Mao's Last Dancer

Plot synopsis:
In the era of Mao's Cultural Revolution (in the 60s), 11-year-old Chinese boy Li Cunxin resides in a rural village commune in Shandong Province, destined to labour in the fields. As often occurred in those times, government officials fanning out across the nation seeking young candidates for centralized training arrive at this school. At first bypassed but selected after a plea by his teacher during the school visit, Li seems bewildered although piqued by the gruff preliminary inspection screening at the provincial capital city of Qingdao. Forwarded to a Beijing audition for a place in Madame Mao's Dance Academy, he is admitted for ballet training based on a series of physique and flexibility examinations.
Years of arduous training follow, Li surpassing his initial lukewarm interest and mediocre performance after inspiration from senior teacher Chan (whose advocacy of classical Russian ballet as opposed to the politically aimed, physically strident form required by Madame Mao leads to the teacher's apparent banishment). Later during the course of a groundbreaking cultural visit to China, American-based English ballet director Ben Stevenson, impressed by Li's standout talent, seeks him as an exchange student at his the Houston Ballet. Li's determined courage garners a formerly disparaging teacher to influence the Academy to allow him the opportunity for a three-month stay in the United States.
Li's encounters with US life cause questioning of the Chinese Communist Party dictates upon which he has been raised, and he begins a relationship with an aspiring American dancer, Elizabeth Mackey. Quickly attracting the attention of the local ballet scene, Li together with Stevenson requests a time extension in America, but the Chinese government refuses. Overwhelmed by the opportunities offered in America and in love with Mackey, Li is determined to stay. With legal advice that the Chinese government would recognize certain residence rights arising from an international marriage, Li and Mackey rush into a marriage. To declare personal responsibility for his decision and hopefully avoid consequences for his family and Stevenson, Li visits the Chinese Consulate in Houston. The Chinese resident diplomat forcibly detains Li in an attempt to coerce his return to China. Unknown to Li, the situation quickly evolves when the media and high level government agents both in the US and China become involved. When Li perseveres in his refusal to repatriate, the Chinese Government agrees to release him but revokes his citizenship and declares he can never return to the land of his birth.
Li and Elizabeth are set to depart for Florida but Li is persuaded to stay by Stevenson for his ballet company, dooming Elizabeth's prospects of dancing success. Burdened by this, plus concerned for and unable to communicate with his family, Cunxin continues to excel as a dancer, but his relationship with Elizabeth disintegrates and their marriage ends. Five years later, as a show of goodwill the Chinese government allows Li's parents to visit him in the US where they finally witness his performance of the The Rite of Spring and even reunite with him on stage. Li is eventually granted permission to visit China. Together with his new wife Mary McKendry (Camilla Vergotis), an Australian ballerina, and coming back to the village of his youth, he rejoins his family and his former teacher Chan, who expresses regret that he never got to see Li perform. Li and McKendry give an impromptu outdoor ballet performance to the village's uproarious cheer.
Closing credits announce that: Li Cunxin danced in China with the Houston Ballet in 1995, a performance broadcast to an audience of over 500 million people. He and Mary McKendry now live in Australia with their three children. Ben Stevenson left the Houston Ballet after 27 years as Artistic Director. Acclaimed as one of the world’s leading choreographers, he is now Artistic Director of the Texas Ballet Theater. Charles C. Foster still practices law in Houston. He is recognized internationally as an authority on Immigration Law. Elizabeth Mackey (Liz) danced with the Oklahoma Ballet for some years. She is now a speech therapist, working mainly with children.

Tags: avant garde, storytelling, flashback

Review:
Mao's last Dancer tells the true story of Chinese ballet dancer Li Cunxin who grew up in rural poverty in Mao's communist before being given the opportunity to dance in the West in the early 80s.
Li is forced to examine his conscience as he must choose between his career, family, culture, politics and love whilst having to make heart-wrenching decisions of what he must choose to sacrifice and what he must choose to save.Li Cunxin is played magnificently by Chi Cao (as an adult) as well as Chengwu Guo (as a teenager).
The rest of the cast are also fantastic including Bruce Greenwood who plays the difficult and complex part of a slightly camp Ballet Director who must confront his own values.Kyle MacLachlan ("Sex and the City") takes a relatively brief but delightfully forceful turn as a Houston lawyer and Australians will delight in the cameo by the ever wonderful Jack Thompson.As an Australian production I was extraordinarily proud.
