Mongol (2007)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Director:

Sergei Bodrov

Writers:

Arif Aliyev (writer) &
Sergei Bodrov (writer)

Release Date:

20 September 2007 (Russia)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | Romance | War

Tagline:

Greatness comes to those who take it.

Plot:

The story recounts the early life of Genghis Khan who was a slave before going on to conquer half the world including Russia in 1206. |

Plot Keywords:

Slave | Genghis Khan | Thunderstorm | Poison | Mongol

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 11 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

Tadanobu Asano	...	Temudjin
Honglei Sun	...	Jamukha
Khulan Chuluun	...	Börte
Aliya	...	Oelun - Temudjin's Mother
Ba Sen	...	Esugei - Temudjin's Father
Amadu Mamadakov	...	Targutai
Ying Bai	...	Merchant with Golden Ring
He Qi	...	Dai-Sechen
Ben Hon Sun	...	Monk
Ji Ri Mu Tu	...	Boorchu
You Er	...	Sorgan-Shira (as A You Er)
Ba Tu	...	Altan (as Hong Jong Ba Tu)
Deng Ba Te Er	...	Daritai (as E Er Deng Ba Te Er)
Bao Di	...	Todoen
Su Ya La Su Rong	...	Girkhai (as Su You Le Si Ren)

Also Known As:

Монгол (Russia)
Der Mongole (Germany)
Mongol: The Rise to Power of Genghis Khan (UK)

MPAA:

Rated R for sequences of bloody warfare.

Runtime:

126 min

Country:

Kazakhstan | Russia | Mongolia | Germany

Language:

Mongolian | Mandarin

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:R | Canada:14A | Germany:12 | Ireland:15A | Italy:T | UK:15 | Australia:MA | Netherlands:16 | New Zealand:R16 | Singapore:NC-16 | Finland:K-15

Filming Locations:

China

Company:

Andreevsky Flag Film Company

Trivia:

Prior to appearing in the film as Börte, actress Khulan Chuluun was studying to be a journalist, and had never acted before. Director Sergei Bodrov had sent casting director Gulshat Omarova to Mongolia to look for actresses for the role, but she was unable to find any. Disappointed with her failure, she went to the Chinese Embassy to renew her Visa so as to travel back to China. Whilst she was in the embassy, she saw Khulan by sheer accident, and approached her to ask about playing the role.

Goofs:

Factual errors: The Mongolian tribes, including the hordes that conquered their vast empire, rode on a very peculiar race of horses, stocky build, with relatively short legs and a large head. The horses used in the movie look like ordinary western horses

Quotes:

Esugei: All Mongols fear the thunder.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The 80th Annual Academy Awards (2008) (TV)

Memorable Photography Highlights Story Of 'Temudjin'

The most pleasing part of this film, I thought, was the excellent cinematography. Kudos to Roger Stoffers and Sergei Trofimov for an outstanding job photographing this movie, making the most bleak of landscapes look stunning many times and adding some wonderful closeup shots of objects and faces.

It's not a bad story, either, although not one that will keep you riveted to the screen for the full two hours. However, I wasn't bored, either, although some of the action scenes looked too repetitive with very hokey-looking special-effects concerning blood splashing out of people in the battle scenes. It did not look real, but as if it were drawn. It's ironic in that the production values seem to be so high with a such a nicely-filmed effort, yet the action scenes are staged like a B-movie.

In a nutshell, this is the story of how "Genghis Kahn," who is "Temudjin" throughout the movie, spent his tough early life and how he became the famous warrior. We just see how many hardships the man endured to become who he was later in life. He was never referred to as Genghis Kahn which, I learned hear, is a title more than a name. That must have come later, after he had control of all the Mongol armies, which is where the film ends.

Many times, it's a not a pleasant existence for "Temudjin," who was marked man from the age of nine. We see him spend many lonely hours held captive in different places. The looks on his face are memorable. Odnyam Odsuren ad the young "Temudjin" and Tadanobu Asano as the adult "Temudjin" both had extraordinarily photographic faces.

One of the few problems I had with the movie were understanding "the rest of the story" as certain scenes ended abruptly leaving me (and I assume other viewers) wondering "what happened?" His friends, though, were fun to watch and his bride was a beautiful, kind and strong woman, as pictured in this movie. Actually, I found this just as much of a love story as a war epic, and the romance angle was far more dramatic. The devotion the lead male and female had to each other, and the faithfulness and loyalty were inspiring, to say the least.