Mao’s Last Dancer

Mao's Last Dancer

Synopsis

Based on the autobiography by Li Cunxin, a poor village boy was plucked at the age of 11 by Madame Mao’s cultural delegates and sent to Beijing to study ballet. A cultural exchange to Texas saw Li falling in love with an American woman. Because of his new found love, his story is his struggle of defection, and becoming principal dancer and artist in a new land.

Official Site: NA

Singapore Release Date: 22nd April 2010, Thursday

Running Time: 117 minutes

Ratings: PG

Genre: Drama

Cast: Bruce Greenwood, Amanda Schull, Kyle MacLachlan, Joan Chen, Alice Parkinson, Chi Cao, Jack Thompson, Camilla Vergotis, Penne Hackforth-Jones, Christopher Kirby Aden Young, Chengwu Guo, Ferdinand Hoang, Suzie Steen, Chloe Traicos, Steven Heathcote, Madeleine Eastoe, Ian Meadows, Laurence Fuller, Yang Li, Shuangbao Wang, Sam Anderson

Crew: Director (Bruce Beresford), Producers (Ling Geng, Sue MacKay, Jane Scott), Adaptation (Jan Sardi), Memoir (Li Cunxin), Screenplay (Jan Sardi), Music (Christopher Gordon), Cinematography (Peter James) and Editing (Mark Warner)

The Trailer

The Review

The movie is based on Li Cunxin best-selling memoir, former ballet dancer and current stockbroker, living in Melbourne, Australia currently.

For all the movie effort to tell a story of a young brave man who chooses individual happiness over his duties, it lacked to capture the accuracy and spirit of the book.

Many key moments from the book was omitted, and I reckon to me in my opinion, adding the scenes would lessen the very movie direction of China bashing and to contrast capitalist west and communist east.

Still the movie is exquisite in terms of the ballet material, where the protagonist Li Cunxin showed in the film why he’s one of the best ballet dancers around then.

The movie is about a naive young dancer, who was seduced by the freedom and love in a westerner’s world. That discovery was fueled after realising that his Party has lied to him about America. Li then decides to defect.

He abandon his duties, his parents and his country because of love and freedom, and not for fame or money. He’s a man who is torn between two worlds cultural identities.

If you’re watching this movie, skip the book, as reading the latter would only disappoint you more regarding the movie.

The Good

• Nice cinematography for the China shots
• Amazing ballet performances

The Bad

• Depressing to watch
• Some of the characters are annoying
• A very long movie to watch, around 2 hours

Editor’s Ratings