In late November last year, a statue of Bruce Lee was erected in the Bosnian city of Mostar. One resident said the martial arts’ icon was equally popular on all sides of the conflict in the former Yugoslavia, in other words, a symbol of universal peace. ”We will always be Muslims, Serbs or Croats,” said Veselin Gatalo of the youth group Urban Movement Mostar. “But one thing we all have in common is Bruce Lee.”

In light of such widespread appeal, it should come as no surprise that film director Antti-Jussi Annila, aka A-J Annila has produced the first ever Finnish kung fu flick. After all, he’s been hooked on the genre since he was a boy. In the summer of his tenth year, he viewed a martial arts movie 36 times. That’s enough to traumatize a kid for life. And to sow the seeds of an unconditional passion for kung fu and wu xia pian (a film genre derived from wu xia or Chinese ‘martial-arts chivalry’ literature).

Now 29, Annila has translated his passion to the screen with Jade Warrior (JW, Jadesoturi), a work five years in the making, but one that he’s been preparing for decades. As a youth, he borrowed the family video camera to make his first action-packed films. Later, at the School of Art and Media in Tampere, Finland, he applied his obsession with swordplay, high kicks and flying chops to five short films which he wrote and directed. Entitled Hard Student 1-5, they were shown at several domestic film festivals. His thesis, if you haven’t guessed already, was based on Hong Kong action films.

Since graduating in 2002, Annila has pursued his dream in earnest, working full-time to bring his first feature-length film to fruition. To do so, he sought and won creative and monetary support from film professionals in Finland and China, but also in Estonia and Holland. In this first ever Finland-China co-production, Annila blends Finnish mythology with Chinese martial arts, and he highlights this unusual combination by setting the story in ancient China as well as in modern-day Finland. The RMB 27.5 million (USD 3.4 million) sword and romance film was shot in location in Finland, Estonia and China (in Fangyan, Zheijiang Province, 500 km north-east of Shanghai).

The plot concerns an ancient Chinese warrior, Sintai, (played by Finnish actor Tommi Eronen from Producing Adults) who while battling a Chinese demon (Cheng Taishen from Jia Zhangke’s The World), falls in love with an equally deadly Chinese beauty named Pin Yu (China’s rising starlet Zhang Jingchu from Peacock and Seven Swords). So far, so good. But from this point on, the story becomes rather more complicated. Sintai not only loses his loved one, but also loses track of her. He takes up the quest after being reincarnated as a blacksmith (Kai) in contemporary Finland.

As mentioned above, the storyline stems from Finnish legend, namely the Kalevala, and from the tradition of Chinese martial art films. The Kalevala is a 19th-century Finnish epic poem of 22,795 verses and 50 chapters, wherein rugged Norse warriors pine for battle, as well as the love of a good woman. Needless to point out, this work alone offers the director plenty of melodramatic material. But add to the mix the graceful representations of flying bodies engaged in swordplay and other kung-fu staples and you’ve got something altogether unique.

Last month, Jade Warrior premiered in the Vanguard category at the 31st Toronto International Film Festival. The film has been sold in 20 territories (from Japan to Poland) by France-based Rezo Films International, and will be released by Warner China Film HG Corporation in China this month.

In our interview with Annila, he discusses his love of the martial arts’ genre and its influence on his craft.

that’s: You seem to have spent your youth living in a sort of fantasy world.
Antti-Jussi Annila (AJA): In my childhood, I spent my time in the forest with nothing but a knife as if I were the son of Tarzan. When I was ten, I watched Sam Firstenberg’s Revenge of the Ninja [1983] with Shô Kosugi 36 times in one summer. When I was twelve, I dreamed to someday win the Wimbledon tennis tournament. I still have that dream, though I haven’t played tennis for years.

that’s: What are your favorite Chinese movies?
AJA: There are a lot of them: Tsui Hark’s Once a Upon a Time in China; Liu Chia-liang’s 36th Chamber of Shaolin; Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Eat Drink Man Woman; Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love; and John Woo’s The Killer.

