Kong Zi

The most controversial and dramatic thing about this movie happened off-screen in mid-January. Many Internet users and related groups called for a boycott of the film when it was reported that China had ordered 2D versions of "Avatar" to be pulled out so that more people would watch "Confucius". However, due to low attendance for "Confucius", and the high demand for "Avatar", the Chinese government reversed their decision and allowed "Avatar" to remain on some 2-D screens in China. The movie was to mark the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China and Confucius' 2,560th birthday.

Yes, this is after Mao Zedong's Red Guards condemned the ancient scholar and destroyed his family cemetery and temple in his hometown of Qufu. Ironically, one of Confucius sayings is that "an oppressive government is more to be feared than a tiger".

The first half of the movie traces the rise and popularity of Confucius (played by Chow Yun Fat) in the state of Lu during the Spring and Autumn Period where he is known for his fair and just ideas about running the affairs of the state. He is promoted from town mayor to minister. However, his ideas and practices break with tradition and anger the ruling families. An example is when he saves a burial slave from being entombed alive. He incurs the wrath of the rulers of the surrounding kingdoms by tricking them into giving back seized territory without any violence.

The second half, circa 497 BC, shows Confucius and his disciples in exile, wandering about for years and getting chased away by the locals.

As you can see from the paragraphs above, the first half of this two-hour film is more eventful and interesting than the second. There is a gripping war sequence about the storming of a fort that recalls the action in "Red Cliff." And that's about it for the action fans.

Chow rises to the occasion as the calm and collected Kong Qiu, the revered teacher whose philosophy and views helped to revolutionize some states in China. When political jealousy and fears about his influence send him into exile, the scenes get repetitious and languid. This is punctuated with a subplot about Nan Zi (Zhou Xun), consort to the Wei king who respects the wisdom of Confucius. However, her magnetic appearances are brief and almost cameo-like, leaving most of the second half as prolonged and protracted scenes of Kon Qiu's wanderings and sufferings.

Technically, this US$23-million production looks rich and even stunning at times. Cinematographer Peter Pau (of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" fame) captures the period and locations in all their glory and helps to put us in the right mood and atmosphere of the times.

"Confucius" is not a lost cause. It just looks long-drawn messy, like too many cooks having a hand at the broth. - LIM CHANG MOH (limchangmoh.blogspot.com)

the extremely bad thing about this movie is Chinese government try to control movie market and push it eagerly. in order to do it, Chinese government forced hot movie Avator out from cinema. as a result, there is no doubt, Chinese internet users initiate a movement to boycott this movie. they say: we don't have votes. however, we have cinema tickets. so, box office of this movie is horrible now. that is also why so many people give it a very low vote, such as 1 out of 10. i consider this movie as an victim. without Chinese government's "support", the box office will be much better.

the stories of Confucious are horrible, full of fake stuff. Confucius is THE most famous ideologist and educator in Chinese history. you can not see it in this movie. he is not a politician or militarist. However, it is very sad to see Confucius in this movie he is a politician and militarist, rather than an ideologist and educator. this will mislead so many people to recognize him, especially young people and non-Chinese.

the CG is horrible, too. you can see scenes of the movie are copied from other movies.

i am a Chinese. it is sad to see Confucius is deformed like this in order to cater somebody's taste.

Perhaps I'm mistaken, but I had my expectations set on Confucius the film being a tale of the man himself, one of the greatest and earliest philosophers and thinkers that had vast influence over a number of ideologies today, including the system of ethical governance. The trailer had suggested that besides being a learned man, he's quite the military strategist as well, like a precursor to Zhuge Liang, which of course is way off the mark as far as I'm concerned.

It seems like director Hu Mei had been influenced by a number of war films set in Ancient China from Battle of Wits to Red Cliff, and had been inspired to do her own, even if it had to involve Confucius. Good thing though she didn't put the philosopher, played by Chow Yun- Fat, into a suit of armour, but rather, starts off the narrative focused on his ascension to enviable political positions starting with the Law Ministry, before being Acting Interior Minister for the state of Lu.

