"Lean" here is used as a compliment, meaning not stuffed with the trashy garbage that plagued Zheng Yimou's "Curse of the golden flower" (2006).
This biopic permeates a feeling of sincerity on the part of the movie makers to tell a story in a simple, old-fashion manner. Indeed there are set pieces that look a little contrived with the purpose to impress, but overall, this is a solid piece of movie-making. As to the question of historic accuracy, I am in no position to comment.
Roughly in three parts, the first comprises the establishing scenes on the background of Confucius's "political" days when he looks a lot more like master military strategist Zhuge Liang in John Woo's "Red Cliff" (2008) than the iconic teacher that has shaped the cultural-philosophical history of China. At the middle is the action show piece of a famous battle he engineers, certainly well made but not particularly memorable, with so many spectacular movies that went before. The final part tells how exiled from his homeland by the warlord he well served, Confucius embarks upon the part of his life with which most people identify him, a teacher followed by a group of loyal students, in a way actually not unlike Jesus of Nazareth.
CHOW Yun-fat is always a fascinating actor to watch. His distant relative ZHOU Xun (exactly the same Chinese surname, but spelled with different dialects) is of course the darling of today's Chinese movie screen, but unfortunately has an almost cameo appearance. Overall, this movie will earn your respect with the serious, solid effort from all concerned, but not capture your heart with anything particularly brilliant. Good historic biopic melodrama – that's about it.
This biopic permeates a feeling of sincerity on the part of the movie makers to tell a story in a simple, old-fashion manner. Indeed there are set pieces that look a little contrived with the purpose to impress, but overall, this is a solid piece of movie-making. As to the question of historic accuracy, I am in no position to comment.
Roughly in three parts, the first comprises the establishing scenes on the background of Confucius's "political" days when he looks a lot more like master military strategist Zhuge Liang in John Woo's "Red Cliff" (2008) than the iconic teacher that has shaped the cultural-philosophical history of China. At the middle is the action show piece of a famous battle he engineers, certainly well made but not particularly memorable, with so many spectacular movies that went before. The final part tells how exiled from his homeland by the warlord he well served, Confucius embarks upon the part of his life with which most people identify him, a teacher followed by a group of loyal students, in a way actually not unlike Jesus of Nazareth.
CHOW Yun-fat is always a fascinating actor to watch. His distant relative ZHOU Xun (exactly the same Chinese surname, but spelled with different dialects) is of course the darling of today's Chinese movie screen, but unfortunately has an almost cameo appearance. Overall, this movie will earn your respect with the serious, solid effort from all concerned, but not capture your heart with anything particularly brilliant. Good historic biopic melodrama – that's about it.