Any hopes for a realistic portrayal of Genghis Khan were thrown out with the Mongols speaking Japanese, but hey movies don’t have to be realistic, just entertaining right? Well with such a huge budget the filmmakers did have to aim for the broadest audience possible – probably ages 5 and on up. Thus realism takes a backseat for a popcorn family fest. As an example most of the brutal acts committed by the warring Mongol tribes were airbrushed away (most notable would be when the film mentions that some of the women that were stolen by rival tribes were treated well).

The story itself starts off with the future mother of Genghis Khan named Hoelan being taken from her tribe by Genghis Khan’s future father Yesugei. Shortly afterwards Genghis Khan is born and the movie then fast forwards in time to when Genghis Khan is fourteen years old. Two people that would play an important part in Genghis Khan’s adult life are introduced here : Bolte (his future wife) and Jamuqa (his lifelong “devoted” friend). The movie then jumps seven more years – to when Genghis starts his career as a global conqueror. All this occurrs in the first 20 minutes of the movie, so there isn’t much time for in-depth character development.

From there “Blue Wolf” shows the rise of the future Genghis Khan and the many battles he would fight. Most of the battles that occurred during the first half of the film were revealed through voiceovers. While the film showed the rise of Genghis Khan there were also basic subplots running through the film to keep everybody entertained. There was the betrayal by a close of friend, pregnancy by Genghis Khan’s wife and a mistress that would capture the fancy of Genghis Khan. The film would also use good portions of the runtime to show how influential the ladies were in his life, most notably his mother (played by Mayumi Wakamura), wife ( played by Rei Kikukawa) and mistress (played Ara) were in his life. The ladies were not the power hungry type of figures you may expect, but rather ladies able to bring about a more compassionate Genghis Khan. From watching the film you could walk away from the film thinking Genghis Khan was an open minded quasi liberal. Somehow I don’t think that was historically accurate.

The epic battles finally did start to appear during the final 40 minutes of the film. Huge field battles occurred between Genghis Khan’s tribe and the many different rival groups he fought. The visuals were respectable for a big budget film, but reminiscent of many other similar epic films.

The most glaring fault of the film, especially for a film based on a legendary figure, would be the lack of details. Examples being, “How did Genghis Khan keep such a well coiffured goatee?” to more important questions like “Where are his other three sons?” and most importantly “How exactly did Genghis Khan win all those battles?” Having a central character that was such a legend in warfare, the movie surprisingly spent little time explaining the strategies Genghis Khan used in those monster battles. The little bits of strategy revealed in the film went basically like this : Genghis Khan would scream out from the front “Attack!!!” and his soldiers would respond “Ahhhhh!!!” - while rushing blindly onto the battlefield. His mother did mention once (through voiceover narration) that Genghis Khan was more patient on the battlefield while his rivals were impatient. Bleh.

Simply put, “The Blue Wolf: To the Ends of the Earth and Sea” comes across as a lightweight action film that will be forgotten in a matter of months. The pacing of the movie was annoyingly brisk and foregoing any opportunities to reveal meaningful details. The moral of the story would be that Genghis Khan was a loyal and compassionate man - trying to end wars by creating wars. The incredible amount of damage and destruction that arose from his conquests were a trivial matters swept under the rug.