A copy of CONFUCIUS was delivered to my apartment, recently. I wasbemused on a couple levels. First, there was the promo image on the disc: ChowYun-Fat at his most stoic, standing on a battlefield with a mighty sword on hiship. Knowing nothing else about this flick, I couldn’t help but picture astream of ACTION PHILOSPHERS-style images putting a comically badass,two-fisted spin on ancient and stolid philosophy. Then, there was the questionof why this was a live action flick - - a question addressed by an IP MANmovie trailer that runs before the feature.
No, this hasn’t got anything to do with manga or anime. It wasn’t evenproduced in Japan. However, I expect Funi will be distributing more of such Asiancinema from here on out, so it’s worthwhile to give at least this one a look.
Straight up, this is exactly the kind of flick you’d otherwise catch onPBS or in a media-friendly high school teacher’s World History class. Confuciusis a superhumanly virtuous saint whose only evident character flaw is his mistakenchoice to place too much trust in a fallible ruler. That's it. The conflict of the moviebreaks down to him resisting decades of temptations to muddy his virtue byinvolving himself in the matters of politics. While there are large scalebattle scenes that illustrate his prowess as a military tactician, the “action”is largely comprised of courtroom arguments, hunger strikes and the success orfailure of rhetorical points during philosophical discourse.
We see Confucius ascending in prestige amongst the lords of threeprominent kingdoms after he uses a feudal conference to save a slave boy’s lifeby exposing the hypocrisy of his master. From there, he becomes a valuedadvisor and his shrewd cunning impressively gets his associates out of atreacherous kidnapping attempt that’s sprung during a treaty negotiation.Confucius’ achievements and promotions quickly attract such venomous envy thata series of chaotic backstabbing ensues and he’s soon given no recourse but self-imposed exile. He then spends the better half of the film wandering through the countrysidewith his outfit of disciples, continually rejecting other leaders’ requests forhis consul because he deems them unworthy.
As you might surmise, this is unavoidably dry material to work with,and it’s to director Hu Mei and director of photography Peter Pau’s significantcredit that CONFUCIUS plays so well just on the merits of its staging,cinematography and assorted choices of mis-en-scene. This is anabsolutely gorgeous film that moves with engaging smoothness and a sense ofpageantry to rival any of the classic Hollywood period pieces it feels so akinto. Also, costuming’s real easy to take for granted, but I’d be remiss not to complimentthe sheer variety and seamless craft of all the historical outfits here.
Credit’s also due to Yun-Fat for infusing this icon with such gravitas, evenwhile not having much of any human weaknesses an actor kind-of needs to shape aperformance out of. His Confucius has a poise that manages to be stately and strongwhile still exuding a warmth and good humor that engenders the sort of adorationand loyalty we see in his followers.
There’s a moving scene later in the movie wherehis caravan falls through cracked ice into a lake and one of his discipleskeeps diving down into the freezing water to retrieve the master’s famous scrolls. Afterward, Confucius cradles this young man even after he succumbs tohypothermia. When his other disciples finally pry him away, there’s a sensethat his writings have taken on a life outside of him, and that he’s helplessly bound tosuffering the burden of preserving them. Such a notion isn’t exactly the stuff ofa crowd pleaser, so kudos to the Chow-man for making such an intellectual struggle so moving, somehow.
Despite my initial apprehensions, this isn’t sexed-up history (thoughI’m sure plenty of the usual creative liberties were taken.) There are still assortedpoints that unsuccessfully try to splash some drops of sweet dressing onto thesalad, though. Mostly, they’re just ill-advised choices in CGI, like the timeConfucius’ archery match with a king is punctuated by the “camera” zoomingafter an obviously bogus arrow in flight. Or the final shot that lingers on thevista of a dodgy digital matte landscape that nearly looks pixelated. Or thescene on the lake described above which opens with a shot from beneath a low-resapproximation of the ice. A few times, like when an invading army rolls upcolossally-sized battering rams during a battle, the cost-saving rationale isclear. Most times, however, you raise an eyebrow wondering who in the crewreasoned that less-distracting practical effects wouldn’t suffice.
All in all, I can’t say how well this works as a “biopic” of Confucius.Little of the screentime’s actually concerned with his famous aphorisms, so perhapswe’re meant to simply learn through his example, instead. If one doen’t already have apatience for “history for history’s sake” at the movies, this could very easilybe a dull portrait. To those with a durable curiosity, though, this is an exquisiteway to put faces, visuals and even some (very stoic) emotions to an important textbook subject.
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