Norwegian Ninja > Share Your Norwegian Ninja Sightings & Encounters > Arne Treholt sighted in my DVD player!!! by: Kalle Max Hofmann
Finally I got the Norwegian Ninja DVD and it went into my player that same evening.
Well I'd like to put up a review of the film, but it's not so easy ;P
I have the impression that the film is most enjoyable for Norwegians who know the whole story of Arne Treholt and the other incidents that are portrayed in the movie, like the oil rig disaster (I think?).
To me the whole introduction was a bit long, I think the first real bit of dialogue came on after 10 minutes or so... and the use of "documentation-style" somehow wasn't my cup of tea. There were also things I downright didn't "get", maybe the subtitles were inaccurate or I'm just too stupid...
(spoilers ahead:)
For example, why does Otto hide in a swarm of fish and then fire a bunch of missiles at his own location? And how did the cameraman die and what was the significance of the apprentice leaving his post at the bomb in this...?
Anyway, I don't want to sound overly critical, just pointing out that the film wasn't an "easy watch" for me. Still it was enjoyable and it looked pretty good most of the time, I especially liked the parts on the island. The animal scenes were great (how did you do those btw?) as were the paraglider and submarine sequences.
Story-wise, I really loved the film's topic of enlightment and the phenomenon of becoming enlightened through paradoxes. This stuff was implemented very well in the writing and visually, so being some kind of Zen-guy myself, I really enjoyed that quite a lot :D
I also think the obvious model work and UV light "computer displays" were brilliantly done, but from my own experience with Snowblind, I know this doesnt work for everyone... especially DUMB people have probably already slammed you for "cheap-looking effects" hehhe ^_^
So while I'm at comparing stuff, I have to say (before this all comes out entirely wrong) that NN has very good production value and is of course much better looking and sounding than Snowblind, and is also much more of a "real movie". I'm just trying to express my experience with NN as a normal dvd-watching average joe ;D
All in all definitely tumbs-up for Norwegian Ninja, as I hinted for my taste the emphasis could have been more on "Ninja" than "Norwegian political history", but then again the whole film would probably be pointless and have never gotten made ^_^
I'm really looking forward to your next endeavour and will try to help, and again I can only urge all Wreckers to buy the Norwegian Ninja DVD at play.com (see below) so they hopefully order another shipment soon :D
602 days ago | 1 Thumb-up
Thanks for that thorough review Kalle Max!
All critical points you raise are quite fine. We've had reviews ranging from the very bottom to the very top, and are acutely aware that the film is not a 100% mindblowing experience for all audiences :)
The film indeed has both a slow build-up and I agree that you'll get even more out of it with some added Norwegian context.
(SPOILERS BELOW)
Nice to see that you picked up on the Zen. Commander Treholt of course appropriated this into his teachings, including making some local twists to well known Koan.
To answer your question about animal scenes - a lot of them were done in one location, a nature park with huge spaces for the animals to move around in, and in co-operation with the animal keepers we shot inside the fences in the environments of the animals. The ninja in the wolf scenes (and some other shots) was one of these keepers. Awesome guy, btw. The penguins were filmed in a different, aquatic park in Bergen (the reverse shots elsewhere), and we also brought some of the "easier" animals like sheep and rabbits to the camp location. The trick was of course to plan this out, and make sure the natural environments matched somewhat.
About the other plot questions, your interpretetations are as good as mine, but here are some theories:
a) Otto knows how to target missiles, so he was never in danger
b) the cameraman was killed by a huge chain, loosened by the explosion (there's a shot of this, but it's quite short)
c) two things: Treholt would have caught Otto in time to stop the bomb if not the apprentice had intervened AND Treholt needed to have his apprentice feel immense guilt, so he would accept his final mission much easier. It was all part of the plan - or at the very least - the situation gave the commander an opportunity to further manipulate his apprentice.
