Chow Yun-fat playing a kung fu-fighting ‘Confucius?’ Say it ain’t so

Controversy is brewing around CONFUCIUS, a US$22 million biopic on the life of the iconic Chinese philosopher starring Chow Yun-fat that began production last month. The problem, say some critics in China, is that director Hu Mei’s “undignified” version of Confucius is turning the originator of Confucianism into a kung fu-fighting romancer, which is in contrast to their image of him as a saintly philosopher who espoused fundamental, traditional values of harmony and piety towards elders that many modern Chinese still cling to. I should stress emphasis on this being “their” image.

I suppose it would be the equivalent of depicting Plato as a sword-wielding berserker screaming, “This is Athens!” as he kicks his philosophical rivals down a deep, dark well or Christian theologian Martin Luther appearing as a beer-guzzling founder of Protestantism – oh, right – he was a beer-guzzling founder of Protestantism. Anyway, it’s hard to believe that anyone with high ideals could actually be human or heroic. Right?

Hu adamantly defends her depiction of the historical figure by suggesting that Confucius rode a chariot, shot arrows from horseback and was an accomplished swordsman. “Confucius was a living, vibrant person,” said Hu. “He once directed a battle. His disciples Zilu and Ranyou were swordsmen and archers of the highest caliber. You can find all of this in reliable history texts.”

I don’t know Hu. I just checked the Wikipedia and didn’t see anything about “swordsmen” and “archers” on the Confucius page. You don’t expect us to crack open a real book, do you? Thank Google for search engines.

Confucius refers to archery in several of his analects suggesting he was familiar with the art. (see Analects of Confucius 3:7 and 3:17). While it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Confucius was warrior-trained, it’s highly unlikely he was a knight errant of wuxia lore akin to Chow Yun-fat’s depiction of Li Mu-bai in CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON. There is no record of real knight errants in China before 200 BC, nearly three centuries after the death of Confucius (see “The Knight Errant in Chinese Literature” PDF by James J. Y. Liu, M.A.). If Chow ends up flying through the air in this movie while delivering Confucian proverbs critics will really have something to fume about and yet that could still happen.

Interestingly, the role of Confucius was originally offered to a distinguished mainland TV actor named Pu Cunxi. However, he reportedly turned it down after reading the script, saying that Hu’s film turned Confucius into a “kung fu master.”

Poor Chow. He wasn’t Ang Lee’s first choice for CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON either and he’s been having a rough time getting quality roles since relocating to Hollywood in a failed bid to become a bankable leading man in the U.S. What do you do when you’re Chinese and you don’t know kung fu?

Chow was the first pick to play Zhou Yu in John Woo’s RED CLIFF and according to producer Terrence Chang he had to drop out because the film’s Hollywood insurer had too many clauses in Chow’s contract. Instead he’s been collecting paychecks for drivel like BULLETPROOF MONK and DRAGONBALL EVOLUTION. CONFUCIUS is the film that needs to put Chow back on the map in China but mainlanders worry his Mandarin won’t be good enough, as was the problem in CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON. If the film turns out to be too action oriented, it may risk being viewed as a commercial sell out that exploits one of China’s most revered figures. That’s the last thing Chow needs.

Quite frankly, I’d rather see a kung fu-free CONFUCIUS. At least leave the wirework and stylized Ching Siu-tung fighting out. China already has enough real-life and fictional kung fu masters and sword heroes to make movies about. I’d rather those movies star real kung fu and wushu actors and see Chow focus on the serious acting roles I know he’s capable of excelling at if given a chance.

Update: Contrary to my previous assertion, this is not the first Chinese-language movie on the life of Confucius. The Hong Kong Film Archive recently uncovered nitrate material for CONFUCIUS, a rare Hong Kong film from 1940 that is currently being restored (see related article).

Source: Shanghai Daily