The northern tales of Kalevala:
the story of a smith who built a source of happiness,
a machine called the Sampo.
The oldest legends of China:
the story of the last son of the Nocktress
and a demon who seized a machine called the Sampo.
Between the ancient Chinese legends and Finnish tales
there lies a link.
This link was left out of the writings of the Kalevala.
The son of the smith.
The grave in East Karelia where we found him
dates back to the early Bronze Age.
An artifact buried with him
shows an unparalleled level
of metal craftsmanship
previously unseen in human history.
One might suspect it was left behind
by extraterrestrial intelligence,
perhaps a time capsule of some sort.
But the lettering on it was Chinese
from before the first known dynasties.
The writings state that the chest belonged
to the son of a smith,
but he could only open it
in a moment of his greatest despair...
only when all hope is lost.
It's ruined... pathetic.
Kai, this is not the beginning.
This is the end.
"EASTERN KARELIA ... 2000 B.C."
Back off!
Don't touch that animal.
I only wounded it. We'll let it live.
My love?
I want to remain here.
And I will guard the chest with you forever.
In the Kalevala, the mother of young Lemminkäinen
collects her son's bones from the Black River of Death
and attempts to make them come back to life
and tell their story.
We are now facing a similar task.
But the voice we give to the past...
we must make certain
that we listen to it carefully.
SAMPO: BUY, SELL AND EXCHANGE
It's called a Chinese chung... a cart bell.
Have you been here long?
About eight years.
Huh. I'm surprised I never noticed it before.
Olaf Berg,
Kalevala researcher.
Sang fu is a machine, Tibetan in its origin.
Mongols actually call it "Sampo."
According to legend,
it was built as a wedding present, although it broke.
Pieces of it are everywhere.
You gotta admit it's a good name for this antique shop.
Actually it scares clients away.
My colleague Maria...
she's a lady of iron.
I found them in my attic.
They were my boyfriend's.
Kai would have really loved this place, I bet.
That's Kai's hair and nails
and some organic powder.
Smiths use it for tempering.
Carbon keeps iron from rusting.
Your boyfriend's a smith?
I'm moving away.
You keep it.
Fear, Pain, Madness,
Ugliness, Lust,
Hate, Greed and Blindness...
we know the first eight sons of the Nocktress by name.
The last son of the Nocktress has no name.
It is said that the Nameless One
intends to bring hell on earth.
The son of the smith was promised to be released
from the burden of incarnation
if he succeeded in killing the last son of the Nocktress.
The storytellers have long assumed
that the son of the smith slew the demon...
NO SOLICITING
...and was released from earthly joys
and earthly sorrows forever.
How's it going?
Oh, uh, well, pretty well.
That's my things.
That's why I propose a deal:
being that it's yours anyway.
You can have it all back, and I get a couple of clippings
of your hair and nails in exchange.
Say that again.
-She's beautiful. -Who?
I'm talking about your girlfriend... tall and slender.
Reminds me of a girl I once knew.
Had a big crush on her.
How... how is Ronja doing?
She said she was about to move away.
Where?
Where do people usually move to?
I don't know. Away.
Are you a smith?
Uh-huh.
That's quite rare.
Uh-huh.
Did you learn it from your father?
Nah.
He worked as an auto mechanic.
That's interesting.
Not really, no.
What do you know about the Sampo?
It was a mythological cornucopia.
Seppo the smith created it, and according to legend,
only shards were left.
I'm sorry, Kai.
I'm leaving you.
I'm gonna bail. I've got work to do.
Hold on, let's chat a while.
Not today.
But wait, I didn't finish the back.
Okay, what do you say I just use the clippers on it then?
It's fine how it is. Thanks.
Wait, my dear friend.
Dopamine is released in the pituitary gland
Vasopressin hormone in the brain
brings on a sense of belonging together.
Son of the smith.
Sintai.
Did you come to shave my legs?
Kai...
it's possible that the Sampo isn't just a myth.
but a real historical machine
with the sole purpose of producing happiness
and prosperity for people...
out of nothing.
The man who made this chest
claims to have also forged the Sampo.
It reacts to you.
What's inside of it?
Perhaps limitless wealth and energy.
It dates back to early China
before the first dynasty.
According to its writings,
its contents will help the one who opens it.
But it also says it can only be opened by a smith's son...
and only when all... all hope is lost.
I have devoted my whole life to this.
Whatever's inside it...
I have nothing to lose.
Sintai.
Sintai Seng-pu...
son of the smith.
