This film starts one year after Night Watch still following Anton Gorodetsky (Konstantin Khabensky) who is now working with Night Watch trainee Svetlana (Mariya Poroshina) who he is also dating. She is more powerful than him though, possibly a great one, and this keeps him from doing much. They go on a mission, chasing a young dark one, and Svetlana manages to go into the second level of the gloom following him, and Anton has to try and get her out, and all they get is a hat from the dark one who turns out to be Yegor (Dmitry Martynov) his son, and he tries to cover for him. He even sneaks into the headquarters and steals the hat, and then gets blamed for Dark one deaths, though they are being done by Dark Ones, but he won’t give up because it will give up Yegor, and he doesn’t want his son in trouble. In order to make up for his sin of trying to have Yegor killed by a witch as a fetus, he wants to get the mythical chalk of fate, which can change ones own fate. It was from Asia, and found by a great warrior in the past.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Zavulon (Viktor Verzhbitsky) the leader of the Day Watch is waiting for Yegor’s birthday so he can become the great one who will tip the balance, but until then he frames Anton for murders in front of the inquisition, and that gives Anton 24 hours to prove himself innocent.

Gessar (Vladimir Menshov) the head of Night Watch transfers Anton’s brain into the body of Gessar’s lover Olga (Galina Tyunina). Anton as Olga then goes with Svetlana, and she admits to loving Anton, so finally Anton tells her it is him. Svetlana then wants them to go on their planned date, and they do, but the Day Watch sets up Olga this time as a killer.

Anton finally manages to get the Chalk of Fate from a guy in Moscow, but it will only work if done at the place that the fate changed, and the apartment building that he tried to have Yegor killed as a fetus has been torn down. Yegor shows up and steals the chalk, and tries to screw up Anton’s relationship with Svetlana. Yegor takes the chalk to Zavulon, but he can’t touch or use the chalk, so he gives it to his lover/slave Alisia (Zhanna Friske). She is tied to him by their wedding ring. She ends up calling in Anton’s vampire neighbor Kostya (Valeri Zolotukhin).

Anton makes his way to Yegor’s party which is filled with Dark ones, and gets drugged by Zavulon, but still manages to name the real killer, which is Kostya’s father (Valeri Zolotukhin) and clear his name. Still Svetlana rushes there to find Anton who she loves, and she accidently draws some of Yegor’s blood, which Zavulon sees as a violation of the treaty, and a pretense to go to war with the light ones.

Yegor has become a great one, and unleashes hell on Earth, wiping out a great deal of the city, and blinding Sventlana. The war has begun. Anton finds Aisia who is trying to bring back Kostya, but cant do it, so she gives him the chalk. Yegor and Svetlana find him though, and fight for him, and he is saved by Gessar.

Anton runs away through the ruins of the city to the building where he tried to kill Yegor as a fetus, which still has it’s one wall standing, and he uses the chalk, and changes his destiny in 1992. He doesn’t make his deal wit the witch, and never agrees to hurt his unborn child, and he becomes human again. He walks down the street and past Zavulon and Gesser, who bet on him knowing Svetlana. He sees he and they start talking, and walk off together.

••••

Wow, epic and enjoyable. What is the third story about? I want to find out!

The film opens with us being told of an ancient battle between beings with extra powers called Others, who fight for either light or dark. The forces of good were led by Gessar (Vladmimi Menshov) and evil was led by Zavulon (Viktor Verzhbitsky). Gessar realizes they were evenly matched, and so made a parlay, where the set up a truce, forming the good Night Watch and the evil Day Watch to maintain balance, until the day a Great One will come and chose a side and tip the balance of power.

