Seeing trailers and waiting the movie come out, I was thrilled. Finally, it seemed, Finland got it's first major film based somehow on Japanese culture. As a total anime wreck who wouldn't be waiting something as absurd as samurai story located in Finnish archipelago?

And surely it delivered in terms of absurd.

There was little story to follow - if any. There wasn't any character development and if that was somehow to be punished later on, it didn't give viewer enough bone to gnaw. Scenery was nice from time to time, but the lack of proper directing, camera work, editing, screen writing and acting it did not rescue.

If "Seven Samurai" was a huge disappointment, this sure won that race. Would not recommend.

Samurai Rauni Reposaarelainen is a film based on an art performance staged by Finnish artist Mika Rättö, best known for his music projects Kuusumun profeetta, Eleanoora Rosenholm and Circle. He has also written two novels, proving his command of narrative media. This film is his first feature length film.

It tells the story of a samurai living in the middle of nowhere in a small Finnish town. This premise already makes the film inaccessible to a general audience. The story is a classic samurai tragedy in the vein of Kurosawa and Kobayashi, spiced with surreal elements and insider humor about the Finnish boonies. So you can see that it's a bizarre movie.

Filmed on a low budget, the film has some laughably bad special effects scenes, but mostly it is surprisingly competent visually. The shots are composed beautifully, with much emphasis on light and shadow. There is a lot of detail, and most of the draw of the film is in these funny little details that make the world feel rich and alive.

What a wonderful film! It's a breath of fresh air that mixes samurai, exploitation and loads of art house to create a wonderful, weird masterpiece! Please, find this, rent this, buy this and watch this.