With a star-studded cast, this movie is bound to be a hit.  My friends and I watched this movie on a Sunday night not knowing what the movie is all about.  Our first question was if it has English subtitles and luckily they do.

The movie started with Confucius visiting the ruler of the Kingdom of Lu where he is the mayor of one of the cities.  The ruler is impressed with how he ruled his city as people were happy with how he govern and they are contributing much to the kingdom’s coffers.

With his rise in fame and how he outwitted one of the other mayors, he gained disciples who follow his teachings.  His disciples are well known for their intelligence, strategy and loyalty.  From mayor, he became the Minister of Law, then Interim Minister of the Kingdom.  A lot of government officials were jealous and upset with him as he’s merely a commoner and not a noble.  In the end, they were able to convince the ruler to let him go.

In his exile, he and his disciples wandered and teach from state to state and eventually he became known as a scholar and educator.  In the Kingdom of Wei, he met the consort of the ruler (Zhou Xun), who is interested in his teachings.  However, he didn’t stay long as he thought that the way they rule will not last long. 

After more than 10 years wandering to different states, the son of the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Lu tracked them down and asked his help in the war.  He sent his disciple on his behalf knowing his disciple can do the job.  He continued on his journey and lost one of his best disciple as he froze to death trying to save the scrolls.  He lost another disciple when the Kingdom of Wei asked for his help in changing the government. 

In the end, the Prime Minister would like to apologize in person to Confucius for driving him away out of the kingdom.  Confucius was too late to meet him but agreed to return.  His only condition is not to be involved in politics any longer but to educate the people only.  He died at 73.

All in all, the movie was just a history lesson about the life of Confucius.  The acting was just ok with no dramatic plots involved.  The action plot in the movie are few and far in between.  There are lots of quotes by Confucius but for those who can’t understand Chinese and who has to rely on the English subtitles, you’ll be frustrated on how fast they speak that you haven’t even finished reading the line, it’s already gone.   If you want to learn some Chinese tradition, you’ll get a kick out of this.

Verdict:  3 out of 5.  It’s just hype.  If you’re expecting a lot of Zhou Xun, you’ll be disappointed.  I think the movie they’ve shown was already cut as some of the scenes in the picture outside the theatre weren’t even shown in the movie.