Genghis Khan: To the Ends of the Earth and Sea is a 2007 film from Japan directed by Shinichiro Sawai.
It is, you guessed it, a biopic of the man himself, Genghis Khan. The movie starts at the beginning, with Genghis's mother Hoelun kidnapped and taken as a bride by Yesugei, the chief of the Mongol tribe. They have a son, Temujin, who will grow up to become Genghis Khan. Temujin is a teenager when his father is poisoned by members of a rival tribe. A rival in Temujin's own Mongol tribe then takes control and casts Temujin and his mother out. Temujin becomes the leader of his own splinter band of Mongols. He makes a friend, another teenaged boy named Jamukha, and they swear an oath of friendship and brotherhood. Jamukha plants in Temujin's head an idea: to unite all the warring tribes of what will eventually become Mongolia under one leader.
Years pass and Temujin grows to adulthood. He takes a wife, Borte, and eventually becomes leader of the Mongol tribe, with ambitions of uniting all the tribes of the steppe. But his old friend and blood brother Jamukha is now his rival.
Shot on location in Mongolia.
Tropes:
- Age Cut: Teenaged Temujin contemplates the red birthmark on his palm. Cut to a somewhat more weatherbeaten hand, with a birthmark that has grown, introducing adult Temujin.
- And the Adventure Continues: The very last scene has Genghis, who has become the Khan of the Mongols, attacking the Great Wall of China as he advances against the Jin, beginning his wars of international conquest. Shortly before this, he tells Borte that he will conquer nations and erase borders and there will be peaceful trade and customs will be respected. (This was true. While the Mongols would kill everybody and burn cities to the ground if they faced resistance, the places that surrendered and acknowledged Mongol sovereignty were allowed to maintain their customs and religions.)
- Aren't You Going to Ravish Me?: Temujin defeats an enemy in battle only to find out that it's a woman, Khulan. She snarls that he's going to rape her now because that's what Mongols do, but Temujin refuses, saying that his people will no longer take women as "spoils of war." Later Khulan, who happens to be fantastically gorgeous, lets her hair down in Chinggis's tent and says "Why do you not bed me?" When he says again that the Mongols will no longer rape woman prisoners, she says that as a warrior, that's fine, but as a woman, she's giving herself to him. He obliges and they have sex.
- Arrows on Fire: Temujin and his allies start their attack on the Merkits, the one that frees Borte, by launching flaming arrows that set fire to the Merkit camp.
- Artistic License – History: This may be the most accurate of the many Genghis Khan biopics, but it makes one big change. In the movie, Genghis's eldest son Jochi is killed fighting for his father in the north, before Genghis launches his invasion of China. In Real Life, Jochi outlived his father, although due to his uncertain parentage he did not succeed Genghis as Khan (and this contributed to the fracturing of the Mongol Empire).
- Awesome Moment of Crowning: Temujin is crowned in a grand ceremony. Technically there's no actual crown, but he sits on an ornate ceremonial throne in front of a vast audience, and takes the new name of Genghis, whereupon the crowd hails him as Genghis Khan, king of all the Mongols.
- Best Served Cold: Why do the Merkits kidnap Borte, Temujin's bride? Because twenty years ago, Yesugei kidnapped Hoelun from the Merkits. Temujin is astonished that the Merkits would do such a thing 20 years later.
- Big Badass Battle Sequence: A big battle towards the end as Temujin defeats Jamukha, in a sequence that features charges on horseback, clashing swords, archers firing hails of arrows, and people spouting High-Pressure Blood.
- Call-Back: Temujin offers his son Jochi some pretty valuable prizes, but Jochi chooses a simple green ring used for shooting arrows. At the end, as Jochi dies, Temujin discovers that Jochi is clutching the green ring in his hand. In the last scene Genghis is wearing the green ring as he fires off the first arrow of the Mongol attack on China.
- Dead Guy Junior: An unusual Worthy Opponent variation. Yesugei kills a Tatar leader named Temujin, then is told that Hoelun has delivered him a son. He names the baby Temujin in honor of the brave warrior he just defeated.
