Mongol
Yesterday, I finally had the chance to see Mongol, a film by Russian director Sergei Bodrov. It's the story of Temudjin - or Genghis Khan - covering his early life, beginning with his childhood at age 9. This cherubic looking boy here played lil' Temudjin. Is he the most adorable thing ever or what? I seriously wanted to take him home with me! XD
At the tender age of 9, Temudjin is taken to a nearby village to select a future wife for himself. His father tells him to select a girl with a flat face, narrow eyes and most importantly - strong legs, because those will "make a man happy." He selects an older woman (by one year), the 10 year old Borte and tells her he will be back for her in 5 years. Absolutely precious!
The rest of his childhood quickly dissolves into one hardship after another, beginning with the assassination of his father and moving on to being hunted and imprisoned by his father's usurper. He manages to escape, but when the years skip ahead, and we see him being hunted in the same manner, by the same people. I was a bit confused by this sequence, since the time jumped ahead so much without a lot of explanation as to how he'd spent the years between.
As an adult, he is played by the amazing Asano Tadanobu, a Japanese actor who I've actually never seen in anything else before. =U
Asano has an amazing presence, and I truly loved him in this role! Very charismatic in his own, quiet sort of manner that I would not have imagined when Genghis Khan came to mind. He is played as a very honorable man, who is fair and generous to his people. His romance with his wife is very sweet, though you realize that within the course of the movie, they have spent most of their time apart from one another. She's strong and resourceful, and is most certainly a big part of Temudjin's development.
The most striking thing he says in the movie is when he vows that Mongolia needs the rule of law, and he will bring it to them - even if he has to kill half of them. Quite a chilling thing to say, even while meaning to bring a lasting order to a scattered people.
While I did love the characters and their interactions with each other, I had some major issues with the plot and flow of the movie. Years skip ahead without much to connect what happened in between. This occurs at least 3 times, and each time left me feeling very disjointed and perplexed in that "What just happened there??" sort of way. The last skip-ahead was the biggest disappointment for me, because one minute he's walking off from his comfortable life with his family, and literally the next minute he's leading an entire army into a battle of epic proportion.
If you think this movie is going to be about how Genghis Khan amassed his people under a single banner and led them into a greater unified age - you'll be very disappointed. I was looking forward to seeing how he gathered together such an awesome force, and to see how he learned his skills as a fighter and tactician. All of this is conspicuously absent.
I will say however, that the cinematography is amazing, with beautiful, epic scenes from all the seasons. The battle sequences are done in that quick-time camera action, complete with fountains of blood. They're not quite on the scale of Gladiator or Braveheart, but still rather impressive. (I'm not a huge battle scene fan, so it's not all that important to me, in any case).
This is a movie I tried to see at the theater on three separate occasions - failing all three times! Something always came up, and I was quite certain I was destined not to see this movie. In the end, Netflix came through for me, and I'm glad it did! Mongol had its plot failures and awkward pacing, but all in all it was gorgeously done and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys foreign films or biopics. It's not everyday you get to see a film done in the Mongolian language, and what a beautiful movie it was.