In 1992 in Russia a man named Anton Gorodetsky (Konstantin Khabensky) went to a woman who practiced black magic, to try and get his wife back who was cheating on him. The woman tells him she is pregnant by the other man, and the fetus must be aborted to bring her back. Aton accepts responsibility and she starts, and Anton sees his wife leaving the man, and then writhing in pain on the ground, but then 3 people rush into the room, including a shape shigter and capture the woman, and Anton sees them, and they realize he must be an Other as well, and just didn’t know it yet. We then jump 12 years ahead, and Anton has joined the 3, and is now a member of nightwatch, but he is an alcoholic, and lives in squalor. He is set to hunt a female vampire who is using the voice to take a child, but he is out of blood to be able to see, so he gets his friendly vampiric neighbor Kostya (Aleksei Chadov) to get his some blood (pigs blood) from his father. The father does it, though telling Kostya, that Night Watch people only do that to hunt Vampires.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Anton is sent out to follow a 12 year old boy named Yegor (Dmitri Martynov), whom the vampires plan on feeding on. Anton gets close and is following the boy on the subway, when he sees a strange woman with blond hair named Svetlana (Mariya Poroshina) who has something strange about her and distracts him. Yegor ends up going to a building with the two vampires hunting him, and Anton tracks them, though doesn’t call in help early enough to help him. The vampires are moving in the dark space in between worlds called the Gloom, and are hard to see, and he ends up burning the female vampires face, but when fighting the man, he accidentally kills him, which is against the agreement, and puts Anton on Zavulon’s bad side.

Anton is healed by Gessar, who tells him a legend of a cursed virgin who makes people and animals around her die, and who is surrounded by a vortex. The virgin has been reborn and must either be killed or they must find out who cursed her, and it is Svetlana who he saw on the train. Gessar gives Anton a stuffed owl to be his assistant named Olga, though he doesn’t accept her, so Gessar throws it out the window and the Owl flies away.

When Anton arrives home the owl comes and turns into a human, this is Olga (Galina Tyunina) a great one who was severely punished. The two go to Yegor’s home to find him, as he is being tracked by the burnt female vampire. They find Yegor, but he has gone into the gloom, and almost gets lost in it, as it turns out he is an other as well. Anton sees a photo of Yegor’s mother and realizes it was his wife from 12 years before. Anton and Olga are called by Gessar to go and work on Svetlana as the vortex is getting worse and has to be solved now, so they are replaced by Tiger and Bear, but they get distracted and Yegor gets drawn to the vampire.

Anton goes in to talk to Svetlana, and finally finds that she in fact cursed herself, and she is an other, and the vortex disapears, so he heads back to get Yegor.

Yegor is given by the female vampire to Zavulon, and Zavulon tells him that Anton tried to have him killed as a fetus, and this causes Yegor, who is Anton’s son and the prophesied great one, to turn to the dark side, and tilt the balance of powerevil.

••••

Wow, I really enjoyed this film. Very very cool! Great visuals and a compelling story. I really want to read the book. Timur is a great visualist, and I look forward to seeing what he does from now on.

••••

Hmm, I did really enjoy these films, so much in fact that I have since read the first 3 books, Night Watch, Day Watch and Twilight Watch, and think they are vastly better than the movies. In fact the movies break some of the basic tenants of the books, and it really hurts the story.

The books are set up as a series of stories with the same characters, and in the movies they combined them, and even took stories from other characters. Like the story with Yegor was not Anton, and if he had become an Other by trying to kill Yegor’s fetus he would joined the night watch. The books are so much better. And most of what happened in the 2 films was in fact mostly from the first book alone.

I so wish they had done the great visuals, but stuck to the story so they could have made more films in the series, and done a true adaption.

The film starts with the man who would become Genghis Khan, Temudjin (Asano Tadanobu) locked in a cell, and receiving word from a Chinese monk, that the old Monk who went looking for his wife died so he did not find her.

