Confucius (2010) - Review by Yuzhe Tao

History of the Film

The background in the film is Spring and Autumn period in Chinese history and the accurate time of the film is from 501 BC to 479 BC. At that time, the Zhou Dynasty, which has been standing for hundreds of years, has been precarious, and the states have segregated their powers and fought against each other in order to achieve hegemony. Confucius’s mother state, Lu, is a middle state in Zhou dynasty, which also wants to increase their power. So, Confucius wants to use his thoughts and ideas to help Lu state become powerful, but he failed and be expelled from the Lu state. Then he and his students travelled from each states to show his ideas and want to find a king to assist.

Historical analysis of the film

The film shows Confucius' entire life from the ruling state of Lu to travelling around the world to his death. The historical events in the film is not very rigorous since as a film, it must make the story more dramatic and attractive. For example, they change the time and way of the death of Yan Hui who is Confucius’s student. In the film, Yan Hui dies because he dived into water again and again to pull out the books which fell into the water in winter and died because of frozen and tired. The film created an image of Yan Hui who is desperate for books which add a lot of stories and sadness to his death. However, in real history, he died with no reason after Confucius went back to Lu state. So, when watching the film, we should consider that if some of the stories in the film is fabricated since they want to make the story more attractive.