes.

LIKED the fight choreography: where the director tries to balance the "flow" of the stunts with the actors' "reaction shots" in order to capture the MOTIVATIONS-- which made the fight where Pin Yu tests Sintai (but gets "teased" by him) really "interesting". But the "flow" of the final fight was too broken up by talking and flashbacks (more wuxia clichés) for me-- unlike the earlier fights where people were just "testing" each other, this show-down/ climax can do with tighter pacing/ editing.

LIKED the film overall: for me, Jadesoturi was an interesting fantasy film that was worth more than one look-- but it uses so many "symbols" that everyone will probably see it differently. However, the "serious" archaeological approach is definitely NOT the way to look at the film. (E.g. the ancient Chinese "seal script" used in the film is 3000 years old max, not 4000-- a "trivia" or "goof"?)

Ultimately, perhaps the greatest praise AND complaint of Jadesoturi is that it left the audience expecting more-- I mean, who didn't want to see Pin Yu kick some more butt with that cool weapon of hers and those cool moves! Alas-- the only real wuxia (warrior) in Jadesoturi is Pin Yu, who had to "struggle with self-sacrifice for the greater good".

P.S. Regarding the last comment by tirkkanen-- Jadesoturi is definitely a cut above the sloppier kung-fu B-movies, but nobody should be making THAT kind of comparisons, right? And without meaning any offence, film-editing is "snappier" in Asia for the simple reason that Asians have become more used to "following" kung-fu moves-- it's a (film) culture thing, like the impossible metallurgy, biology, physics, etc..