Confucius 2010 film with Chow Yun-fat
bababardwan
February 08, 2010 at 11:49 PM posted in General DiscussionI note a film made in Mandarin on the life of Confucius was released in Beijing on January 14 and stars Chow Yun-fat.The timing was interesting because it has caused Hollywood's Avatar to be pulled from 1600 2d screens across China and has not been as popular.The controversies referred to in this wikipedia article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confucius_(2010_film)
...I thought particularly surrounding the choice of Chow Yun-fat and the concern his association with martial arts movies would turn Confucius into a kung fu hero,[and also the concern over him being more of a Cantonese speaker],and a descendant of Confucius has come out of the woodwork to bring a lawsuit against the film makers "objecting to the intimations that Confucius was romantically attracted to the concubine, Nanzi"
Has anybody seen this movie yet?
Interesting that we had a recent Advanced lesson on Confucius...I don't recall anyone mentioning this movie...did I miss it? I would love to see this movie even if it isn't being received so well.
bababardwan
July 31, 2010 at 12:59 PM
forgot to mention, the king of wei calls kongzi [or kong qiu as they refer to him in this movie] a 书呆子 which is straight out of Yang Jie's diary in the old Diary Series:
http://chinesepod.com/lessons/yang-jies-diary-everyone-is-dating
...hehe, classic.
bodawei
February 11, 2010 at 06:20 AM
Hi Changye. What does 达 mean in Japanese and Korean? Is it the same use as in Chinese? One of my class groups called themselves the 达人s.
changye
February 11, 2010 at 06:36 AM
Hi bodawei
One of the meanings of "达" is "achieve" in Chinese, Korean and Japanese, and "达人" indicates "a master/expert" in the three languages. That said, "达人" is a little archaic word in Chinese, while it's still commonly used both in modern Korean and Japanese. I guess the recent revival of "达人" in Chinese might be due to influence of Japanese "達人" (tatu-jin). Japanese people really love this word.
changye
February 11, 2010 at 06:14 AM
Let me take "发" (in 周润发, Chow yun-fat) as an example to show a little about historical relationship of hanzi readings among Chinese, Korean and Japanese. Below are (approximate) readings of 发 in different times and regions.
modern Chinese ... fa
middle Chinese ....piuat
modern Cantonese ....faat
modern Japanese ..... ha-tu
middle Japanese ..... pa-tu
modern Korean ..... pal
middle Korean ...... pal
Modern Chinese already lost the end consonant (stop consonant) "t", which existed in middle Chinese, but it's still well preserved in Cantonese and Japanese.
The Korean reading also has an end consonant, but interestingly it's not "t", but "l". Why? There is still no accepted theory, but some linguists claim that the "l" is originated in an obscure end consonant in northern Chinese, which represented a transitional sound between the end consonant "t" and its disappearance.
The same holds true for the character "达".
modern Chinese ... da
middle Chinese ....dat
modern Cantonese ....daat
modern Japanese ..... ta-tu
middle Japanese ..... ta-tu
modern Korean ..... dal
middle Korean ...... dal
changye
February 09, 2010 at 12:31 PM
I must point out that Chow Yun-fat is too good-looking to play 孔夫子. Here is the link to the most well-known portrait of Confucius.
http://cityofdharmarealm.org/Events/2008/pictures/confucius.jpg
changye
February 09, 2010 at 01:27 PM
Chinese people have already grown accustomed to "exaggerated history" in the PRC, hehe.
orangina
February 09, 2010 at 01:03 PM
I notice the confucian descendant didn't object to that little historical inaccuracy...
bababardwan
February 09, 2010 at 12:42 PM
thanks for that link changye.Can you tell us more about that one? Does the portrait have a title and who is supposed to have painted it?
eupnea63355
February 09, 2010 at 12:15 PM
I'm glad to know about this movie! I hope it will come out on DVD with subtitles, though...my mandarin is awful.
bababardwan
March 14, 2010 at 08:20 AM
thanks zhong_bide.I suppose I would consider buying it if I can't find anywhere to rent ,but unless it's an absolute rippa I don't usually have a great desire to buy too many DVD's...just chogs up the house...though admittedly Chinese ones are worth watching several times for the language practice.Anyhow,very handy to have those links so thanks mate. :)
zhong_bide
March 13, 2010 at 06:15 AM
You can now buy the DVD through Sensasian @ http://sensasian.com/product.php/en/V21272-D/Confucius_%5BDTS%5D/ - Mandarin with English and Chinese subtitles - all regons AUD$26
Or you can get the VCD for AUD$10
bababardwan
February 09, 2010 at 12:28 PM
Yeah,I just wish I could find a release date for Australia.imdb only has release dates for China,HK,and South Korea:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1397498/releaseinfo
bababardwan
February 09, 2010 at 06:34 AM
I was trying to post videos from non youtube sites in the hope that those in China could view them too,but they don't seem to want to embed here.Here are the links anyway:
http://www.trailerspy.com/trailer/5212/Confucius-Trailer
http://www.veoh.com/browse/videos/category/drama/watch/v19017555eNQKZdqK
bababardwan
February 09, 2010 at 06:35 AM
Chow Yun-fat doesn't seem to be having any problem with his Mandarin in these clips.
bababardwan
February 09, 2010 at 06:45 AM
hkboy,
Wasn't that what you were responding to an hour ago in this comment?:
http://chinesepod.com/community/conversations/post/6801#comment-150492
[I hope that works...it's the first time I've tried to directly link to a specific comment rather than a specific thread].
hkboy
February 09, 2010 at 01:50 PM
He was so happy. I remember it was April 1st. He came back and told everyone. However, 1/2 of the people thought it was an April Fool's joke. The other 1/2 either didn't care or didn't know him.
bababardwan
February 09, 2010 at 12:02 AM
I tell you what,I'm intrigued by the notion that someone is able to claim to be a descendant of Confucius.That's fantastic genealogical work to have it all traced/recorded from that far back[must be over a hundred generations].I wonder how many others could also make that claim? I'd love to see the family tree mapped out...that'd be some scroll and I'd love to learn how they make/prove the connection.
bababardwan
February 11, 2010 at 10:18 PM
wow,thanks heaps svik;good information.I'd be interested in seeing that.Sounds more solid if it's written in stone.
svik
February 11, 2010 at 10:01 PM
Hi Baba,
I have been to QuFu （曲阜）the ancestral home of Confucius, and I think many people there (姓孔) know how many generations they are from him. It was 78 generations I think one man told me. I seem to remember there was something written on a wall, but it's been many years now since I saw that.
bababardwan
February 09, 2010 at 06:41 AM
Well they could go to the dna,but it'd be halved to the 100th power,unless of course we have some consanguineous relations to complicate the calculations which we would have no doubt.Full genome sequencing on genealogical trees should be interesting.
But in the meantime,I'd actually be more interested to see on what basis one was making such a claim.
changye
February 09, 2010 at 12:37 AM
As is always the case in China, you can fabricate it, sell it, and buy it.
bababardwan
July 31, 2010 at 01:22 AMok, I've managed to buy the DVD and have been really enjoying watching it. Always a thrill the Chinese you do recognise. Particularly thrilled though with a number of expressions from recent lessons that turned up in this filk. For example at 39m 50s:
鲁魏两国两国一向相依生存
..we have a great example of the use of 生存, I word I only recognise because of the recent UI outdoor survival series.
Earlier in the film, kongzi's disciples are entreating him not to go out late at night as he must be tired, and he replies:
累也值得
。。。a line directly from the recent Yellow Mountain lesson. A magic moment. Thanks CPod :)