I have found you at last.
Master, you should rest.
I can't sleep, my friend.
You afraid?
No.
That place over there... do you know it?
It's my village.
But do you miss it?
Everyone that I ever loved there died long ago.
Once I decided to leave for Anshun and study at the monastery,
I swore never to return.
Cho,
in a few days I'll be going down
into the Barun Urta swamps to face destiny.
There the demon sits like a sentinel and waits.
There's a chance I will not survive it.
And besides your duties as my aide,
you are my friend as well.
That's why I can ask you
if you might let me
visit where you called home.
They'd never let you go. You know that.
The temple is unguarded because all the monks are here
to protect you and your purity.
I've never shown you this before.
It's my only memory...
only inheritance.
My father told me to keep this safe
and only open this when all hope appears to be lost.
Master.
All I want is to live
one happy day
and a simple night.
All I ask is an ordinary day.
The army marches slowly.
I will catch up before you reach the swamps.
We can't stand by and allow this!
Silence! Silence!
All right, we must send some men into the swamp.
We cannot stand for any more bloodshed.
No no.
You want us just to wait here?
At the dawn of time,
she was called the Nocktress...
the eldest of...
hell's daughters.
She laid down to rest.
The Nocktress thrust nine eggs from her womb...
out of which were born eight sons...
and their names were
Fear, Pain,
Madness, Ugliness,
Lust, Hate,
Greed and Blindness.
The last of the Nocktress's eggs
remained unbroken and unhatched.
And there is where the egg waited.
It waited for the man from the prophesy.
It waited for...
the smith
and for the device
that would help bring hell to this earth.
Nonsense. Mythical lore.
The son of the smith
will rise against the last son of the Nocktress
in battle.
So will he be strong enough
to defeat the demon?
Unfortunately,
that we do not know.
In that case, I ask your permission
to fulfill the prophesy.
Stranger, leave.
You're not welcome.
Let me live one day like an ordinary man.
Then I will ride to the swamps
so that you won't have to.
Words of a Mongol spy.
I have the knowledge and skills of two nations
and a sword with which I shall brand the Nameless One
with its true name.
That name is Death.
You have a sword?
I suggest you use it...
or else...
you should leave.
You have been born again.
What the hell just happened?
You have been born again...
Master Sintai Seng-pu.
You don't believe me?
The chest brought me safely to this time.
What a pity this body couldn't take it.
He is dead now.
Please, Master, attack.
Very well.
Then defend yourself.
This body is so weak...
much like you are just a fragile echo
of what you ought to be.
It's as if the best part of you
didn't show up.
No more.
Ask the right way.
You feel like you've lost something...
something you can't have back
until you've fulfilled your mission.
Stop it!
Here...
for the tempering water your father used...
nectar from six flowers and seven grasses.
Good to see you've returned, dear friend.
Just who are you?
But I opened it.
The force inside you is what opened it.
You are the son of Seng-pu, the smith.
What am I supposed to do?
Forge me the Sampo.
It's the secret source of all happiness.
I'm not much of a smith.
In fact I suck.
There's a force
that lies somewhere deep within your mind.
Your father had it just like you...
and then his loved one returned.
Wha... what do you mean, "force"?
You just stabbed me.
Yep yep.
Listen...
I'm gonna die.
Iron wanted to join with fire
and got burned instead.
It made it to the swamps.
In the swamps is where it remained for years.
In fact, it was so long that iron forgot why it was born...
until a wolf ran across the swamp
and the earth was moved in its tracks.
Up to those tracks, iron rose.
And that's where your father found it.
Now you know the birth of iron...
but it knows nothing about you.
Tell iron who you are.
My name's...
Kai Pelkonen.
Where were you born?
A hospital, like everyone else.
When did you decide to take this path?
When I met Ronja.
She needed a lock. I lied and said I was a locksmith.
The lock came out lousy, so I practiced...
over and over...
till it wasn't a lie.
Turns out Ronja knew I wasn't a real smith.
Ronja made me into the smith that I am today.
And the smith that you are yet to be.
Iron trusts you now.
You're not going to die.
You have been born again.
I imagine this forge in my head.
I see it constantly.
I knew that you had come.
Who are you?
I'm your hope.
Forge me the Sampo...
and I promise you this:
your love will return to you soon.
Are you still open?
Did you come to get your boyfriend's things back?
No.
I came by accident.
I don't want to live surrounded by all the memories of our story.
That's sad.
No, not sad...
rational.
Of all the epics I've studied,
see that book over there? It's certainly the saddest.