- Historical Hero Upgrade: Temujin vows that the Mongols will not take women as spoils of war. This is...not something the real Temujin/Genghis did.
- Lady of War: Temujin defeats an enemy band and is surprised to find that their leader, a warrior on horseback, is Khulan, a beautiful woman. Even after Khulan becomes Temujin's second consort, she continues to be a warrior princess, dressing in armor and fighting in his battles (unlike first wife Borte who is domestic).
- Letting Her Hair Down: Notably Khulan, who wore her hair in a long braid when she was fighting as a warrior, lets it down when she seduces Temujin in his tent.
- Love Triangle: Resolved with lightning speed. Borte and Temujin were pledged to each other, but soon after his father was murdered and he spent years on the run. Finally he comes back to the Mongols only to find that Borte is now pledged to his old friend Jamukha. Jamukha suggests Borte choose, they ask her, she chooses Temujin, and that is that.
- Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: Borte is kidnapped by the Merkits, and when Temujin finally rescues her six months later, she is heavily pregnant. No one is certain whether Jochi, the boy she delivers, was conceived by Temujin or a Merkit, but Temujin recognizes the child as his. This happened in Real Life. This movie ties the mystery of Jochi's paternity to Temujin himself, and how Hoelun was a Merkit bride until she was kidnapped by Yesugei. In the film, people in Temujin's tribe suggest that he is really a Merkit by blood, which sends him into a rage (he kills one of his fellow tribesmen for the insult) and complicates his feelings about Jochi.
- Narrator: Occasional narration from Hoelun moves the story along.
- Rape, Pillage, and Burn: Hoelun's narration says that this is just the way tribes of the steppe fought wars: whoever won a battle between tribes killed all the men from the losers, burned everything they didn't want to carry, and took the women as spoils. Temujin has no problem with the Pillage and Burn but eventually decides to forego the Rape, swearing that under his leadership the Mongols will not take women as spoils of war.
- Royal Harem: The film doesn't really spell it out, only showing Khulan having sex with Temujin, but in fact he took her as a royal consort along with Borte. The closest the movie comes to showing this is at the crowning ceremony near the end, when Khulan is wearing a red outfit that matches the royal dress of Temujin's mother Hoelun and first wife Borte.
- Suck Out the Poison: Khulan does this after a poisoned arrow slices Temujin's neck. He lives, although there was enough poison left in him that he's ill for a while.
- Sworn Brothers: Jamukha and Temujin swear a sacred oath of friendship and brotherhood, in a ceremony in front of witnesses. This is why it's Serious Business when Jamukha turns against Temujin and becomes his rival for leader of the Mongols.
- Tempting Fate: Jamukha and his ally Togruhl Khan are chatting about Temujin. Togruhl says that Temujin is no longer a threat because he was shot with a poisoned arrow. Jamukha says not to be overconfident as Temujin tends to be lucky. This is immediately followed by a sentry galloping in screaming "We are under attack!" It's Temujin, who has ambushed the camp and winds up capturing Jamukha.
- Title Drop: In Japanese, anyway. The Japanese title actually translates out to The Blue Wolf: To the Ends of the Earth and Sea. In the film Yesugei talks of the myth that a blue wolf mated with a white doe and fathered the Mongol people. Much later, at his Awesome Moment of Crowning, Genghis talks of how he has the spirit of the blue wolf and he will lead the Mongols "to the ends of the earth."
- Translation Convention: A film about Genghis Khan and the Mongols, with dialogue entirely in Japanese.
- Vertigo Effect: A dolly zoom onto Temujin as an enemy army deploys in front of him and he realizes it's much bigger than he anticipated. He's defeated for the first time, although he eventually makes an escape.
- We Can Rule Together: A rare example of the hero doing this with an antagonist. Temujin has captured Jamukha and finally won complete control of the Mongol tribes. They talk about their old vow to be blood brothers, and Temujin asks Jamukha to join him, saying "Will you not be my right arm?" Jamukha refuses, saying he's too proud, and demands that Temujin kill him, which Temujin does.
