Chow Yun-Fat left John Woo's epic Red Cliff, in part, to star in this biography of the great philosopher. The film is set up as a memory play of sorts with the great man looking back on his life.
I'm going to do something that really won't make any difference if you see the film, I'm going to tell you the whole plot. There is a reason for this so bear with me. Confucius is a commoner who rises to mayor of a town. He's so successful at using his philosophy to run the town he is sent up the ladder of success. However his achievements break with tradition and annoy the various ruling families (he has the gall to save a burial slave from being entombed alive). He also annoys the various rulers of the surrounding kingdoms by using his cleverness to win back lost territory without any violence. However he eventually he annoys his benefactor who sends him into exile. He then wanders about for many years before he he is allowed to return home where he assembles his book of wisdom.
See how exciting that paragraph was? Thats how exciting the film is as a whole. Yes there are some battle scenes and much great verbal sparring, but for the most part nothing much happens. Actually once he's turned out very little happens other than Confucius and his followers wander the country for years. They annoy the local leaders and are forced to move on while his philosophy takes hold. Its not unwatchable but it really makes you wonder why you're watching this or what made anyone think that this was going t be exciting to an audience. Its lots of "gee isn't the master great" and such. it get dull real fast. It doesn't help that the film is filled with subtitles to explain the where, the when and the who of events. Its not just at the start, where it's helpful to get things going, its all through the film and it makes the film feel as if its a shorter version of some huge epic tale. I kept wondering what I was missing, was something other than people sitting around thinking deep thoughts happening in a place just off the screen and if so why wasn't I there.
I'm picking on the film, and its really not fair since its not a bad movie, its just an over long and somewhat bland one. I'd wait to see this as a rental (I'd say wait for this to show up on cable but I doubt that will ever happen outside of Asia). Not a disaster, but on the other hand not really an exciting film after the first half hour or so.
I'm going to do something that really won't make any difference if you see the film, I'm going to tell you the whole plot. There is a reason for this so bear with me. Confucius is a commoner who rises to mayor of a town. He's so successful at using his philosophy to run the town he is sent up the ladder of success. However his achievements break with tradition and annoy the various ruling families (he has the gall to save a burial slave from being entombed alive). He also annoys the various rulers of the surrounding kingdoms by using his cleverness to win back lost territory without any violence. However he eventually he annoys his benefactor who sends him into exile. He then wanders about for many years before he he is allowed to return home where he assembles his book of wisdom.
See how exciting that paragraph was? Thats how exciting the film is as a whole. Yes there are some battle scenes and much great verbal sparring, but for the most part nothing much happens. Actually once he's turned out very little happens other than Confucius and his followers wander the country for years. They annoy the local leaders and are forced to move on while his philosophy takes hold. Its not unwatchable but it really makes you wonder why you're watching this or what made anyone think that this was going t be exciting to an audience. Its lots of "gee isn't the master great" and such. it get dull real fast. It doesn't help that the film is filled with subtitles to explain the where, the when and the who of events. Its not just at the start, where it's helpful to get things going, its all through the film and it makes the film feel as if its a shorter version of some huge epic tale. I kept wondering what I was missing, was something other than people sitting around thinking deep thoughts happening in a place just off the screen and if so why wasn't I there.
I'm picking on the film, and its really not fair since its not a bad movie, its just an over long and somewhat bland one. I'd wait to see this as a rental (I'd say wait for this to show up on cable but I doubt that will ever happen outside of Asia). Not a disaster, but on the other hand not really an exciting film after the first half hour or so.