Have you tried a second viewing, btw? We put references and gags into the movie that you most likely won't discover until you see it multiple times, and can steer your attention beyond the plot and action in the foreground. There are many visual and auditive "echoes" going on, costume details, special props etc.
Anyway, this is getting long.
Thanks again for your thoughts after seeing the movie!
Norwegian Ninja > Share Your Norwegian Ninja Sightings & Encounters > Ninja sighted in my bathroom mirror! http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2110/4506402723_2dcaf6af5a.jpg
**WE WOULD LIKE YOU TO SHARE AND CONTRIBUTE**
- all Norwegian Ninja observations, encounters and sightings with us!
If you see the poster, read an article, news item, review or find blurbs
about it anywhere..
PLEASE SHARE YOUR FINDINGS WITH US AND POST THEM HERE!
As producer Eric Vogel phrased it in the blog-entry for the teaser poster reveal:
"If any of you spot the teaser in the wild, let us know when and where
in the comments! Even better: snap a picture so we can see how it “plays”
in the real world. Best of all: if you don’t see it displayed
at your local (Norwegian) cinema – demand it!"
http://ninjatroppen.montages.no/2010/04/teaser-poster/
..and remember! Idle hands do the devil's work!
So get busy and get on it right away! ;D
**Looking forward to seeing all your contributions!**
Cheers!
'Fakenham
632 days ago | 6 Comments | 3 Thumb-ups
As I looked into the older Norwegian Ninja tasks, I found David Jansson's post of Verne Reid's "t-shirt to ninja costume" instructions...
Norwegian Ninja > Share Your Norwegian Ninja Sightings & Encounters > Arne Treholt sighted in my DVD player!!! http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2110/4506402723_2dcaf6af5a.jpg
**WE WOULD LIKE YOU TO SHARE AND CONTRIBUTE**
- all Norwegian Ninja observations, encounters and sightings with us!
If you see the poster, read an article, news item, review or find blurbs
about it anywhere..
PLEASE SHARE YOUR FINDINGS WITH US AND POST THEM HERE!
As producer Eric Vogel phrased it in the blog-entry for the teaser poster reveal:
"If any of you spot the teaser in the wild, let us know when and where
in the comments! Even better: snap a picture so we can see how it “plays”
in the real world. Best of all: if you don’t see it displayed
at your local (Norwegian) cinema – demand it!"
http://ninjatroppen.montages.no/2010/04/teaser-poster/
..and remember! Idle hands do the devil's work!
So get busy and get on it right away! ;D
**Looking forward to seeing all your contributions!**
Cheers!
'Fakenham
633 days ago | 2 Comments | 1 Thumb-up
Finally I got the Norwegian Ninja DVD and it went into my player that same evening.
Well I'd like to put up a review of the film, but it's not so easy ;P
I have the impression that the film is most enjoyable for Norwegians who know the whole story of Arne Treholt and the other incidents that are portrayed in the movie, like the oil rig disaster (I think?).
To me the whole introduction was a bit long, I think the first real bit of dialogue came on after 10 minutes or so... and the use of "documentation-style" somehow wasn't my cup of tea. There were also things I downright didn't "get", maybe the subtitles were inaccurate or I'm just too stupid...
(spoilers ahead:)
For example, why does Otto hide in a swarm of fish and then fire a bunch of missiles at his own location? And how did the cameraman die and what was the significance of the apprentice leaving his post at the bomb in this...?
Anyway, I don't want to sound overly critical, just pointing out that the film wasn't an "easy watch" for me. Still it was enjoyable and it looked pretty good most of the time, I especially liked the parts on the island. The animal scenes were great (how did you do those btw?) as were the paraglider and submarine sequences.
