Confucius 孔子：決戰春秋

Much of the engagement is baffling. The well-protected county of Lu cannot seem to defend itself without the help of Confucius' 72 disciples. This was considered a 'magic number' in early Chinese literature, but the sequence really is far-fetched. When this magical minority takes up arms, they succeed in driving the enemy back by building a roadblock and firing arrows into the sky. Rubbish.

Also it is difficult to understand why, with only a few words of advice, Confucius' team of workers so blindly follows him; it is unexplained and the belief in their leader seems somewhat implausible. For example, almost ten minutes of the film is taken up by the band of disciples sharing Confucius' last bowl of horse-meat soup, in what must only be an attempt to convey their unification. It's totally unconvincing and nonsensical to watch.

Overall the film plods. The main events of the drama are few and far between, as interest is lost during the dialogue. It's a slow and respectful history lesson for today's disciples, yet there's nothing much to it apart from the historical aspect, and due to the key funders, this can't be trusted.

If the Chinese government wanted to make a biography of Confucius' life, they should have made it historically accurate and withdrawn all fictitious characters. Unfortunately legend has been mixed too cohesively and it's impossible to separate fact.

However if the People's Republic wanted a politically motivated biography on a legend, they should have stuck to the historical account rather than mucking the water further with some sort of false romance. Taking the legend route, I would have preferred an all out fantasy drama and crowd pleaser. This at least would have drawn more attention to the story of Confucius, and perhaps may even have attracted a younger audience, who might have chosen to watch it at the weekend instead of having propaganda forced down their necks in a history class.

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