Had it gone one way or the other, the film wouldn't have worked nearly so well but Beresford dealt with this delicate theme with such craftsmanship that it never becomes an issue for the audience.Jan Sardi (who also wrote Shine and the Notebook) has also produced a highly commendable script for what must have been a daunting project - given the success of the book the movie is based on.At 132 minutes, the film is long and this can be felt slightly in the middle.
There were a few subplots and parts of the novel left out but I found that, unusually, this didn't bother me as much as it normally does with movies based on true stories.This is because the film told the essence of Li's story extraordinarily well in this irresistibly moving telling of one man's struggle as he's caught between two cultures at a time of when they were pushing against each other.This year's Slumdog Millionaire upstart is Mao's Last Dancer..
The American / Australian support cast was OK (Jack Thomson reprising his good ole legal boy act, Kyle Maclachlan playing a straight role), though I found Bruce Greenwood as the Houston Dance Company director Ben Stevenson mildly irritating.
I had some idea of what the movie was about prior to going to see it but it was even better than my expectations, and the lead actor was a truly magnificent dancer, as were the others.The story was moving with a few humorous moments, and showed how disciplined a person must be in order to become a great dancer.
I had the vague idea its about a boy from my hometown that went on to become one of the best ballet dancers, but then, being a Chinese immigrant myself, I'm not particularly pleased with people 'cashing in' on their stories.
I admit that I was none too anxious about seeing this film about dancing but after the opening scenes in rural China and a quick cut to Li Cunxin and early dance years and I had become a total fan of the movie.
Beresford's direction married to the acting and dancing ability of Chi Cao result in a movie about dance but that theme is only the canvas upon which this moving and quite dramatic story unfolds.
I suppose every ladies' book club in the English-speaking world has read Mao's Last Dancer, so if you wanted to make a film based on that autobiography, you'd first have to find a brave director.
In a village of China, the eleven year-old Li Cunxin is selected by the Comunist Party to study ballet at the Madame Mao's Dance Academy in Beijing.
Years later, he travels to Houston in a cultural exchange program invited by the artistic director Ben Stevenson (Bruce Greenwood) and he is promoted to principal dancer of the Houston Ballet.
Meanwhile he secretly dates and falls in love with the dancer Elizabeth Mackey (Amanda Schull).When the China's government asks Li Cunxin (Chi Cao) to return to his country, he marries Liz and defects to USA.
"Mao's Last Dancer" is a film about the true story of the Chinese ballet dancer Li Cunxin.
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) .
It's been a great year for showcasing classical music, framing it with hilarious comedy, such as "Le Concert", and now with the beauty and exuberance of ballet in "Mao's Last Dancer", a beautifully told real-life story of a man who opens his mind, heart, and see his dreams come true.Raised in Communist China, a young man's strong and determined spirit make him climb higher and higher in the competitive world of ballet.
To watch the part early on where the benefits brought by Chairman Mao to the Chinese people, are laid out by Party Functionaries, has a dark poignancy, given that today we know he was directly responsible for the death of many, many millions.The dance sequences are done very well and the film pleases at that level as well as a tale with more twists and turns than you might imagine.
Mao's Last Dancer tells the tale of Li Cunxin (Chi as an adult, Guo Chengwu as a teenager, Huang Wenbin as a child), born into poverty in a Qingdao village, and at the age of 11 selected by Madame Mao's cultural advisers to enroll in her Beijing Dance Academy.
The film is also based on Li's autobiography of the same name, so chances are it is very true to life.Director Bruce Beresford, of Driving Miss Daisy fame, brings Li's remarkable story to life in sweeping fashion, with the scenes in the Qingdao village almost reminiscent of now-classic Chinese films like Not One Less.
Beresford is careful not to turn his film into an overly-political anti-communist spiel, keeping the focus square on Li Cunxin, but also addressing the brainwashing and hothousing, as well as the vilification of capitalism and "imperialism".Mao's Last Dancer is definitely a tearjerker, but not in a superficial Marley and Me kind of way, where the Kleenex moments are painfully engineered.
Kyle McLachlan looks the part as a lawyer who sorts out Li's immigration woes and veteran Australian actor Jack Thompson cameos as a judge.Li Cunxin's story is one that deserves to be told on screen, and fortunately, it is told well in a film equal parts artful and emotional, concise and beautiful..
The decorations, the music and the dancers are majestic and were touching and you don't have to be a fan of ballet dancing or classical music to feel so.The acting of the movie was brilliantly played by every single actor.
