I don't speak Chinese, so I was left to follow this urban satire in subtitles. I'm sure I would have found the film more humorous if I could have grasped all the nuances that are inevitably lost in subtitles.
A Confucian Confusion is a loud and discordant satire. The hysteria runs a two-day course in which alliances shift, couples break up and the author of the rejected novel, "A Confucian Confusion," has a lame epiphany that makes him decide to rejoin the commercial world that he had recently abandoned.
The film takes place in a newer, more affluent Taiwan, and follows a circle of friends and family. There are many moments when relevant debates about commercial art, pure/ high art, and the status quo are presented. The movie's very title, A Confucian Confusion, refers to a novel written by one of the characters. Its story is about Confucius, who is reincarnated as a popular media personality. To his resentment, the ancient Chinese thinker discovers he is admired not for who he is but for being such a wonderful phony--big slap in the face to consumer pop-culture. The conclusion: affluence, as desirable as it may be, brings its own woes, not the least of which is a spiritual vacuum.
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