Confucius Movie Trailer #2, Starring Chow Yun Fat

We covered the first three-minute long trailer for the Chow Yun Fat-starring Confucius back in September, and now we have yet another glimpse at the historical epic. There have been several small trailers released since then, so I'm just going to go ahead and call this trailer number two. This trailer has the benefit of being in HD, and gives us a much better look at the scope of the film, as well as the many large-scale battles. Confucius was directed by Mei Hu, with a budget around $20 million. It was developed in part with the Chinese government, and is part of an initiative to promote the philosophy of Confucius.

It seems that we can't get a Chinese historical epic these days without massive battle scenes, and like the folks over at Twitch, I'm getting a little burned out with the concept. I'd much rather see a resurgence in well-choreographed wuxia martial arts films, instead of those featuring epic battles (which in some respects, inevitably end up looking the same).

This time around, we also get a sampling of the film's more bombastic score elements, as well as some semi-supernatural scenes. Despite the battle scenes, there seem to be lots of interesting visuals in with this film, and it's something I'm looking forward to seeing on the big screen.

What I wrote before still stands: Don't expect any surprises from this film. Being a government project about one of the most revered philosophical figures in China, I don't expect that Mei Hu will be able to take many risks with the material. (For another example of Chinese governmental influence on film, consider the ending of Hero). It'll still probably be worth watching for the Chow factor alone.

The film will be released in Chinese theaters on January 28th. View the trailer below: