Li Cunxin (Chi Cao [as an adult], Chengwu Guo [as a teenager], and Wen Bin Huang [as a child]) was only eleven years old when Communist Party leaders arrived at his school to recruit teenagers for a special project. That project turned out to be the creation of a Chinese national ballet team to be trained at Madam Mao's Beijing Dance Academy. Li would not be guaranteed a scholarship but he would have the opportunity to compete and be judged for a position. This opportunity of a lifetime for a destitute young man with six brothers turned into a moving story and led to an international diplomatic incident. Mao’s Last Dancer is the film adaptation of Li Cunxin’s international bestselling autobiography, similarly titled.
Li impressed the talent evaluators and earned a position at the Academy. Being a child, leaving his six brothers and his parents hurt him emotionally but performing well would mean a better life for them. Throughout the course of the movie director Bruce Beresford switches from Li’s arrival in America to his training as a dancer at ballet school. Each lesson learned during those formative years impacts his life in the present. We learn not only who he is but why his actions are so bold and courageous. In America Li comes under the tutelage of Ben Stevenson (the distinguished Bruce Greenwood), director of the Houston Ballet. This particular offshoot had been funded in part by donations from then Vice President George H.W. Bush.
Stevenson took an interest in Li as a person. He spared no expense to house, cloth and train him in American ballet. This proved to be a life-changing friendship for the young man who arrived confused about his place in America, his identity as a person and his assessment of capitalism. At first Li acted skeptical of his trainer’s generosity. His guardian at the Chinese consulate advised him, as had his instructors growing up, that the Western world represents great evil in the form of greed. We are privy to scenes of cultural and political indoctrination that occurred in Mao’s China during the Cultural Revolution and the Great Leap Forward. Children were taught that Mao and the Chinese leadership provided their people the highest standard of living of any nation and that the Western world was corrupt and dastardly. When Li arrived he expressed great hesitation toward the American way of life and great surprise at the magnitude of his newfound freedom.
His co-dancers noticed immediately (beyond his extraordinary talent) Li’s humble nature and his honestly. He became respected as much for his ability to perform onstage as he did as a person of great character. Once he had impressed audiences and begun falling in love both with America and with his girlfriend Elizabeth Mackey (Amanda Schull), his education visa expired. Li refused to leave despite the protestation of the Chinese authorities. The only option remaining on the advice of legal counsel had been getting married. Liz agreed and they became happily wed (ephemerally).
This did not stop the Chinese consulate from taking drastic measures. They placed Li under house arrest and threatened to harm his family by charging them as counter-revolutionaries. This caused uproar among his new friends and with his immigration lawyer Attorney Charles Foster (Kyle MacLachlan). The media became involved and an international incident broke out. In the end Li ended up banished from China and all contact with his family ceased. He was left to wonder their fate for years. The remainder of the picture is his story of growing and developing as a ballet performer. He became successful and world renown. All the while Li’s relationships changed as he grew as a person.
Mao’s Last Dancer is a culturally rich picture full of life, liberty and the literal pursuit of happiness. Beresford and company have done a wonderful job choreographing the ballet scenes. The striking creativity of the stages, the dances, and the performers’ outfits is as befitting of a Broadway smash hit as it is of a film well-crafted. Although the storyline of Cunxin’s life was already there for the picking, the movie nicely draws us into his experiences from start to finish and offers us a wealth of emotions. 2010 has been a tremendous year for low budget films. I have never enjoyed so many pictures with such incredible depth. I attribute the success of independent films to actors such as Bruce Greenwood who take an active interest in making great films with real meaning behind them as opposed to role-playing for the purpose of collecting paychecks. Moreover, many of the best films this year are based on novels and autobiographies rather than isolated screenplays. Mao’s Last Dancer is the brilliant translation of real life into the theater for people globally to enjoy and appreciate.
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