Confucius   Starring: Chow Yun-fat, Zhou Xun, Chen Jianbin, Ren Quan, Lu Yi and Yao Lu Showbox Media Group RRP: £17.99 SBX488 Certificate: 15 Available 04 October 2010

Confucius - literally Master Kong (Kong Qiu, 551-479 BC) - was a Chinese politician, scholar and philosopher, whose ideas of moral governing and a desire to return to the old Chinese ways had a profound effect on his country, helping to usher a period which moved towards unification and away from the war lord feudal system, in a time known as the 'Spring and Autumn Period'...

Confucius (2010 - 1 hr, 59 min, 41 sec) is a historical drama based on the philosopher’s life, directed by Mei Hu and staring Chow Yun-Fat. Historical dramas, by their nature, tend to be compromises, reducing a great man’s life work into a couple of hours and sometimes the compromise does not work as well as it could.

There is so much richness in Confucius’s life that the film gives little more than a taster. Its narrative format of the film covers two of the most important periods of his life, his political career, which ended in banishment and his years of wandering teaching his philosophies.

The film opens with Kong Qiu (孔丘) being elevated from successful mayor to advisor to the ruler of one of the three kingdoms, which immediately raises the hatred of the other nobles, who consider him a little more than a commoner. Only a tactical victory over one of Lu’s neighbours protects him from retribution, he is further protected when he successfully thwarts an attempted coup. Of course this only worked as long as he was needed. When he convinces the ruler to demand that the wall around the cities be pulled down the noble’s rebel and Lu’s enemies see a chance of an easy victory. Continually pressured by Confucius his benefactor does not stand in the way of his eventual exile.

The second half of the film shows Confucius wandering through China, sometimes being welcomed, but oft time shunned, belittled and rejected, yet still he continued to teach. He is only recalled to Lu when it is once again under attack, but instead of returning, even though both he and his followers are starving, he successfully dispatches one of his disciples, who rebuff the invaders. Eventually Confucius relents and returns home to die.

In its attempt to present a grand spectacle, the film often loses sight of its main character, even though Chow Yun-Fat is evident in most of the scenes, so much has to be crammed into two hours that I’m not sure that a western audience will learn that much about the philosophy involved, nor do you really get enough background information to explain why Kong Qiu was able to climb the social ladder and what his challenge to the status quo really meant, it ends up as more of a skim across Qiu’s life. This is not helped by the inclusion of spurious subplots the biggest of which is Qiu’s meeting with a beautiful courtesan of a neighbouring kingdom, it’s a lovely little piece, but adds little to the overall narrative.

The film does look suitable gorgeous, with CGI enhanced vistas, which gives China a magical look of a land worth defending. Yun-Fat is also pretty good considering that he has to portray the master, from being in robust middle age to his eventual death. Yun-Fat brings a real solid centre to the piece and although you don’t get as much of Confucius's writings as I would have liked, the actor was able to bring a real level of quiet gravitas to his character. Although the supporting cast is strong, they are, for the most part, crudely drawn as the reason for their existence is mostly to drive the main character's story.

The film comes with options for either a 5.1 or 2.0 Mandarin audio tracks, with the 5.1 coming into its own during the battle scenes; the film has optional English subtitles. The cinematography really shines in this 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer.

There is a full length commentary from Bey Logan. Anyone who has heard one of these will realise that they will learn just about everything they could want to know about the film and the actors, delivered at a breakneck speed.

The disc does well for extras with the forty-nine minute ‘making of’ being broken up into seven featurettes, which cover the creation of the film and how the actors approached their roles.

If you accept the film for what it is, even given its strange two-in-one approach to the philosopher's life then there is much to enjoy here, not least Chow Yun-Fat impressive central performance.

8

Charles Packer