Kung fu Confucius

By Xu Wei  |   2009-4-22  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

CASTING a Hong Kong action hero to play Confucius has outraged some purists. They oppose the big-budget portrayal of the iconic sage as a martial arts master with a sense of humor and a love interest. Xu Wei reports.

The challenge of playing Confucius is rather like taking on the role of Socrates or Moses. Everybody has powerful, fixed ideas about the revered figure and people are bound to be offended by some aspects of any portrayal.

To many people, Kongzi or Confucius was a saint, a philosopher who expounded the traditional ideas of harmony and hierarchy that are so important in China today.

Once, however, the sage was reviled, his respect for strict hierarchy seen as an impediment to social and economic progress. Now he is an icon.

So the idea that China's greatest thinker would be portrayed by Hollywood-based Hong Kong actor Chow Yun-fat - and that Confucius would be portrayed as a man of action, humor and romance - has upset quite a few people. The idea of a blockbuster biopic about saintly Confucius has struck some people as undignified, to say the least.

Director Hu Mei says Confucius was "vibrant." He could drive a chariot, hit a target with bow and arrow from horseback and was an accomplished swordsman, she says.

"Confucius" will be China's first feature film about the sage who lived from 551-479 BC, and it is a co-production of the Beijing-based Dadi Cinema and the state-run China Film Group.

This is not the only controversy about upcoming films about famous figures and the casting of celebrities and non-actors.

There are also films in the works about Chairman Mao Zedong (starring an entrepreneur investor), Lei Feng (starring Olympic diver Tian Liang) and Jia Baoyu from "A Dream of Red Mansions" (starring a "My Hero" finalist Ma Tianyu).

The biopic "Confucius," however, stirs the greatest controversy.

Movie star Chow, though, is undeterred. He himself, now in his 50s, is a legend of Hong Kong cinema for his spectacular performances in action movies by John Woo.

Chow also starred in Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (2003) and Roger Spottiswoode's "Children of Huang Shi" (2008).

Filming by female director Hu started last month. It will be shot around Beijing, Shandong Province (Confucius' birthplace) and Hengdian Film Studios in Zhejiang Province.

The 150-million-yuan (US$22 million)-budgeted biopic also stars veteran actor Jiao Huang as Laozi or Laotzu, founder of Taoism, and Zhou Xun as Nan Zi, an imperial concubine of the Wei Kingdom in the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC).

How does one portray an icon?

Some Netizens say they don't want to see a Cantonese-speaking Confucius, suggesting Chow first needs to improve his Mandarin Chinese. Some doubt whether he knows enough about the philosopher's thoughts and teachings to deliver a convincing portrayal.

Director Hu is confident in Chow's ability to deliver a convincing Confucius.

"He is the right person for the character who has many layers and characteristics," she said in an earlier interview, citing his "Crouching Tiger" and other performances.

"In addition to martial arts, Chow has demonstrated his refinement and thoughtfulness," she said.

It is reported that before Chow was cast, the producers had approached distinguished TV and stage actor Pu Cunxi. Pu reportedly turned it down because of script problems, saying Hu's film portrays the sage as a "kung fu master."

Director Hu has defended the film's action and romantic elements, saying that Confucius was not only a moral teacher and scholar who only knew how to read and preach. In her eyes, the thinker represents a totality of humor, action, romance and rationality.

"Confucius was a living, vibrant person," Hu says. "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."