This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
Old Enemies
Plot Overview
Finland shares 800 miles of border
with Mother Russia and was once under their dominion. As an
aftermath of WWII
Russia annexed Karelia, a region of Finland, displacing its
population. Ex Finnish commando Aatami Korpi (Jorma Tommila,)
whom we met in the earlier “Sisu,” has returned (with his dog) to
dismantle his family home—it holds some happy memories for
him—and transport it to the redefined Finland. The
Russians, however, want to exact revenge for the heavy damage
he did them over a gold claim dispute. They offer a deal to war criminal
Yeagor Dragunov (Stephen Lang) to make it happen. Aatami leads Yeagor's
merry men on a chase through roads, fields, sky, lake and rail living up
to his indestructible reputation and then some.
about a village that hired a snake to kill a troublesome jackal that ate babies and stole treasure and kept everyone awake at night with its cackling. The snake spread its jaws wide and ate the jackal whole, and for many minutes its wriggling form could be seen surging its way down the snake's throat and distending its belly, where it at last went still. The snake then curled up and slept in the village square and digested the jackal and around it the villagers danced for many days in celebration and eventually their stomping feet and jangly music woke the snake, which turned to them to satisfy its renewed hunger. In this way one beast replaced another. (198)
The Nazis were a nasty bunch defeated by Finland's ally Russia. Aatami returned rejoicing to find his house still standing, but he came to Russia's attention when he'd entered their territory. They sent an envoy after him to settle the score from a previous dustup, one beast replacing another.
Ideology
The title Sisu is an untranslatable
Finnish word meaning courage & determination. For the
purposes of this movie review it allegorically corresponds to the
grit it takes to be a disciple of Christ migrating from the world
to a heavenly kingdom. Along the lines of:
(Luke 14:25-33) And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them, ‘If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, saying, “This man began to build, and was not able to finish”. Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace. So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.’
The house in this allegory consists of marked boards representing portions of scripture to be built upon as in, (Isaiah 28:9-10) “Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little.”
(Ephesians 6:17) “The sword of the
Spirit, which is the word of God” is represented by a knife
Aatami internalizes after first stripping it down to a naked blade.
It is as granted by the personage Agur in (Prov. 30:5-6) “Every word of God
is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Add
thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a
liar.” In modern application we'd want to avoid
dynamic—idea for idea—translations such as the New International Version and even be leery of formal
equivalence—word for word—translations as they try
to dumb down the wording for their target readers and must avoid
duplicating the right words so they can acquire copyrights. In
these respects it's good to stick with the reliable King James Version.
Yeagor tells of a child victim of his who “pulled a knife out of thin air.” As that is also what Aatami does we might as well look at a child reference on the subject of the dark sayings of the wise: (Eccl. 4:13-14) “Better is a poor and a wise child than an old and foolish king, who will no more be admonished. For out of prison he cometh to reign; whereas also he that is born in his kingdom becometh poor.” The “poor and a wise child” is early English wording that has fallen into poverty of usage but is intrinsically wise while the “foolish king” is a dominate modern Bible version that has foolish renderings. The latter “will no more be admonished” as it's routinely quoted from without any examination. “For out of prison he cometh to reign” refers to the relative substandard speech convicts acquire, which is what common speech in a Bible sounds like compared to the elevated speech of the KJV dialect. As George P. Marsh put it in an 1859 postgraduate lecture on the English Bible, (448–9):
the English Bible sustains, and always has sustained to the general English tongue, the position of a treatise upon a special knowledge requiring, like any branch of science, a special nomenclature and phraseology. The language of the law, for example, in both vocabulary and structure, differs widely from that of unprofessional life; the language of medicine, of metaphysics, of astronomy, of chemistry, of mechanical art, all these have their appropriate idioms, very diverse from the speech which is the common heritage of all. Why, then, should theology, the highest of knowledges, alone be required to file her tongue to the vulgar utterance, when every other human interest has its own appropriate expression, which no man thinks of conforming to a standard that, because it is too common, can hardly be other than unclean?
“He that is born in his kingdom becometh poor” refers only to the customary diminishing of king's English word usage over time. There's not some angel culling faulty words from our language, they just fade out and we have to get used to it, and work on our vocabulary. In a postgraduate lecture “The English Bible” given by George P. Marsh in 1859 when all they had of English Bible translations was the Authorized King James Version (KJV), the professor recommended no other English translation be made. The KJV is the English Bible, all the others having come along later contrary to academic advice.
Production Values
“” (2025) was written and directed by Jalmari Helander, being a sequel to the original “Sisu,” 2022. It stars Jorma Tommila, Stephen Lang and Richard Brake. Lang's bad guy character is a worthy match to the main good [?] guy played by Tommila who does just fine without saying a word.
It's rated R for bloody violence, gore and language. It was filmed on location in Estonia. The special effects worked well. It has a running time of 1½ hours.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
This one would be a video gamer's delight. It has a bare bones plot fleshed out by “cunning” action that doesn't let up. It touts family values inasmuch as a deceased family is what motivates the protagonist. Ultimately, “I couldn't live like that” about sums it up.
Movie Ratings
Action factor: Edge of your seat action-packed. Suitability For Children: Not Suitable for Children of Any Age. Special effects: Amazing special effects. Video Occasion: Fit For a Friday Evening. Suspense: Keeps you on the edge of your seat. Overall movie rating: Four stars out of five.
Works Cited
Scripture quotations were from the King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev. 1769. Software, print.
Marsh, George P. “Formation
of our English sacred dialect.”
Lectures on the English
Language. London: John Murray, 1863. Print.
——available to
read or download at www.bibles.n7nz.org.
Percy, Benjamin. Red Moon. Copyright © 2013 by Benjamin Percy. New York: Grand Central Publishing, First Edition: May 2013. Print.
bibles.n7nz.org