Confucius -- the movie

[abcdefg]

I missed this movie when it came to town (Kunming) because it only played for a very short time. The reason it had such an abbreviated theatrical run is no longer a mystery to me since I bought a DVD of it and watched the sorry thing myself.

What an awful mess. Of course it stars Chou Yun-Fat (周润发) who is a dependable actor with many fine films to his credit. But here the range of his portrayal can pretty well be summed up as: Confucius leaves home in the rain, Confucius falls in the mud, Confucius is hungry, Confucius is observant, Confucius finally gets to return to his homeland after years of roaming. The whole picture is like a series of mindless snapshots of these individual things. Confucius does not play well with others and and he tells it like it is, so he pisses off various rulers along the way. Only his students and disciples love him. It never becomes clear exactly why.

The director introduced a pretty woman who was the wife of a high official. Confucius was ordered to be her tutor and we got to see a spark of life between them and I thought the plot might develop an interesting turn. But the director inexplicably killed the pretty woman off with an arrow through her heart when she was attacked by bandits on the road to somewhere.

This film was boring, it was tiring, it was frustrating and obscure. It had tiny subtitles in Chinese and English that look like they were slapped there as an afterthought, often employing such sophisticated techniques as faint white lettering against yellow or tan backgrounds. They were nearly illegible.

I only paid 5 RMB for my copy so I was not a tragic waste of money. But I had hoped to learn something about Confucius and/or be entertained, maybe even both. Sadly neither happened.

[Outofin]

And they made one of his disciples, 颜回, dived into cold water to save some books, and eventually died of that. That looks stupid, and is not even true. What is the point of making it up?

[abcdefg]

And they made one of his disciples, 颜回, dived into cold water to save some books, and eventually died of that. That looks stupid, and is not even true.

Agree. That was really sappy.

[Meng Lelan]

You should study the writings of Confucius instead of study the movie of Confucius.

[Moving_away]

I agree that it wasn't really a big impact experience

But there is one thing I felt "positive" about regarding this movie: It takes Confucius out of it's godlike status he sometimes is assigned. What he wrote and the ideas he left behind influenced (and shaped) China alot, but it was also a person, who indeed walks in the rain, falls in the mud, is hungry and needs to go to the loo (no, that's not in there, at least, I didn't notice ). I agree such things don't make a great movie, but gives maybe a little more sense of "reality". He's a great thinker and sage, but doesn't always need to be depicted as the infallible Great Sage. So in that sense it could be called refreshing.

And yes, learning from his own ideas teaches you much more than this movie. But for most movies I think the book is better

[iolair]

That's interesting, I had the opposite impression. I watched the movie after reading some stuff about the late 1960s, so after (finally) finishing the über-long movie my first thought, or at least the one that followed "ouch, my backside is numb" , was how ironic it is the same party that was busy trashing Confucius not so very long ago now has him back up on a pedestal to the point where it's in vogue to make epic-length movies about him.

I didn't like the movie, but I thought Chow Yun Fat made Confucius quite likeable.

[Outofin]

Overall, I think the movie is not too good and not too bad. The first half is quite coherent and entertaining. A bit like a court drama. After Confucius left his country, the movie loses its focus and feels depressing. It becomes a series of famous small stories in Confucian books. Can't blame on the writer and director because that's what happened in history.

Most people only need to remember 2 things the movie is trying to tell, successfully:

1. His dream of a ideal world.

2. His moral strenth.

Chou Yun-Fat did a good job. He shines when he talks about Confucius' ideal soceity.

[skylee]

Overall, I think the movie is not too good and not too bad.

I agree. If you must see a film and there are no other choices it won't hurt seeing this one.

[chrix]

You should study the writings of Confucius instead of study the movie of Confucius.

I haven't seen the film, but I don't want to miss the opportunity to dig the Classical Chinese subforum: if you do want to read the writings of Confucius, be sure to start a thread there!