This film surprised me in a couple of ways, the first being an unbiased look into China during the peak of its Cultural Revolution--the Mao Era. Americans often view the Chinese as being oppressed victims during this time, but most of the Chinese were in fact committed to their leadership.
But we can forgive the shallowness for the beauty of the dance while we watch the actor playing Li move so impossibly on stage.I wish Beresford had devoted more time to Li's evolution as a dancer and person rather than focused so much on the political and social intrigue, which I would have found more captivating.
Yes, the plot is predictable and Li's reactions to America perhaps excessively awestruck, but this is probably the best ballet film since "The Red Shoes." In most dance films the director abandons the totality of the performances by inserting closeups of faces and feet, whereas Beresford knows when to just leave things alone.
Adapted from the autobiography by the same name by Li Cunxin and adapted for the screen by Jan Sardi and directed by Bruce Beresford (Driving Miss Daisy, Bride of the Wind, Breaker Morant, Double Jeopardy, etc), this story gradually unfolds in both China and America and is in both Chinese and English.
One day he would himself become a star: Mao's last dancer and the darling of the West.' The film opens when Li Cunxin (Chi Cao, who joined Birmingham Royal Ballet in 1995 and was promoted to Principal in 2002.Trained at the Beijing Dance Academy and the Royal Ballet School.His parents were two of Cunxin Li's former teachers at the Beijing Dance Academy.
that's why we've got so much those kind of Chinese ballet.....Anyway, it's a good movie because it reveals some trueth and the actors performed very well that you can feel the touching moments.
Based on the 2003 autobiography of the same name by Li Cunxin, Bruce Beresford's Mao's Last Dancer is the story of a Chinese ballet dancer whose special talent is only matched by his courage and determination to live in freedom.
At age 11 his life is altered forever when he is selected by a group of visiting inspectors to go to Beijing to train as a ballet dancer at Madame Mao's Dance Academy.
Eventually, however, he hones his skills and develops enough emotional maturity to be sent to the United States to dance for the Houston Ballet, becoming one of the first two cultural exchange students allowed to go to America to study under Mao's regime.
Chi Cao from the Birmingham Royal Ballet plays the adult Li who is nurtured in Houston by British-born dance director Ben Stevenson (Bruce Greenwood) to become a star dancer.
He learns to appreciate the freedom in America, and falls in love with dancer Elizabeth Mackey (Amanda Schull), a relationship marred by dialogue reminiscent of "As the World Turns" and a laughably melodramatic scene where the distraught girl throws herself into bed.The transition to capitalism is filled with all the usual clichés – jaw dropping amazement at Disco Dancing, ATMs, and shopping malls, quite a contrast we are repeatedly told with his poor peasant village.
It is a powerful sequence and kudos must go to Kyle MacLachlan who delivers a strong performance as Charles Foster, the attorney representing Li during his detention at the Chinese consulate.Produced by Jane Scott and written by Jan Sardi, Mao's Last Dancer is an inspiring story of determination, courage, and love complete with excellent dance sequences choreographed by Graeme Murphy.
The Madam Mao figure demanding the gypsy-musical ballet be re-figured into a People's Opera is sharper on ballet than anything since the Herman Ross NIJINSKY and carries on through, with the Americans commenting that what they see is more like athletics.However the thing which should be the heart of the piece, the lead weighing up what he's believed all his life against what he finds in the US, is frustratingly reduced to a few mall bought consumables and a virginal blond.The film has it's strengths - MacLachlan's performance, the montages, the dream of an execution at dawn are stand outs, some of the ballet material is striking but the big finale with the suspiciously brief performance, followed with the on-stage reunion with the family, again lacks all the culture shock material that the film could have pivoted on and that Asian films that deal with the subject foreground..
Unexpectedly, this turned out to be quite enjoyable, even if t does have some things missing out, because this film is the intriguing story about Li Cunxin, a Chinese man, who at the age of seven or nine was send to study ballet far, far away from his parent.
Even though the film must be two hours long, at least, it felt to me like I watched a movie for thirty minutes and when something like that usually happens, it means that I love the movie so much that time flied by so quickly, stopping me from digesting what I had just seen.A drama based on the autobiography by Li Cunxin.
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.The dancing is purely incredible portrayed in this movie.
This film is about a young ballet dancer from Communist China, who goes to Houston for an academic exchange.
Based on the life story of Cunxin Li, "Mao's Last Dancer" contains some wonderful dancing, but it's the story that drives this film.
