In this regard, Hu Mei, the director who had been preparing the TV script of Confucius for a long time, thought that the biographical film of Confucius could only be shot by people in China, so he accelerated the preparation of the script, and later it was promoted from a TV series to a movie.
Five years later, Confucius, starring the famous actor Chow Yun Fat, was released on June 22nd, 65438 and distributed all over the world.
Face up to objections: you must have the courage to adapt to history.
Reporter: Historian Bao Pengshan criticized Confucius for being inconsistent with history in some details.
Historical film and television dramas generally have such opinions. what do you think?
Hu Mei: It's difficult to make Confucius into a movie, but it's worth doing.
Their criticism is understandable, and they find it incredible, because we have broken all the historical facts and turned them into works of art, which they can't imagine.
But after two or three years of preparation, there are also many historical experts behind us.
* * * has been doing film and television for more than 20 years and is never afraid of criticism.
What you want people to see is being criticized. Wrong is wrong. Change it next time.
To restore a saint 2,500 years ago to a living ordinary person, we must first overcome ourselves.
To put a man 2500 years ago on the screen, we have to have the courage to make up such a story. You can't do this without making up stories, such as "Yan Hui's death".
But we basically respect historical facts.
A movie can't tell a complete history in two hours.
Reporter: Some people also objected to the war scene, thinking that it was impossible for so many soldiers to appear in the war at that time.
Hu Mei: That was his mistake. He can stop the screen and count them. Those war scenes are only a few thousand people at most. The scale of the ancient people's war certainly exceeded that in our movies.
Reporter: Have you ever thought about reflecting Confucius' life from beginning to end? Nowadays, movies seem to be just fragments.
Hu Mei: At first, it was planned to make 60 TV series about Confucius from birth to death, but the film only intercepted his death at the age of 565,438+0. The first half talked about his political career, and the second half talked about his experience of traveling around the world, but I couldn't talk so much in two hours, so the second half focused on his personal feelings and spiritual realm.
It is said that there are three TV dramas about Confucius, so I will not make TV dramas.
War scenes: Visibility lies in being in troubled times.
Reporter: What is the biggest difficulty in the process of adapting history?
Hu Mei: The initial and biggest challenge of filming Confucius was to show a thinker and educator 2,500 years ago to the audience.
But these two identities are the least suitable for film performances.
Thinkers sit there and talk.
He wants to talk about philosophy or write philosophy.
However, speaking and writing are taboo in movies.
You said that a person sitting there is always writing. Can you watch this play? Educators talk, from beginning to end, can this movie be watched? I can show any family, but thinkers and educators can't.
We find from historical facts that Confucius was also a great politician. This history is little known because it is complicated and unclear.
Like the third ring road.
In the whole script creation, we have made great efforts to make the Three Rings clear.
So the biggest difficulty is how to film the crowd system between slavery and feudalism 2500 years ago for the audience to accept.
Reporter: There are many war scenes in the film, is it to win the audience's attention?
Hu Mei: Not exactly.
It is wrong for Confucius not to show war.
War is not a myth, because it was a time of war and all farmers were soldiers. When they were called, they put on their armor and went to war.
Confucius is famous partly because he is in such a ups and downs era, so you can dig out these dramatic things from that pile of old papers.
Death of Nanzi: Nanzi bears my personal feelings.
Reporter: Nanzi was stabbed to death, which is also a place that historians think is inconsistent with historical facts.
What do you think of the role of Nanzi?
Hu Mei: If someone thinks that we don't know that Nanzi didn't die like this, it's too underestimating our wisdom.
Nanzi's death by an arrow is an artistic imagination, which is related to the previous scene, including her appearance and her speech.
Nanzi's appearance in Confucius is a bright color, bearing my personal feelings as a female directors.
Women in China have been really miserable for nearly 2,500 years, and the burden they bear is conceivable for women like Nanzi.
In ancient China, how bad could a woman be? Everything is screwed up.
The so-called bad reputation is nothing more than the desire to pursue love.
A young and beautiful woman who is admired by all men will certainly have an affair and have a bad reputation, but from the perspective of women now, she should not bear a bad reputation.
Overseas markets: the expectations of overseas audiences cannot be considered.
Reporter: During the film screening, an Italian audience felt that this Confucius was like an ordinary person, and Confucius in the impression was a very magical person.
At the same time, he felt that Confucius did not show the appearance of a philosopher.
Hu Mei: I really don't understand what foreigners think.
I can't consider the expectations of overseas audiences because I'm not a foreigner.
But I think people are similar, for example, people's emotions are the same. In fact, what Confucius said from beginning to end in the film is philosophical.
But I didn't sanctify Confucius, which is very important.
Reporter: What is the current sales situation of Confucius in overseas markets?
Hu Mei: I'm not particularly clear about overseas markets, but it should be very good.
At present, South Korea has signed a contract, and now it depends on Europe and America.
Overseas people don't know much about China culture, but they all know Confucius, which is a good theme and a great challenge to carry forward China culture.
(Reporter: Wang Zhenguo Shen Yuan 'an)
Nanjing experts comment on Confucius.
Compared with Bao Pengshan, an expert on Confucius, Nanjing scholars are full of praise after reading Confucius' works.
Yesterday, the film Confucius held a movie and a forum in Nanjing Peace Studios. The invited audience is mainly some film and television critics in Nanjing. They think this film shows the unknown side of Confucius and can let the world know more about this saint.
Dong Jian, dean of Nantah College of Literature and president of Jiangsu Critics Association, said: "Under the present circumstances, it is a good thing in itself that we can put Confucius on the screen in China.
Because our traditional culture is in crisis, people forget these things, and our realistic educational crisis calls us to find some of our spirits.
Of course, many Confucius Institutes have been set up all over the world, and problems have begun to appear. We should grasp Confucius' things more accurately, and don't blindly pursue the upsurge of Chinese studies and Confucius, which is the other extreme, and this should also be prevented.
Dong Lao also pointed out that the film did not fully show that Confucius was a great educator.
Yu, a professor of film and television at Nanjing Forestry University, was full of praise for "Looking at Nanzi" in the film. "I think meeting Nanzi is very touching. Nanzi has been demoted many times in history, but the screenwriter handled it very well, so I say one thing-I have never seen a good virtue as a lewd one, and I think this is where the director and screenwriter handled it very skillfully. There used to be too much romance in Nanzi in many plays and books. In fact, this is also a fact.
In this era, men can be ridiculous, why can't women be like this? "
Professor Wu Xiang of Nanjing Xiaozhuang Teachers College believes that Confucius not only filled a historical gap, but also guided and promoted the taste of China blockbusters to a great extent and guided the value trend of China blockbusters.
"The film Confucius presents a tragic form.
Tragedy is an important form to measure whether a country's art form is profound, broad, atmospheric and mature.
This film is a great success here. "