I mean "Confucius" the movie, not the person...
Too many political intrigues in the story line. It's kinda hard for me to follow the connection between the characters. It's still a good movie, but a bit messy in editing. Maybe it's kind of movie you need to watch two or three times to grasp the whole plot.
Like the reviewer said, it's full of propaganda.
shareYou may want to look up the definition of propaganda.
The reviewer who mentioned that obviously has very bad language, and chose a bad word to describe it. This film has no propaganda, it couldn't possibly, as it is based on ancient history.
However, it certainly has its own view of the story of Confucius and is shown through a fan's coloured view, as the director obviously is.
Propaganda would suggest that the film tries to achieve a certain end with its message, to gain something political or economical with the way it tells the message, whether truthful or fraudulent. This film certainly doesn't fit.
"You were assimilated, resistance was futile!"
Consider: Morality of officials is of utmost importance for good governance.
-> Corruption in China
Consider: Confucius being exiled by his home state, wandering, not finding a place, and finally being invited home, and he supplicates himself.
-> Taiwan
I agree that not all propaganda is bad or untruthful (the bit against corruption is necessary), but there are overt political messages in almost all recent Chinese epics, and it's getting tedious. The problem is the loss of artistic honesty without the taint of governmental influence.
I guess this is a catch-22 situation. Without large independent studios, these expensive epics require government funding, which puts you at their mercy. Also, if you have a message that pisses off the government and they prevent you from distributing locally in China, you're pretty much SoL, as Chinese films still don't have sufficient overseas appeal to fund such blockbusters.
Very interesting parallel to the Taiwan situation. But I didn't see it, so I don't see how it's propaganda, although at least now I know what you mean, and it does make sense.
I also agree there is way too much pro-government messages in Chinese epics (consider Hero, a great flick with a totally propaganda ending), but I don't think the Chinese government has anything to do with it. It is just Chinese culture, historical and modern, asserting itself. While I'm a strong libertarian and believe in pure individual rights and liberty, and will fight to bring this ideal back to western society (we have been lost lately, enslaved by the global elite bankers who want to bring in Stalinist type marriage of fascism and communism), but I would never want to force the far East into this model, their culture is so different, and I recognize it, that individual rights have never had the same type of meaning then they do in western society. Neither do private property and liberty. So while you may see this is government influence, I only see it as Chinese culture in movies.
"You were assimilated, resistance was futile!"
other points to consider on the side of propaganda:
- political chaos when the power is not centralized
- sudden change - who and how somebody defines sudden? - is not to be considered (Confucius shouting at a certain moment something like political change should not be made in a haste)
- the righteousness of modest people
- the return of the penitent exiled (interesting idea of the previous commenter about Taiwan)
- Confucius is a flawless character (plus good looks) - if it would have been a fantasy, perhaps acceptable , but there were 6 historians in the credits, and this is all they could provide?
coming from an ex-communist country perhaps I can smell better certain features made to mesmerize disillusioned hearts ... not that on the staunch capitalist side things are much better
not worth a second viewing IMO...better read something by the man himself :)
Sounds just like the US of A.
sharei think you missed the point! like mentioned before its not propaganda, ideology would be a better way of naming it
besides that the western term used to describe his "ideology" or philosophy (which is also not quite right) is called confucianism, which was rediscovered by the chinese government to describe some of the political aspects of china after 2000 (e.g. the growing economy and the diversity between income differents), i didnt see the movie this way
matter of fact the movie describes his life pretty accurate and also shows his philosophy which was written down by some of his students, many points of view influenced the eastern asia culture and the history of the eastern asians....and i think its not exaggerated when the movie in the end tells something like "he was the greatest thinker of all time" and may i add way beyond thinking of western culture who didnt realized that education shouldnt be based on social rankings (which is btw still a great problem in the west, specially speaking for my country); what i would admit is that like most far away in time historical movies its a little whitewashed...
last but not least, speaking of propaganda movies as an american is a little bit odd; i can barely think of a movie about military stuff for example (btw mostly sponsored by military through giving requisites like humvee or apaches or whatever, pressing the producers to let the military look well), not speaking about how the americans are always the greatest fighting for freedom and the poor and innocent, lonely hero and other american myths bullshhhh, a look at the imdb top 100 may be funny keeping this in mind ;)
i dont wanna say that there arent any controversial or critical movies from the us of a which may lack from china (well there are but mostly from exiled people, even hongkong produced pictures missing controversions or critics on the system or "the party")
(yea iam ready for a *beep* grammar nazi me iam not a native speaker, my pc games taught me english)
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