Mao's Last Dancer (2009)

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 ... See full summary »

Director:

Bruce Beresford

Writers:

Jan Sardi (screenplay), Cunxin Li (autobiography)

Stars:

Chi Cao, Bruce Greenwood, Penne Hackforth-Jones

7 wins & 18 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Chi Cao	...	Li Cunxin - as an adult
Bruce Greenwood	...	Ben Stevenson
Penne Hackforth-Jones	...	Cynthia Dodds
Christopher Kirby	...	Mason (as Chris Kirby)
Suzie Steen	...	Betty Lou
Madeleine Eastoe	...	Lori
Aden Young	...	Dilworth
Wen Bin Huang	...	Li Cunxin - as a child
Shu Guang Liang	...	Jing Tring - 8 yrs
Ye Wang	...	Cunfar - 14 yrs
Neng Neng Zhang	...	Gong Mei
Wan Shi Xu	...	Shen Yu
Shao Wei Yi	...	Yang Ping
Hui Cong Zhan	...	Teacher Song
Ji Feng Sun	...	Headmaster

Storyline

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.

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Plot Keywords:

ballet | dancer | village | love | marriage | 

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Taglines:

Before You Can Fly You Have To Be Free.

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Genres:

Biography | Drama | Music | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG for a brief violent image, some sensuality, language and incidental smoking

Details

Official Sites:

Official site Official site [jp]

Country:

Australia

Language:

English Mandarin

Release Date:

1 October 2009 (Australia)

Also Known As:

El prodigio

Filming Locations:

Acer Arena, Olympic Boulevard, Sydney Olympic Park, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$199,657 (USA) (20 August 2010)

Gross:

$4,806,750 (USA) (3 December 2010)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Great Scott Productions Pty. Ltd.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

117 min 117 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Schull, Amanda who plays Li's wife Elizabeth--the American dancer who leaves him to audition for the San Francisco Ballet--was herself a member of the SF corps de ballet until she retired in 2006.

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Goofs

When Liz is leaving for San Francisco, She is driving out of the street. In the corner, it is obvious in the corner there is a street post saying "Darling St." in Sydney, with the City of Sydney logo on it. This scene is played in Houston.

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Connections

Referenced in Maltin on Movies: The Switch (2010)

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Soundtracks

"Piano Trio in B-Flat major, K502 1. Allegro"
Written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Performed by Vienna Piano Trio

User Reviews

Mao's dancer becomes capitalist roader

Bruce Beresford is one veteran Australian director who can produce popular films, and this one is definitely a crowd-pleaser, at least for the crowd that likes to watch dance. The story itself (naïve young dancer from totalitarian regime defects to the freedom of the West) is pretty hackneyed but is framed by some exquisite dancing scenes. My former Red Guard colleague "Robin" thought that the protagonist Li Cunxin was a bit of a goose, for, given his extraordinary talent, if he had gone back to China he would have reached the top of the dance establishment. Instead, seduced by the shopping malls and high rise of Houston as well as by a young American dancer, and outraged when he discovers the Party has lied to him about America, he defects, causing a minor diplomatic incident and cutting himself off for the time being at least from his family. Still, he was only 18 at the time.

The two actors portraying Li, Chengwu Gao as a boy and Chi Cao as an 18 year old, do excellent work, given that neither is a professional. In fact all the Chinese actors were terrific. 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. One does see his point, however, about most of the Chinese dancers being athletes rather than artists. There were some sloppy aspects. Some of the Houston scenes were filmed in Balmain, Sydney, green street signs and all, which by no stretch of the imagination looks anything like anywhere in Houston. Yet Beresford filmed in Houston, and went to considerable trouble to film in China. The Qintao village scenes are beautifully composed and the very last scene shows how Beresford must have convinced suspicious local party officials that he was making a movie they could approve of. I guess he didn't show them the scenes with the Madam Mao–like character chucking her weight about.

It's not mentioned in the film, but it's well known that when Li's dance career came to an end he re-trained as a stockbroker, an unlikely "happy ever after" scenario. He now lives in Melbourne. Beresford and Jan Sardi based the script on Li's own best-selling memoir and there's no doubt they have added something, if only some great ballet scenes – the extract from Stravinsky's "Firebird was fabulous.