The same story over and over again.
No one gets the one they love.
My Kalevala will be different.
It's a love story with a happy ending.
I don't really care for those things.
Love is actually from our reptilian brain, you know?
Mostly irrational.
Our serotonin drops to a level of neuroses actually.
Someone experiencing that should feel depression,
but a person in love only sees the one they adore.
And it works like a drug.
But when the drug wears off...
the body can no longer imagine itself without the other person.
So they gave this dependency a name:
it's called love.
You can put that into your Kalevala.
It's an eternal love story...
when love stories still existed.
We don't get to experience anything like that anymore.
What are you doing?
Iron has been forged into its form, but it still has to accept itself.
It can't get too hot too fast or the work will be ruined.
My name is Sintai Seng-pu.
I'm the one who shall kill
the last son of the Nocktress.
Not now. He's had enough.
My grandfather will talk to you all another time.
Won't you tell me your name?
I'm Pin Yu,
granddaughter of the village elder.
Who are you?
I am Sintai,
son of Seng-pu, the smith.
You don't look like you are the son of Seng-pu.
My mother came from a faraway land much farther north.
My parents are dead.
Therefore...
I am alone.
Is there something more?
I'm not sure how to say it.
Thus I wander
Oh, poor boy
Out to thee
And out to thee
Should I live
In a land of fire?
Should I lock the
Gates in silence?
A weapon you use?
No, just songs from my mother's old country.
Lovely.
Genuinely lovely.
When are you planning to set out for the swamps?
You were supposed to leave yesterday.
People are fleeing.
They have a right
to be scared.
I am waiting for a sign.
I sense that this is not
the cause for the delay
in your departing for the swamps.
You're right.
Before I saw you, I feared nothing,
not even death.
But now I've begun to feel a sense of fear.
I fear that I shall defeat the demon
and be rewarded with what the prophesy has promised me,
which means I will not be born again.
I do not wish to leave the earthly joys
and its sorrows behind until...
I have savored them...
with you.
I don't know you, yet I am to be yours...
because only you can save our village.
I only ask of you that...
If it's that I go with you to kill the demon,
I'll oblige that.
That's not it.
Tell me, haven't you ever been in love before?
I ask you for a motive, an incentive to return.
I have to leave now.
We may not...
be together again.
I know.
Do you still love me?
Yes, I do.
Was it always me?
I'll answer you after...
Sintai.
Who were you speaking to?
To myself.
It's nice.
It's not the Sampo.
Did you send him to me?
Has faith bound us together?
What are you doing back here anyway?
Who is that?
Seppo, the smith's son...
the saddest hero of the Kalevala.
This means your answer is no?
You were with the monks too long.
You don't understand women.
You are one of the finest men I have ever known,
willing to defend us.
I await your return.
I shall take you away,
far away from here...
to my mother's homeland...
my love.
It looks like he was hugging someone.
Or something.
He was holding a chest.
The chest kept the body from floating up.
Buried with him was a wolf's skull...
and a woman.
Both were badly decomposed.
They were together...
like lovers?
Perhaps. But there's no way to prove it.
Cho.
What happened, Cho?
We waited, Master.
You weren't at the swamp.
We can't keep this up much longer.
I journeyed here...
to bring this back to you.
Master Sintai,
shouldn't the wedding wait till later?
Don't you agree?
Wedding?
Cho.
This is my fiancée.
This is Cho, my aide and a good friend as well.
The battle has started.
Sintai, I...
I shall return to you.
I'll be the happiest man who has ever walked the Earth.
Not yet.
This was my grandmother's.
She said it would make my wishes come true.
I want you to take it.
I know it'll protect you.
You let iron hurt you again.
No more stages, Master.
Iron doesn't trust me anymore.
I have a feeling this doesn't end well.
Something very bad has happened.
I know what it's like to live alone.
Many fates worse than death, trust me.
Perhaps the worst could be to lose your reason to live...
and have to live without it.
Does he look familiar?
What?
An accident's not what brought you.
Do you believe in incarnation?
Whatever you say to it, be honest.
Listen to me.
Please!
Help me.
I don't know who I am.
I don't know what is happening to me any longer.
Hope is all I have... all that keeps me alive.
I am stuck in this one lonely instant.
It feels like death.
I have no one...
and only one thought in my head...
I don't want to be alone any longer.
It's beautiful...
the secret source of all happiness.
What do you think it'll do?
You forged it.
Only you know what brings you joy. Isn't that right?