We then go back in time to Temudjin’s childhood (here he is played by Odnyam Odsuren) who goes with his father the Khan of their tribe to get him a wife at age 9. They are going to get one from an an enemy tribe, where the Khan stole his wife from many years before to heal the wound, but on the way they stop at a friends tribe who is weak, and Temudjin falls for a girl named Borte (Bayertsetseg Erdenebat) and makes the declaration to declare her his wife to be, who he will return for in 5 years. On the way back Temudjin’s father is poisoned, and dies, and when they return to the tribe, an arrogant man takes over the tribe and is going to kill Temudjin when he gets older, as he is too small now, but Temudjin manages to escape. He heads to the mountains to talk to the gods but falls in a lake, and is helped by Jamukha (Amarbold Tuvshinbayar)
and the two become sworn Blood brothers. Jamukha wants to become Khan of all Mongols. The young Temudjin has a very hard time, being captured and escaping for much of his young life.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

The now grown up Temudjin still having a hard life, and being captured and escaping goes to get his wife Borte (Khulan Chuluun who is really quite lovely looking like a cross between Chinese and Native American) who still is waiting for him, and leaves with her, but their time together is short lived, as the tribe that Temudjin’s mother was taken from returns and takes Borte in revenge. Temudjin can’t live without her, so he goes to his best friend Jamukha (Sun Honglei the famous Chinese actor) to get help taking his wife back. Jamukha agrees, but he forces Temudjin to wait, as he doesn’t want to be seen as going to war over women, but really to put Temudjin in his place. Eventually they go, and defeat the enemies, and save Borte, though she is pregnant with someone else’s child, but Temudjin does not care. Jamukha now wants Temudjin to join him as his number 2, but he does wish too. He is generous with his people, giving them all a share of the spoils, and even 2 of Jamukha’s warrior join Temudjin. Jamukha is of course furious.

Eventually Jamukha comes after Temudjin and his men with a superior army. Temudjin inspires great loyalty and he and his men buy time for their wives and families to escape, but many men die and Temudjin is taken. Jamukha sells Temudjin off into slavery, and he is bought by a Chinese who puts him in a cage (where we saw him at the beggining). The old Chinese Monk knows this is wrong, and that Temudjin will cause much havok, so he agrees to go and find Temudjin’s wife and give him his necklace, so she will know he is alive in an effort to spare the abbot.

The priest ends up dying trying to find Borte, but she and her son find him and the necklace and they go with a caravan to get to her husband. To pay for the trip she must use her only asset her body.

Borte makes it to her husband, and helps break him free, and he meets his daughter (another child who was not his own) for the first time and they head back to their lands.

Once again Temudjin gets an army of loyal followers, and he ask for help from the gods as his old friend Jamukha is attacking with a much bigger force. Temudjin’s men take out many of Jamukha’s men, but they are still outnumbered until the lightning comes in, and since all Mongol’s though the lightnight was the god being angry, they all cowered, except Temudjin, who came in and defated Jamukha, but he doesn’t kill him and lets him go as his sworn brother.

We then learn in text of Temudjin becoming Genghis Khan.

••••

An amazing and gorgeous film with powerful acting, stunning cinemtography and a well developed story. This is an absolute must see, and it just won’t be the same on video, so go see it in the theater!

I got this film around the time that the remake of Solaris came out, but saw the remake and really didn’t like it at all. And then I tried watching the first adaption (from a Novel by Stanislaw Lem), and didn’t get through 20 minutes. Well lately I have been watching a lot of Kurosawa films, and those are all 3 hours, so I thought I would give it a try again, and I was not disappointed. This is an incredible film, and while it was billed as the anti-2001 a Space Odyssey I don’t really see that. Yes it is more about emotions and delving into yourself than 2001, but still seems a close relative at the least. The sets are amazing, and much of the film is told in very long shots, and I would actually be interested in seeing Donatas Banionis in other films because he was excellent. It is so cool to see such an amazing science fiction epic coming from some place other than the US, and even more impressive with it’s look into the human soul that it came from Communist Russia. Strangely the film jumps back and forth from Black and White and color, which at first I thought had some meaning, but really couldn’t find any in this, maybe a money saver after spending so much on the sets?

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…