A tale of two parts, the first half danced along the narrative tread of political intrigue, with court official envy and being the favourite adviser of the ruler, laying the groundwork for some serious rivalry and treachery to be dished out, especially when a talk of alliance with another state goes awry, if not for a Plan B up in the sleeves to bail them out of trouble. But hold on, was Confucius ever a politician to begin with? I do not know, but it didn't matter much, as there were glimpses of how his mind ticked, with discussions of ideals and ideas with his disciples being some of the highlights that one would have come to the movie for.

The second half though, was a let down. Unappreciated and driven away, Confucius starts his self-exile, and together with a small group of dedicated disciples whom we know very little of save for their names and titles appearing on screen, and most given extremely limited screen time, they wander around the film from city to city, and very much echoed the sentiments of the viewer - when will they settle down and get themselves into some serious classroom teaching? It's a pity that this section of the film decided to focus on how frail and aged Confucius had become with the passing of time, but little more. Pacing seems a little hurried as well, especially when dealing with subplots involving his disciples, with resolution being only a few minutes after.

Even Zhou Xun's cannot save the show, as she's given a combined screen time of not more than 15 minutes thereabout to turn on her charm as the consort of a kingdom that Confucius and his disciples pass through. In other words, a flower-vase role that completely underutilized the talents of this wonderful actress. Chow Yun-Fat cuts an imposing figure of Confucius and probably had what it takes in the first section, before the weak storyline in the later half muted his performance as a senior citizen with major issues to address for himself and his disciples, the first being the basic theories of Maslow in getting food and shelter for his followers.

I figured I would have enjoyed a film about Confucius more if it had taken a more in depth look into his character, his inspiration, his influences (that goes just beyond the churning of learned disciples to execute their like-minded philosophies) and of course, having all these done more through the narrative scenes, rather than through inter-titles which tell a lot more than the film itself. I think one is better off digging out Confucius epics of old, than to watch this spruced by version with very fake looking CGI.

I just wonder if this movie is another piece of propaganda of Chinese Communist Party as in the case of "Heros", or just a pure marketing stupidity..

Confucius is, above all, a philosopher and a educator. In the Analect, He had to meet with the Wie King "Nam Tu" as he was serving under his reign. Because of this, his disciple was angry with him, and Confucius looked in the sky and swore that he did not do anything wrong and if he did the Heaven would punish him.. as a matter of fact Confucius only met this woman once and for all..

If the Chinese Commie think that by depicting Confucius as a Kon-Fu hero /War hero to attract young modern movie-goers, then it is a pure stupidity..

If the Chinese Commi want to make a propaganda to justify its "unique and indispensable" role in China Modern Society, then this movie is an insult to many young but educated modern Chinese..

It's really sad that such a great historic figure has been portrayed badly just to serve short term political interest.

Well, that 's logical anyway.. The Chinese Commie are so desperate to control their mind-opening-population..especially the young generation.. As Confucius said if you try to govern people by force and deceit, you will fail.

The Totalarian Commie system will fail in 50 years despite economic improvement.

And I'm not only talking about the years this tries to put in here. It's over 2 hours, but of course those two hours could never be enough to capture every complexity or all of his teachings. One thing is for sure, as an established actor, you almost couldn't imagine anyone else playing that role. Not saying there aren't other talented guys (Tony Leung, Andy Lau and more), but it seems Chow Yun Fat was the right choice, because he is also known in the West (and because he can act too of course).

The story moves along nicely, we also get quite a few action scenes thrown our way. There is a lot of drama and also a few nice resolutions. Some of the teachings get shown and you can see that most people had great respect for the master back then too. Which of course makes it almost impossible to believe some of the things that happened to him. They seem to be very particular when it comes to dates, but I'm sure they were creative in the times in between. A nice little movie, but I think if you want to know more about him, you'd be better off reading a book.