Story-wise, I really loved the film's topic of enlightment and the phenomenon of becoming enlightened through paradoxes. This stuff was implemented very well in the writing and visually, so being some kind of Zen-guy myself, I really enjoyed that quite a lot :D
I also think the obvious model work and UV light "computer displays" were brilliantly done, but from my own experience with Snowblind, I know this doesnt work for everyone... especially DUMB people have probably already slammed you for "cheap-looking effects" hehhe ^_^
So while I'm at comparing stuff, I have to say (before this all comes out entirely wrong) that NN has very good production value and is of course much better looking and sounding than Snowblind, and is also much more of a "real movie". I'm just trying to express my experience with NN as a normal dvd-watching average joe ;D
All in all definitely tumbs-up for Norwegian Ninja, as I hinted for my taste the emphasis could have been more on "Ninja" than "Norwegian political history", but then again the whole film would probably be pointless and have never gotten made ^_^
I'm really looking forward to your next endeavour and will try to help, and again I can only urge all Wreckers to buy the Norwegian Ninja DVD at play.com (see below) so they hopefully order another shipment soon :D
Norwegian Ninja > Share Your Norwegian Ninja Sightings & Encounters > Espoo Cine Film Festival http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2110/4506402723_2dcaf6af5a.jpg
**WE WOULD LIKE YOU TO SHARE AND CONTRIBUTE**
- all Norwegian Ninja observations, encounters and sightings with us!
If you see the poster, read an article, news item, review or find blurbs
about it anywhere..
PLEASE SHARE YOUR FINDINGS WITH US AND POST THEM HERE!
As producer Eric Vogel phrased it in the blog-entry for the teaser poster reveal:
"If any of you spot the teaser in the wild, let us know when and where
in the comments! Even better: snap a picture so we can see how it “plays”
in the real world. Best of all: if you don’t see it displayed
at your local (Norwegian) cinema – demand it!"
http://ninjatroppen.montages.no/2010/04/teaser-poster/
..and remember! Idle hands do the devil's work!
So get busy and get on it right away! ;D
**Looking forward to seeing all your contributions!**
Cheers!
'Fakenham
642 days ago | 0 Comments | 2 Thumb-ups
Norwegian Ninja has two screenings on a big screen at Espoo Cine, Finland, on 20.8.2011 and 25.8.2011. (yes, this is also dead-cheap!)
Norwegian Ninja | A voice from the void Hey all,
It's been nearly a year since we premiered Norwegian Ninja here in Norway, and sooo much has happened since then. A lot of it has been chronicled over at our production blog: http://ninjatroppen.montages.no
But not much has been happening here on the Norwegian Ninja WAM site, from our side. And I thought it was more than high time to return and pay proper respects to everyone who helped out with the project back in the day.
THANK YOU, EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU.
Browsing through the old tasks again now has reminded me of how many cool shots and comments we got, and it was truly helpful to our process.
The movie itself is still living an active life as it gets rolled out in international distribution.
The US release is next, on August 30th, and we're already out in the UK. We'll also have releases in the rest of the Nordic countries, Germany, France, Benelux, Poland, Austria, Switzerland and even some Middle Eastern countries, but I don't have any dates for those yet.
For news on that and more, you can follow the further adventures of the Ninja Force both on our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/ninjatroppen) and the aforementioned blog, which still sees the occasional update.
If you don't want to wait for "your" edition to be released, you can always pick up the Norwegian DVD, Blu-Ray (and even the VHS!) here:
http://nordicdvd.com/index.php?lang_id=en&title_id=4142
It has subtitles in English, Swedish, Finnish and Danish as well as Norwegian.
...or as Kalle Max actually posted earlier today, you can pick the UK DVD at Play.com very inexpensively now: http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/18640857/Norwegian-Ninja/Product.html?searchtype=allproducts&searchsource=0&searchstring=norwegian+ninja&urlrefer=search
I think that about sums it up for now.
Until the next time and the next project:
Take care, be safe, and keep wrecking those movies!!!
Eric Vogel
Producer
650 days ago | 2 Thumb-ups
Don't worry, the Snowblind discs will take some more time. So you can scare off the current GF with Norwegian Ninja and the next one with Snowblind ;D
Norwegian Ninja | A voice from the void Hey all,
It's been nearly a year since we premiered Norwegian Ninja here in Norway, and sooo much has happened since then. A lot of it has been chronicled over at our production blog: http://ninjatroppen.montages.no
But not much has been happening here on the Norwegian Ninja WAM site, from our side. And I thought it was more than high time to return and pay proper respects to everyone who helped out with the project back in the day.
