Jade Warrior

So, yesterday, I decided to watch the much-delayed (in my case) Jade Warrior. At first I thought it was like the stereotypical Chinese/Japanese martial arts films that come through the United States on a whirlwind of English subtitles, but it proved to be more than I expected, in a good way. Jade Warrior tells a story of the Kalevala, an epic poem made from years of storytelling, where Sintai Seng-pu, the son of the smith Seppo, has to face a demon in order to create happiness for the world. This movie starts out with the incarnation of Sintai in a blacksmith named Kai Pelkonen who has just been dumped by his girlfriend Ronja. She trades in his belongings at an antique shop, and one of them triggers a mysterious metal box covered in runes to partially open. The man who runs the store, Berg, travels to Kai's hut to get him to fully open the box, and a demon takes over Berg and orders Kai to build the Sampo, a mythical box that could return hope and happiness to the world. Kai complies reluctantly and slowly remembers his past life as Sintai, a half-Finnish, half-Chinese warrior destined to defeat a demon. Unfortunately, Sintai falls in love before meeting the demon and discovers that she loves someone else. It's a very tragic movie (like the story), and it was a far cry from the martial arts film I expected, but I really loved the plotline and characters. I found it interesting how Sintai's fate is intertwined with the demon's, and how he constantly reminds Sintai of it. Also, the special effects were pretty neat. They weren't as good as other movies I've seen, but they were definitely better than those of the SyFy channel's latest movie productions. I really hope they make a second movie to follow the storyline, since the ending had the potential to continue.