Mao's Last Dancer (2010)

Brilliant and touching

Admirable film.

Absolutely Brilliant!

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Li Cunxin is a Chinese ballet dancer. He arrives in America in a cultural exchange program sponsored by the Houston Ballet director Ben Stevenson (Bruce Greenwood). As a child, he was taken from a small rural village and trained in the state dance program in Beijing. He tries to adjust to the new culture and the new dance program. He falls for fellow dancer Elizabeth (Amanda Schull). Li wants to extend his stay but the Chinese government refuses.There is a general lack of drama in this biopic. His childhood story is interesting but without any surprises. It's interesting to see China but the story has no intensity. A similar thing can be said about the modern American side of the story. At least that has a love story and some drama about his defection. Two hours is way too long for a biopic that isn't that dramatic.

I don't normally watch many movies about ballet, I respect it as an art form but as a guy, just don't "get it". This movie however, transcends the ballet aspect because it involves a personal and true-to-life story. I think the film captures well post-revolutionary China and the US in the early 1980's.Even though the story is based on a actual events and you know actors are portraying these real people, the acting is quite believable (both Chinese and Western) . The dancing scenes are quite good, this coming from a layman. Chi Cao's acting was a bit forced as it was apparent that though he was Asian, probably was probably well versed in Western culture. (Being an Westen cultured Asian myself) it takes one to know one. This very slight oversight can be forgiven, given that Chi Cao's dancing is obviously authentic.The early relationship of Li Cunxin and Elizabeth is very well portrayed, capturing the cultural differences which were a bit more pronounced 30 years ago. There were some very touching family scenes that made me cry.I had not heard of Bruce Beresford before, but I see by his filmography that he has had a long and distinguished career and may check out more of his films. Yet another underrated and unappreciated gem of a film which deserves more exposure, squeezed out by the big studios and their big marketing budgets churning out inferior, self gratifying fare.

"Mao's Last Dancer" is a very enjoyable and inspiring film--even if, like me, you have absolutely no interest in ballet. The film is based on the autobiography of Li Cunxin--a great Chinese dancer who eventually defected to the United States in the early 1980s.The film bounces back and forth in time, but basically it begins with a young boy being chosen to move from his very rural town to Beijing to begin training as a dancer. I thought the most interesting part of the film was his training as well as the struggle between those wanting to create true ballet in China and those who wanted it to be used for propaganda purposes. Regardless, eventually Cunxin (Chi Cao) is given an opportunity to dance in the US by the leader of a ballet troop in Houston (Bruce Greenwood) and the rest is history. See it for yourself to find out what happens next.As I said above, it's a very good film even though many in the audience will not care for ballet. Let's be honest here--ballet is not appreciated by a wide audience. But what I could appreciate was Cao's great athleticism and very good acting. I also enjoyed watching Greenwood, as he was quite different from the more macho and deep-voiced guy I saw in the TV show "Nowhere Man". Here, he sounds like an entirely different guy and I appreciated that as well. The film also is quite artistic--with lovely music and direction. Well worth seeing.

What can I say about this movie that other reviewers have not already said? I went to this movie because I'll go to any movie that incorporates ballet. Yes, the dancing was top notch; however the movie was so great on so many levels that I wish I had talked my non-ballet-liking husband into going with me. It is a very human story encompassing many of the international changes that took place over the last half of the 20th century and people caught up in them. Although close to two hours long, the time flies by and this was barely enough time within which to tell the story. Now I'll have to read the book.In the US the movie seems to be playing only in little "art theaters". Too bad, because it is a blockbuster of a film.