Wow! Such a good movie.

Brilliant and touching

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

is heart of this film. a film full of Manicheic shadows, touching, cruel, with few drops of melodrama, but precise work. because, far from image of a China from many others, far from a nice adaptation of a novel, it is a profound story of a man with ordinary ambitions. axis of his desires - be yourself. and the courage of the young man is root for an entire universe. result - touching fairy - tale, beautiful ballet scenes, good performance, and universal image of making happiness. an universal case of every "ballerino" beyond Iron Curtain who choose freedom. its virtue - science to respect measure ( the Chinese shadows are only instrument for powerful effect ) and to create not exactly a film but image of a painful testimony. and this is appreciated.

You get a lot for the price of your ticket in this movie. First there is an insight into the recent history of China where even after the death of Mao, the Chinese government tried to control the minds their people as well as their freedom and spirit. You also get some wonderful pieces of classical ballet choreographed by Australians Graeme Murphy and Janet Vernon. But most of all you get the true, very touching story of Li Cunxin based on his autobiography and an excellent screenplay by Jan Sardi. At age 11 he was plucked from his rural cold, snowy school to leave his peasant parents and 5 siblings in order to live and study full time at a dance academy in Beijing. We follow him through three actors who play him at various stages in his youth and finally to his portrayal as a young man by Chi Cao who himself is an accomplished dancer. Interestingly, Cao's real life parents had been teachers of Li Cunxin. Director Bruce Beresford switching back in forth to various time periods shows the development of this talented evolving dancer. 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). There is culture shock as he had been brainwashed to believe that the US was quite the opposite of what he saw and experienced in 1980's Houston Texas. There is romance, his recognition of his talent and his potential. Then there is a confrontation with the long arm of China that is pulling him back there. Much of the film is actually shot in China as well as in Houston Texas. The scenes and the people in the rural village appear quite authentic. The story easily evokes tears and yet reminds us of an important lesson that is the theme of the movie and a line in it., Before You Can Fly You Have To Be Free . (2010)

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

there are a lot of things I found lacking or somewhat poor execution on the part of the filmmaker...the way it was packaged in the editing, the way some seemingly important details were glossed over, some particular liberties I imagine was taken with some of the real story, some choice of shots, inconsistencies in the use of music, a few overextended numbers, etc. etc. It wasn't a masterpiece in any sense that I sa "Not One Less" (1999, Zhang Yimou) is, in a similar genre and similar concerns.That being said, this film falls on the shoulder of Li Cunxin's story and the story carries well. It's tension of family versus individual and not the tension of East versus West, and to that end it is where the film gets its power, as we see toward the end of the film. It's hard for a life's journey to be chronicled in two hours in an entertainment format but I think this film does it well enough to perhaps encourage people to do some additional reading on their own.