Very Cool!!!

Best movie of this year hands down!

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

I should have trusted my instinct and avoided this movie based on the title. I pictured some sort of feel good propaganda capable of passing Chinese censorship.Li Cunxin a Chinese ballet dancer catches the eye of Ben Stevenson the Houston ballet director who is touring China in the 1970s. Ben brings him to the US as a student and makes him a star. Li marries and defects. In the end he is reunited with his family and makes a glorious visit to his homeland with his second wife. In the final scene he and his wife (also a ballet dancer) freeze in the cliché triumphant glory pose (arms together pointing to infinity) of Chinese opera. It is sickening.Another reviewer said this was paint by numbers for the masses-- Basically accurate. It made millions at the box office. Every cliché known to the genre is in this thing....the sudden need to replace the lead dancer hours before curtain call. The wise sage teacher who supplies the magic anecdotal encouragement to motivate a discouraged student. This is an autobiography--where are the negatives that would make this guy human? The excessive ambition maybe a few dirty tricks he regrets--none of that.I personally hate movies that throw up signs on how the viewer is supposed to feel and think every 10 seconds.The acting directing and story is cheesy (overdone inauthentic exaggerated) Ben Stevenson (Bruce Greenwood) gets an F for unconvincing gay mannerisms he should have studied Paul Lynn. One flaw of Netflix Streaming is you cannot fast forward...however with about an hour to go I began to skip ahead 5 minutes at a time-- it is that bad.DO NOT RECOMMEND

MAO'S LAST DANCER is a gem of a film that proves that true stories of the travails of artists who must have freedom to express make excellent stories. And in this case the story is true. 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. In the author's own words, 'In a small, desperately poor village in northeast China, a peasant boy sits at his rickety old school desk, interested more in the birds outside than in Chairman Mao's Red Book and the grand words it contains. But that day, some strangers come to his school - Madame Mao's cultural delegates. They are looking for young peasants to mold into faithful guards of Chairman Mao's great vision for China." "The boy watches as one of his classmates is chosen and led away. His teacher hesitates. Will she or won't she? She very nearly doesn't. But at the last moment, she taps the official on the shoulder and points to the small boy. "What about that one?" she says." This is the true story of how that one moment in time, by the thinnest thread of chance, changed the course of a small boy's life in ways beyond description. One day he would dance with some of the greatest ballet companies of the world. One day he would be a friend to a president and first lady, movie stars, and some of the most influential people in America. 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. Li wanted Cao to portray him) is only a peasant boy of 11 (played at that stage by Wen Bin Huang) and proceeds to show us the above described aspects of his life, as a teenager (played by Chengwu Guo) during his training in Beijing, and finally in his visit and eventual defection to America in 1979 - 81. Representing the American aspect of the story is the kind generosity of Houston Ballet choreographer Ben Stevenson (Bruce Greenwood) and dancers and members of the support teams for the ballet. Once in America Li discovers his true talent in classical ballet and wants to remain in America, but the Chinese consulate refuses to let him remain in America, even though Li has met and fallen in love and married. Li is torn - between his love for the family he might never see again (Joan Chen is remarkable as his mother), his love for his wife, and his need to remain where he can polish his gifts as a classical ballet dancer. The well publicized hostage situation in 1981 is included in the film as is the gradual transition of the Chinese growth after the death of Chairman Mao. The ending is a bit saccharine, but by the ending the audience is so enraptured with the story that it all works well. Grady Harp

Biopics are a tricky genre of film. Firstly, the person's life must be interesting enough to warrant a film based on it. Then, there's the scope: what years of this person's life and what events does the filmmaker focus on? Also, how much embellishment can be applied to the film while staying true to the life story? 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. He leaves his mother (Chen), father (Wang Shuangbao) There, he endures grueling hours and Communist brainwashing.Li becomes one of the first Chinese dancers to go to America to study dance. He is hosted by the Houston Ballet's artistic director Ben Stevenson (Greenwood). At the last minute, Li is called in to replace the injured principal dancer in a performance of Don Quixote, with Vice-President George Bush one of the guests. Li's passionate dancing takes the community by storm.Eventually, Li falls in love, with fellow dancer Elizabeth "Liz" Mackey (Amanda Schull). Li and Mackey rush their marriage so that the former may remain in the United States without defecting. An international incident unfolds as the Chinese Communist Party detains Li against his will in their Houston Consulate.Cut off from his homeland and unable to return, Li continues to dance, but yearns to see his family once again. He gets the chance to perform at the Kennedy Centre in Washington DC, and two special guests to that performance bring his life full circle.In many ways, Mao's Last Dancer is a textbook biopic. Li has lived an interesting-enough life. The film shuttles efficiently between his time in Houston and flashbacks to his past as a poor village boy and later student at the 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. Li's time in the Beijing Dance Academy is also well-portrayed. In one striking scene, Madame Mao herself visits the school, and watches the students perform a European ballet. She then demands to see guns, politics and communist ideals. The students then emerge against a red background in communist uniforms, carrying guns, not so much dancing as marching, as Madame Mao looks on approvingly.The film is a bit of an expose on Communist China under Mao Zedong, and will be an eye-opener for many viewers unfamiliar with that period in the country's history. 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. Here, themes such as love, family and personal identity take their place next to those of east meets west, international relations and political standings, and to marvelous effect.A good cast is essential in bringing any biopic to life. Principal Dancer with the Birmingham Royal Ballet Chi Cao handles both the acting and the dancing laudably, especially considering that this is the professional dancer's first film role. Bruce Greenwood is always-dependable as an authority figure, given his pedigree as President in National Treasure 2: The Book of Secrets and space captain in Star Trek. His warmth and kindness towards Li effectively contrast the coldness of the communist regime.Joan Chen, often dubbed the "Meryl Streep of the East", eschews her normally-glamorous demeanor for the grubby face and hands of an honest hardworking farmer in rural Qingdao. 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.

