Mao's Last Dancer

Written by Jonathan Jacobs

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. This 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 that highlighted the differences between communist societies and democratic institutions. Mao’s Last Dancer is the film adaptation of Li Cunxin’s international bestselling autobiography, similarly titled. The magnificent choreography exhibited in Mao puts the entire production of Black Swan in the rearview mirror of ballet supremacy. For ballet connoisseurs this is a must watch motion picture.

Li impressed the talent evaluators and earned a position at the Academy. Being a child and leaving behind his six brothers and his parents hurt Li emotionally. Regardless, performing well would mean a better life for his family. 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 Li’s life in the present. We learn not only who Li is, we also learn 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, clothe and train him in American ballet. This proved to be a life-changing friendship for the impressionable dancer, 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.

Li’s co-dancers immediately noticed (beyond his extraordinary talent) his humble nature and unrelenting honestly. Li became respected as much for his ability to perform onstage as he did for being a person of great character. Once Li impressed audiences and begun falling in love, both with America and with his girlfriend Elizabeth Mackey (Amanda Schull), his education visa expired. He refused to leave, despite the protestation of the Chinese authorities. The only option remaining, on the advice of legal counsel, was to get 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. The grief-stricken performer was left to wonder about his family’s fate for years. The remainder of the picture is Li’s story of growing and developing as a ballet performer. Li became successful and world-renowned. 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 turned out to be a tremendous year for low-budget films. I enjoyed a myriad of pictures with incredible depth. I attribute the success of independent films to actors such as Bruce Greenwood, who have taken 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 theater, for people globally to enjoy and appreciate.