Sintai.
Kai?
I have waited for you 100 years.
I won't let you wait in vain.
You can imagine my disappointment...
after I had stolen this machine from the humans
and finished all the preparations,
when I realized your father had forged it
so that only his son can set the Sampo in motion.
I shall never start the Sampo...
and certainly not for you.
We were left in this world together.
We were destined to meet one day.
Face it: no one can compare to us...
no one in this time.
We have to stand together as one, you and I...
rather than fight as adversaries.
Fate...
has bound you to me...
and no one else.
If you kill me
you will become enlightened
and your soul will leave this world forever.
Not until...
after this solitary life of mine.
Wait, my friend.
It's okay.
Where are we?
At the antique shop.
Come.
We're the only ones who aren't affected by this.
Looks like a burnt ham.
It's thousands of years old.
I don't know what you've done.
I don't even want to know.
I was leaving town...
but something kept bringing me back here.
I must return there again
so that I'll know what is wrong with me.
I believe that.
You must go.
I somehow feel I should give this to you.
"I will come back to you.
And I will be the happiest man who has ever walked the Earth."
What does it mean?
Fate will inevitably catch up with those who run away from it.
It all starts at the beginning.
Berg...
say something.
Berg.
Master...
I have waited thousands of years for this...
for us to meet as equals.
The Nocktress's name was "Son."
There is nothing more I need from you.
You have unlocked the Sampo.
And you've made it your own.
Most of the credit goes to you though.
This is your creation...
a world where no one has to live alone with their pain for very long.
You see,
all I did was to help you release it...
from inside your head.
That's hell.
Is it fair that the only one suffering should be you?
You are not the one she waits for.
You will live this...
one solitary life of yours alone.
Pin Yu's soul, however,
will be reborn here
over and over again.
And in each and every one of her lives to come,
that harlot will fall in love with somebody.
Not one of them, unfortunately,
will be you.
Fear, Pain,
Madness, Lust,
Greed, Ugliness,
Blindness,
Hate...
and...
Attack now, Master.
I can't wait for you to see the world
the Sampo spits out of its bowels.
I know you're not dead yet.
I was starting to think those stupid monks
hadn't taught you a thing.
You set a seed... bad seed... in my heart...
a seed of doubt.
Now...
I have to give you your rightful name.
I bet you're asking yourself why...
why you didn't kill me when you had the chance.
For as long as I am, you are too.
My beloved friend,
here I am: the one with whom you belong.
A band of shepherds rescued me.
They took me to their winter camp.
I was very sick.
I almost died.
They told me no one survived.
Still I waited over a year for you.
I returned as soon as I could travel.
I couldn't find you.
Everyone thought...
you had taken your own life.
I had to get away.
I went to the holy mountain of Anshun to think.
I regret that I didn't kill myself.
Please don't say that.
I waited for you the whole time...
until Master Sintai arrived.
He warded off the Strike of Concealed Serenity.
It was ours. Nobody could know that.
I was the one who taught it to him.
Could faith be teasing me?
But I didn't tell him...
where it will lead two lovers.
The Strike of Concealed Serenity.
You have the power to change the prophesy and the right--
Be quiet.
My father told me that I should wait
and only open this when all hope...
is gone forever.
What's kept in there?
It's empty.
The deceit of your loved ones
has already sent you to hell.
Is it truly fair that you have to suffer there
all alone?
We shall open the Sampo,
you and I,
forever united.
I want another chance... Pin Yu and me.
To get that, I would sacrifice all honor.
I can't let you die.
Fear...
Pain...
Madness...
Greed...
Ugliness...
Lust...
Blindness...
Hate...
and...
and Hope.
This wasn't in the prophesies!
Let me be!
That kind of oath should never be sworn alone.
It becomes a curse.
What are you saying?
You are my error.
But I'll give you your rightful name.
You two will never have each other.
You will not be born again.
I know.
I am sorry...
but I have to go.
No, please.
Don't leave.
So I name you Farewell.
I name you Ended.
And I name you my friend.
Take this to the north, dear brave friend...
far to the north where no man can live.
No man must ever find this,
least of all me.
Pin Yu...
I swear...
if my love is sincere,
you shall see.
Trust me.
I will search through the ages
and I'll find you.
Ronja...
this is not the end.
This is the beginning.
It was your wolf.
It carries the chest of your father.
If you need it again anywhere...
then I'll be sure to find it and bring it to you.
I will hunt that wolf...
to the ends of the earth.
And I will guard that chest with you...
forever.