I doubt many of you will have heard about this, i only remember hearing a bit about it last year and promptly forgot. Its a film starring Chow Yun Fat as the titular character Confucious.
Confucious was a Chinese philosopher who changed the course of Chinese history and started a philosophical momvement that still has millions of followers today. His life was spent in the midst of the Chinese political system where he strived for fairness and justice for the Chinese people, something which has made him a legend to the Chinese people.
The film looks, like most well budgeted eastern films, genuinely beautifully shot and filmed with something western film-makers have completely lost the ability to utilise, patience. The end product is always the aim and not the end box office. Maybe this is why western audiences have really begun to appreciate eastern cinema becoming more and more available to them.
One thing i am glad of though is there is no wire fighting kung fu in this film. I know it's nothing to do with him but i got really sick of overly long and needless elaboration of kung fu as a metaphor and a chance to show of in films like Hero. If you take the wire work out of these films they'd be really short.
Will you take the time to go and see or rent Confucious? Does eastern cinema interet you at all?