I found this film to be as much a brilliant masterpiece and just as much a tear jerker as "Driving Miss Daisy". Bruce Beresford gets deep into his subject, often times closely examining things. The muffin Ben Stevenson offered to Li was one, and it was quite funny being thought of by Li as being offered horse dung. Others included dancers working with each other on technique, correcting each others' posture and steps. Details like this pull the audience into the time and place of the movie, getting them really involved. Beresford got the overall story of Li, and the development of the man, very well.The music was so touching, especially the Chinese, music which pulls something deep in my emotional makeup. Being of Irish descent, I detected something of its character sounding quite Gaelic, particularly the meter. The classical ballet music always gets the heart racing.I also add points for filming on location. The bold move by Beresford to film in China despite the "missing" permission of the government, was something that shows the man has guts. The ambiance of Li's childhood and adolescence would have been lost without the authentic Chinese landscape that any other location, in any other part of Asia, could likely not provide. This includes the brief appearance of one beautiful steam powered train that caught the ambiance of life there in the early '70s. With the Houston scenes at the Miller Theatre in Hermann Park, The Wortham Theater Center, and China Garden restaurant, being filmed on location, you got the feel of one of the places where Li actually lived much of his life, and the whole history of evolving events.However, some things I don't understand. One is why Li, on arrival at the airport, was not greeted by the Academy Principal, Clare Duncan, as written in his book. He was on a scholarship and it would not be protocol for the Principal to be left out of the greeting party. There are also some things I don't understand about location management, that is, why the other outside scenes were not filmed in Houston. The Chinese Consulate, as shown, was on a very hilly street, presumably in Sydney, as was the street outside the Li apartment, stated in a critique in IMDb, as being near Darling Street there. Both could have been better filmed on location in Houston, which is notoriously flat compared to Sydney. Li described the Consulate in his book as being located on Montrose Blvd, near a Walgreens. Both locations (that I believe were in Australia), were supplied with cars, mostly American, and really BIG, with left hand drive. It must have been a nightmare to arrange for vehicles there, for obvious reasons regarding Australian traffic regulations. It should have been in Houston, with less hassle. The Academy exterior was apparently at the stunningly beautiful Carriage Works in Sydney, said to be Sydney's home for contemporary arts and culture. It is magnificent, but the Houston Ballet and Academy came from humble beginnings. In 1980 it was housed in a more earthly set of digs, a storefront in a strip mall on Colquitt Avenue, off Kirby Drive and Richmond Avenue. The building appears (GoogleMaps) to be there now as an art gallery. It may have been "borrowable" if for just for a couple of hours to quickly hang a Houston Ballet sign in front for effect, and shoot a few feet of film. If not, well, Houston is full of look-alike strip mall locations. Sydney and Houston are both beautiful cities, each in their own way, but the history of that era of the Houston Ballet would have been better set in that lowly strip mall.I have no critique for the city not being shown as it was 30 years ago, as some here did. The Director can't do everything as budget parameters probably precluded elimination of post-1979 buildings using CGI. In the book Li referred to the Houston skyline as "spectacular", and it was so when filmed, so what's the difference? That, and use of sound stage shots for interiors, would have made NO difference in the fine quality of this picture. The main artistic problem to me lay in exterior location management for "missed opportunities" to keep the feel of Houston in 1980. Houston in the 1970s was well exemplified in "Terms Of Endearment". "Driving Miss Daisy" had that feel for Atlanta from the late 1940s to early 1970s. Small problem with the Charles Foster portrayal. Not knowing what the man sounds like, the "Houston" accent sounded like a mouthful of taffy. Native Houstonian accents swing between a "Texas twang" and no accent at all. Now for the biggest problem, which is no fault of the Director. That is: distribution. This picture was released in the summer of 2009. As I write this, it will not be available in the USA on DVD until the end of March, or beginning of April, 2011. This is almost two years thence, and I am flabbergasted at the idea that a quality motion picture like this, by an acclaimed Director, would have been delayed a whole year to be shown to American audiences, and that in very limited numbers of theaters. Some theaters in Chicago and St. Louis have been showing it for months, perhaps still now. It seems most likely the picture was shown in art houses, for lack of availability of the multi-cinemas, which were generally showing "Vampires Suck", "Bad Company", et cetera. Beresford's movie does paint the United States of America and her people in a very favorable light, pretty much as Li did in his book. So is it unclear if distribution was affected by anti-USA sentiments, objection by the Chinese Government, or whatever, but it is quite suspect.