that’s: What attracts you to wu xia pian?
AJA: I love the melodrama and the melancholic portrayal of emotions in wu xia pian, as well as the way emotions are connected with action scenes. In the original kung fu films, the action often feels separated from drama, but in wu xia pian they seem to go hand in hand; feelings and drama are conveyed through physical movements. Wu xia pian also has a lot of fantasy elements, and I love stories that blend emotion and fantasy. This doesn’t happen in real life, yet this film genre offers feelings you can also experience in real life.

that’s: Wu xia pian is a Chinese art form. Is there a Finnish version?
AJA: My inspiration for the story came from the Kalevala, but the idea to set it in ancient China came from my love for Chinese wu xia pian. And I discovered that these two sources of inspiration are really close to each other. The film is a mixture of the two cultures. It is not Chinese or Finnish; it’s a combination of both. JW is a melodramatic love story, with elements of Finnish and Chinese myth, and action scenes inspired by the wu xia pian genre. It is the first of its kind, and I hope it will come across as something different.

that’s: How do you merge wu xia pian and Finnish myth?
AJA: I have been watching kung fu and wu xia films since I was a young boy. Wu xia pian is a form of Chinese action film that visualizes themes such as the way of the warrior, courage, hate and love. Our national epic Kalevala could also be described as such; the men are very skillful warriors in battle but they’re totally incapable in love affairs. Which seems to fit quite well into the wu xia pian world.

that’s: Time travel is another unusual element in the film. Why is JW set in ancient China and present-day Finland?
AJA: The story has elements of reincarnation, so from the beginning, in pre-production, we set the story in ancient times and the present. The connection between ancient China and contemporary Finland is [represented by] an iron chest that travels with our hero [Sintai/Kai]. Kai is a blacksmith stuck in the past and living in seclusion on the edge of an industrialized city. His forge is a gate revealing visions from ancient China, what really happened in the past and whom he can trust in the present. The connection is not only material but also spiritual, because our main character really sees and feels his memories from his past life in ancient China. We tried to make these worlds and times connect in material and spiritual ways, so, no matter how far apart they are, they’d fit into the same story.

that’s: Why did you cast Zhang Jingchu as the character Pin Yu?
AJA: We wanted to find an actress who could be strong and vulnerable at the same time. We didn’t want to cast somebody just based on their name and star-power. At the casting session, Zhang Jingchu stood out amongst other Chinese actresses – all of them were really good. But after the screen test, I was sure she was the one. And I think she was excellent in her performance.

that’s: The warrior Sintai isn’t played by a Chinese actor. Why?
AJA: The story stems from the Kalevala and the main plot happens in Finland, so the lead actor portraying Kai is Finnish (Tommi Eronen). The same actor is also present in the Chinese part of the story as Sintai. Sintai’s father is Chinese but his mother is Finnish; he is a son of two nations. The main character is a fusion of two cultures – like the film itself. Our hero is based on Kalevala’s heroes but has a story of his own. He is not a typical hero from an action film; he’s a man with multiple flaws. He fights against his destiny – like we all do sometimes.

that’s: How did you design the fighting scenes with Chinese action-choreographer Yu Yan-kai?
AJA: We didn’t have any specific movies in mind because we wanted to make our own style, mixing Chinese kung fu and Finnish fighting. Yet, following the tradition of the wu xia genre, [we let] the actors perform the action scenes themselves, which gives their movement authenticity. The action idealizes movement and the beauty of battle rather than violence. We also designed the action choreography to reflect the drama. The fight scenes are not just action, but also narrative elements. They set the pace for the melodramatic story.

The weapons vary from spears to swords, from birch branches to iron fans, from chopsticks to smith hammers. The skills of smiths and warriors aren’t that different after all, and here they finally become one. The ultimate battle between the demon and Sintai/Kai is waged with hammers and anvils. What’s more, all the action sequences have an element of difference. Sometimes the action is like a dance between two lovers; sometimes it’s really brutal between two enemies.

that’s: Are you feeling satisfied now that your dream has become reality?
AJA: JW is a dream come true. To bring together [my] culture with the culture I have come to love has been an adventure. I hope this feeling is conveyed in the film. My [next] humble dream is to someday direct a ninja musical. After that, around year 2029, I hope to have more time to spend on my favorite hobbies: clearing the forest, cutting down trees and working on something really concrete, like a tree house, for example, one similar to Tarzan’s.

(c) that's Shanghai Magazine
Chief editor: Steven Crane
October 2006 issue