Chosen to represent his country as an exchange student for the Houston ballet, Li soon begins to question the Communist dictates on which he has been raised.Whilst Mao's last dancer is one of the best Australian produced movies to emerge in about a decade, it is not without it's flaws.
Screenwriter Jan Sardi's script consistently builds dramatic tension throughout, such as when communist party dictates begin to infiltrate the dance academy as well as Li's standoff at the Chinese embassy, only to have such story arch's be resolved with disappointing anti climaxes.Despite the scripts faults, Beresford deserves a pat on the back just for tackling the project considering he had the unenviable task of finding a bilingual actor who could carry the picture whilst needing to be one of the best ballet dancers in the world.
his clever and down right amazing...portrayal of the character...Stevenson..in The Mao's Last Dancer!...he was so believable...I was totally taken aback at his acting abilities..and kept smiling throughout the movie.....at the sheer brilliance of it!...this actor always dares to add just that little bit extra to make his roles even more plausible and honest..I have seen many of Bruce's roles...but I was blown away by this character..the subtle mannerisms!....and the British accent was perfection...with each lilt the tone became more convincing..(he must have had a fabulous speech/voice coach)...this was I think ..his best performance...to date...even though playing JFK came close...(for me)......BRAVO Bruce Greenwood....I would very much like to see an ITAS ..and hope the producers of that show are reading this!.
After leaving his family to train in Beijing, the next big event is as an 18 year old when he is invited on a cultural exchange to the Houston Ballet Academy by it's director Ben Stevenson (Bruce Geenwood).
One of the better true stories out there - Chinese dancer Lu Cuxing - whose book was a runaway hit - makes a good, but not great, film.we loved the dance sequences which are very well done and those set in China - both of which look and feel very authentic.Our problem was with the plot development in Houston - we never became quite involved enough with the characterization - even though the plot is compelling.All in all one of the better of a handful of serious films about ballet and a good human story - we just couldn't quite get by the occasional glimpse of a Hallmark moment among the American actors.Definitely watchable it is a decent biopic, but fails to really capture the extraordinary story....
Seeing him dance was worth the time invested in the film.Director Bruce Beresford (Tender Mercies, Driving Miss Daisy) manages to keep tugging at your heartstrings throughout, especially in the scenes in China.It was a little melodramatic outside of the dancing and that keeps it from being rated higher.You certainly can't help becoming emotional at the final scenes in Houston and in China..
Thanks to Qantas' great in-flight entertainment programme, I was able to watch a very good Australian film entitled "Mao's Last Dancer." I watched it not because of the ballet (which does not really interest me that much), but more about the Cultural Revolution in China which the title seems to suggest.The story tells the true-to-life experience of a a boy Li Cunxin, born sixth in a poor peasant family with seven sons.
He ended his performance of a ballet solo (in "Don Quixote") with such a passionate flourish -- that, for me, was the best dance scene, and Cao's best acting moment in the whole film.
Mao's last dancer is a film based on a true story, the story of a regular boy in China that gets chosen to dance ballet.
Coming from a poor family, he had almost no chances to pursue a career as a dancer, let alone to have been singled out to go to America to study for a limited period with the Houston Ballet, under Ben Stevenson's artistic direction, gave him an opportunity, first to study, and then, to shine as a gifted soloist that conquered the hearts of whoever saw him dance.Li Cunxin got caught in between his loyalty to his birth country and what he wanted to accomplish as an artist with a great gift to give the audiences that flocked to watch him perform.
There have been other great ballet films, but "Mao's Last Dancer" resonates with audiences thanks to Mr. Beresford's intelligent take on the dancing world.Chi Cao plays the title role as an adult.
Mao's Last Dancer never really chooses sides, it's more about the freedom of the heart, the tolls and the triumphs associated with it.The movie tells the true life story of ballet dancer Li Cunxin.
There he became a star and got the opportunity to study for three months in Houston, TX, problem is, once coming to America, Cunxin finally learns to "fly" and does not wish to return to Communist China.The movie was competently directed by Driving Miss Daisy director, Bruce Beresford, though I feel some of the dance sequences could have been suited better, not filming them as if a spectator and rather as the dancer themselves.
Mao's Last Dancer is the life story of ballet dancer, Lu Cunxin.
The heart-tugging scene of his reunion with his parents just as he finishes his last performance as the principal dancer of the Houston Ballet and also the exuberance of Lu's triumphant visit to his home village after years in exile are emotional scenes that characterize this film.
"Mao's Last Dancer" is a very enjoyable and inspiring film--even if, like me, you have absolutely no interest in ballet.
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.