Mao's last dancer (2009)

Mao's Last Dancer is a 2009 Australian biographical film, directed by Bruce Beresford, based on ballet dancer Li Cunxin's autobiography Mao's Last Dancer. Li Cunxin is portrayed by Birmingham Royal Ballet Principal Dancer Chi Cao, Australian Ballet dancer Cheungwu Guo and Huang Wen Bin. The film also stars Bruce Greenwood, Kyle MacLachlan, Joan Chen, Wang Shuangbao and Amanda Schull.

 

Plot

A drama based on the autobiography by Li Cunxin. At the age of 11, Li was plucked from a poor Chinese village by Madame Mao's cultural delegates and taken to Beijing to study ballet. In 1979, during a cultural exchange to Texas, he fell in love with an American woman. Two years later, he managed to defect and went on to perform as a principal dancer for the Houston Ballet and as a principal artist with the Australian Ballet.

 

Review

As readers of Li Cunxin’s very popular book will know, MAO’S LAST DANCER is the inspirational story of a boy born in poverty in a village in China’s Shandong province who grows up to become an internationally famous ballet star before defecting to the West.

Li is played at different stages of his life by three actors, eventually by CHI CAO, and his story, as scripted by Jan Sardi and directed by Bruce Beresford, is unquestionably an enthralling one. It’s a pity that the clichés inherent in the material haven’t been completely eliminated. Basically, it’s a typical rags to riches story, with some captivating dance sequences, and some rather obvious suspense, thrown in.

Performances are generally good, but Bruce Greenwood, as Houston’s artistic director, rather overplays his part. Poor Elizabeth is given short shrift given that she’s the reason for Li’s defection.
These quibbles aside, there’s a lot to enjoy in the film; it’s very efficiently made, and though never totally inspiring, it’s eminently watchable.