THANK YOU, EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU.
Browsing through the old tasks again now has reminded me of how many cool shots and comments we got, and it was truly helpful to our process.
The movie itself is still living an active life as it gets rolled out in international distribution.
The US release is next, on August 30th, and we're already out in the UK. We'll also have releases in the rest of the Nordic countries, Germany, France, Benelux, Poland, Austria, Switzerland and even some Middle Eastern countries, but I don't have any dates for those yet.
For news on that and more, you can follow the further adventures of the Ninja Force both on our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/ninjatroppen) and the aforementioned blog, which still sees the occasional update.
If you don't want to wait for "your" edition to be released, you can always pick up the Norwegian DVD, Blu-Ray (and even the VHS!) here:
http://nordicdvd.com/index.php?lang_id=en&title_id=4142
It has subtitles in English, Swedish, Finnish and Danish as well as Norwegian.
...or as Kalle Max actually posted earlier today, you can pick the UK DVD at Play.com very inexpensively now: http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/18640857/Norwegian-Ninja/Product.html?searchtype=allproducts&searchsource=0&searchstring=norwegian+ninja&urlrefer=search
I think that about sums it up for now.
Until the next time and the next project:
Take care, be safe, and keep wrecking those movies!!!
Eric Vogel
Producer
650 days ago | 3 Thumb-ups
Damnation. Would've bought from the Norwegian store if i'd imagined they'd accept one of my cards.. As they seemly do.
What's done is done. Maybe I'll buy another.
And my GF is in for a double whammy with Snowblind AND Norwegian Ninja. If we're still together after that, you know your films were all good... :)
Norwegian Ninja | A voice from the void Hey all,
It's been nearly a year since we premiered Norwegian Ninja here in Norway, and sooo much has happened since then. A lot of it has been chronicled over at our production blog: http://ninjatroppen.montages.no
But not much has been happening here on the Norwegian Ninja WAM site, from our side. And I thought it was more than high time to return and pay proper respects to everyone who helped out with the project back in the day.
THANK YOU, EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU.
Browsing through the old tasks again now has reminded me of how many cool shots and comments we got, and it was truly helpful to our process.
The movie itself is still living an active life as it gets rolled out in international distribution.
The US release is next, on August 30th, and we're already out in the UK. We'll also have releases in the rest of the Nordic countries, Germany, France, Benelux, Poland, Austria, Switzerland and even some Middle Eastern countries, but I don't have any dates for those yet.
For news on that and more, you can follow the further adventures of the Ninja Force both on our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/ninjatroppen) and the aforementioned blog, which still sees the occasional update.
If you don't want to wait for "your" edition to be released, you can always pick up the Norwegian DVD, Blu-Ray (and even the VHS!) here:
http://nordicdvd.com/index.php?lang_id=en&title_id=4142
It has subtitles in English, Swedish, Finnish and Danish as well as Norwegian.
...or as Kalle Max actually posted earlier today, you can pick the UK DVD at Play.com very inexpensively now: http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/18640857/Norwegian-Ninja/Product.html?searchtype=allproducts&searchsource=0&searchstring=norwegian+ninja&urlrefer=search
I think that about sums it up for now.
Until the next time and the next project:
Take care, be safe, and keep wrecking those movies!!!
