From the BBC:
Best known for his gangster roles, Chow will swap his trademark trench coat for scholarly robes in the movie.
The film will be a joint production between Beijing-based Dadi Cinema and the state-run China Film Group, a Dadi Cinema official told Associated Press.
Filming is due to begin in three weeks. A release date has yet to be announced.
The movie comes amid a surge in interest in the philosopher, who was practically outlawed during China’s Cultural Revolution of the 1960s.
We’ve certainly come along way since this:
This was a case study in how obscure research into ancient history can screw a philosopher even though he’s been dead for thousands of years. First you have Mao who liked to think of himself as a new Qin Shihuangdi [r. 246 BCE-221 BCE], ruthless but effective in unifying his country. Qin Shihuangdi was advised by Legalists whose principle ideological enemies were the Confucians…burning the books, banning the teachings, and even hoary chestnuts (almost certainly apocryphal) of scholars being buried alive. And of course there was the whole “associated with feudal culture, backwards thinking, etc.” that had been the main indictment of Confucius since the May 4th era. But wait…THERE’S MORE! (It’s like a “Criticize Confucius” infomercial…
Because in the odd academic/political climate of the Cultural Revolution, it wasn’t enough that Confucius was a reactionary for the present age, no he was a reactionary even back in the day. To follow the rabbit down this hole of logic, we have Marx and his Chinese adherents describing Chinese historical progress in terms of moving from slave –> feudal –> semi-feudal/semi-colonial stages, with a key transition point being the Qin Dynasty [221-206 BCE], which ended the political and economic systems that had defined the Zhou/Warring States period [1111-222 BCE]. (A political and economic system Non-Marxist historians, just to mess with people, would call “feudal.” And yes, studying Chinese history is always this much fun.)
Now, the transition from the Zhou system which was feudal but that Chinese Marxists referred to as “slave society” to a more “advanced” system under the Qin which Chinese Marxists call “Feudal” and the rest of us call “tyrannical authoritarian rule” was opposed by the Confucians. Confucius himself, if you read him a certain way and your name is not Kang Youwei, loved the Zhou system and so…in the bizarre world of Marxist historical theory ca. 1974, Confucius was the ultimate reactionary. Then. Now. Forever.
Now he’s a movie and Yu Dan has a multi-million RMB book deal. Go figure.
I’m not even going to go into how Lin Biao, he of the alleged coup and the falling airplane, got involved in the whole mess.
Anyway, in my tradition of suggesting alternative multi-ethnic casting for Chinese movies, let us lament that Lorne Greene is no longer with us, because he might get my vote to play the Big K. The man raised the Cartwright boys and battled the Cylons…all the while uttering wise platitudes to any who would listen.
