This, um, 'tragicomedy' (well, as its described on the box!) well fits the theme of weird, odd concoctions, for which Finnish film appears to rather proportionately excel at!
The more or less auteur effort cum vanity project debut of a Mika Ratto (prior author), as he not only directs it (+much else, like production designer which is good), but is also the main star, in his own written effort (although credited with four others), too, in a sort of sub (Monty) Pythonesque / Terry Gilliam like style, supposedly 'Ninja' (titular samurai, see?) genre entry
Made (incredibly / unbelievably = uskomontonta!) on a shoetstring of (supposedly) just (Euros**)50,000 and apparently on the fly by almost, if not entirely, amateur first-timers, so that what cannot be denied - and is perhaps the only reason (fun?) to add this to your viewing knowledge - is that what comes across is that everyone seems to be having huge fun, throwing themselves into their roles, verging on the melodramatic style of emoting, not least of all, main star Matti, directing himself as titular samurai Repo, grimacing and gurning, all teeth and straggly beard, his way through his character's portrayal right from the opening shot.
What eventually unfolds as a standard story of 'oh, so it was all a dream' / alternative reality / mental abberation ("it's all in his head" = M.R. himself) possibly (or what?) - assuredly entertains along the way with some amusing to even laugh out loud takes on the oriental martial arts genre (slow motion battle encounter, musical chair(s!) training version and hari kiri desptach, especially so): although in the procedure, regrettably, also occasionally marred by surely unnecessary (unquestioned auteur?) misogyny: (one scene denouement in particular of devoted 'Reeta (or 'Blue'?) geisha': see if it stands out like a sore thumb - er, elbow! - to you when watching!)
This is even more so, when you see that it is also populated with many children, who seem to be looking on in some bemused bewilderment much of the time, to the extent that it began to remind me of being rather like them tolerating their odd (if cool?) school drama teacher who had got the go ahead for his pet nonsense project, whilst the adults cavort about making complete asses of themeslves.
Otherwise, if weirdness for weirdness sakes is your interest, this has to be appreciated for even existing as according to the accompanying 'making of', was concocted almost ad hoc to point of many involved e.g boom man / sound engineer (Tuomas Lainla), in particular explaining thought much, e.g. as with the wedding / banqueting hall scene, would merely be wasted, unrescuable, even to the extent that to capture one (magical?) scene (fleeting - wire - skip across a stream) only just narrowly missed major injury (death! According to assistant director / producer and aslo Ninjamaster Hatanpaa in the film, Harri Sippola - he was just pleased they got to the end without any deaths!), and despite that, in truth, just too frequently drifts into apparent senselessness. (To all - the children, lighting, framing etc., - there is one stand out beautiful scene on the 'demon lake' ...)
So, in this viewing vein, yep, this is undoubtedly fun, and despite not quite, really, well, er, good, when you do know of the efforts to get it to the screen, really must be so appreciated (to even exist!) for at least its sheer, um, enthusiasm: so, 'A for effort , um: C for content, auteur teach.'
* check the background 'camera head' (or whatever) in the martial arts encounter scene :-)
N.B. And if you are taken with it all, it's worth catching a latterly compiled short (half hour) 'So that's how Samurai Rauni was born (= Nain syntyi S.R. Reposaarelainen)' which has accompanying, associated extra shots and takes to the film, too. (Although the writer there is just an Eeva Tuomi.)
** Mystifyingly, IMDB cannot cope with the international Euro sign (submission rejected!)
The more or less auteur effort cum vanity project debut of a Mika Ratto (prior author), as he not only directs it (+much else, like production designer which is good), but is also the main star, in his own written effort (although credited with four others), too, in a sort of sub (Monty) Pythonesque / Terry Gilliam like style, supposedly 'Ninja' (titular samurai, see?) genre entry
Made (incredibly / unbelievably = uskomontonta!) on a shoetstring of (supposedly) just (Euros**)50,000 and apparently on the fly by almost, if not entirely, amateur first-timers, so that what cannot be denied - and is perhaps the only reason (fun?) to add this to your viewing knowledge - is that what comes across is that everyone seems to be having huge fun, throwing themselves into their roles, verging on the melodramatic style of emoting, not least of all, main star Matti, directing himself as titular samurai Repo, grimacing and gurning, all teeth and straggly beard, his way through his character's portrayal right from the opening shot.
What eventually unfolds as a standard story of 'oh, so it was all a dream' / alternative reality / mental abberation ("it's all in his head" = M.R. himself) possibly (or what?) - assuredly entertains along the way with some amusing to even laugh out loud takes on the oriental martial arts genre (slow motion battle encounter, musical chair(s!) training version and hari kiri desptach, especially so): although in the procedure, regrettably, also occasionally marred by surely unnecessary (unquestioned auteur?) misogyny: (one scene denouement in particular of devoted 'Reeta (or 'Blue'?) geisha': see if it stands out like a sore thumb - er, elbow! - to you when watching!)
This is even more so, when you see that it is also populated with many children, who seem to be looking on in some bemused bewilderment much of the time, to the extent that it began to remind me of being rather like them tolerating their odd (if cool?) school drama teacher who had got the go ahead for his pet nonsense project, whilst the adults cavort about making complete asses of themeslves.
Otherwise, if weirdness for weirdness sakes is your interest, this has to be appreciated for even existing as according to the accompanying 'making of', was concocted almost ad hoc to point of many involved e.g boom man / sound engineer (Tuomas Lainla), in particular explaining thought much, e.g. as with the wedding / banqueting hall scene, would merely be wasted, unrescuable, even to the extent that to capture one (magical?) scene (fleeting - wire - skip across a stream) only just narrowly missed major injury (death! According to assistant director / producer and aslo Ninjamaster Hatanpaa in the film, Harri Sippola - he was just pleased they got to the end without any deaths!), and despite that, in truth, just too frequently drifts into apparent senselessness. (To all - the children, lighting, framing etc., - there is one stand out beautiful scene on the 'demon lake' ...)
So, in this viewing vein, yep, this is undoubtedly fun, and despite not quite, really, well, er, good, when you do know of the efforts to get it to the screen, really must be so appreciated (to even exist!) for at least its sheer, um, enthusiasm: so, 'A for effort , um: C for content, auteur teach.'
* check the background 'camera head' (or whatever) in the martial arts encounter scene :-)
N.B. And if you are taken with it all, it's worth catching a latterly compiled short (half hour) 'So that's how Samurai Rauni was born (= Nain syntyi S.R. Reposaarelainen)' which has accompanying, associated extra shots and takes to the film, too. (Although the writer there is just an Eeva Tuomi.)
** Mystifyingly, IMDB cannot cope with the international Euro sign (submission rejected!)