Eric Vogel
Producer
650 days ago | 1 Thumb-up
Nice going, Jani! I also feel it would be better to buy from the producers directly, but maybe play.com will place an order for more NN dvds now :D
And thanks of course to Eric for joining VP3D! Well one thing we have learned with Snowblind, and that is to get the money FIRST to pay for everything! (foremostly rent and food hehhe)
So I guess it will take a while until we can actually start shooting our vampire epic, same as you guys.... well we'll see =)
Norwegian Ninja | A voice from the void Hey all,
It's been nearly a year since we premiered Norwegian Ninja here in Norway, and sooo much has happened since then. A lot of it has been chronicled over at our production blog: http://ninjatroppen.montages.no
But not much has been happening here on the Norwegian Ninja WAM site, from our side. And I thought it was more than high time to return and pay proper respects to everyone who helped out with the project back in the day.
THANK YOU, EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU.
Browsing through the old tasks again now has reminded me of how many cool shots and comments we got, and it was truly helpful to our process.
The movie itself is still living an active life as it gets rolled out in international distribution.
The US release is next, on August 30th, and we're already out in the UK. We'll also have releases in the rest of the Nordic countries, Germany, France, Benelux, Poland, Austria, Switzerland and even some Middle Eastern countries, but I don't have any dates for those yet.
For news on that and more, you can follow the further adventures of the Ninja Force both on our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/ninjatroppen) and the aforementioned blog, which still sees the occasional update.
If you don't want to wait for "your" edition to be released, you can always pick up the Norwegian DVD, Blu-Ray (and even the VHS!) here:
http://nordicdvd.com/index.php?lang_id=en&title_id=4142
It has subtitles in English, Swedish, Finnish and Danish as well as Norwegian.
...or as Kalle Max actually posted earlier today, you can pick the UK DVD at Play.com very inexpensively now: http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/18640857/Norwegian-Ninja/Product.html?searchtype=allproducts&searchsource=0&searchstring=norwegian+ninja&urlrefer=search
I think that about sums it up for now.
Until the next time and the next project:
Take care, be safe, and keep wrecking those movies!!!
Eric Vogel
Producer
650 days ago | 2 Thumb-ups
Just ordered the DVD. The price was criminal, i feel like a ninja thief. I'll compensate it by spreading the word.
My new girlfriend is in for quite a surprise the next time she asks "which film shall we watch at home"....
The very best of luck with your future endeavours!
Norwegian Ninja | A voice from the void Hey all,
It's been nearly a year since we premiered Norwegian Ninja here in Norway, and sooo much has happened since then. A lot of it has been chronicled over at our production blog: http://ninjatroppen.montages.no
But not much has been happening here on the Norwegian Ninja WAM site, from our side. And I thought it was more than high time to return and pay proper respects to everyone who helped out with the project back in the day.
THANK YOU, EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU.
Browsing through the old tasks again now has reminded me of how many cool shots and comments we got, and it was truly helpful to our process.
The movie itself is still living an active life as it gets rolled out in international distribution.
The US release is next, on August 30th, and we're already out in the UK. We'll also have releases in the rest of the Nordic countries, Germany, France, Benelux, Poland, Austria, Switzerland and even some Middle Eastern countries, but I don't have any dates for those yet.
For news on that and more, you can follow the further adventures of the Ninja Force both on our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/ninjatroppen) and the aforementioned blog, which still sees the occasional update.
If you don't want to wait for "your" edition to be released, you can always pick up the Norwegian DVD, Blu-Ray (and even the VHS!) here:
http://nordicdvd.com/index.php?lang_id=en&title_id=4142
It has subtitles in English, Swedish, Finnish and Danish as well as Norwegian.
...or as Kalle Max actually posted earlier today, you can pick the UK DVD at Play.com very inexpensively now: http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/18640857/Norwegian-Ninja/Product.html?searchtype=allproducts&searchsource=0&searchstring=norwegian+ninja&urlrefer=search
I think that about sums it up for now.
Until the next time and the next project:
Take care, be safe, and keep wrecking those movies!!!
Eric Vogel
Producer
650 days ago | 0 Thumb-ups
Just ordered the DVD. The price was criminal, i feel like a ninja thief. I'll compensate it by spreading the word.
My new girlfriend is in for quite a surprise the next time she asks "which film shall we watch at home"....
The very best of luck with your future endeavours!
