Mao's Last Dancer (2010)

55% of critics liked it
(73 reviews)
79% of users liked it
(5,510 ratings)

The true story of Li Cunxin and his journey from rural China to the bright lights of ballet stardom is brought to the screen in this biographical drama from director Bruce Beresford. In 1972, 11-year-old Li Cunxin (Huang Wenbin) is living with his parents, Niang (Joan Chen) and Dia (Wang Shuangbao),… More The true story of Li Cunxin and his journey from rural China to the bright lights of ballet stardom is brought to the screen in this biographical drama from director Bruce Beresford. In 1972, 11-year-old Li Cunxin (Huang Wenbin) is living with his parents, Niang (Joan Chen) and Dia (Wang Shuangbao), and six siblings while attending a tumbledown school in Shandog province. Li's life changes when representatives of Madame Mao's Beijing Dance Academy visit his school, and he is one of several students believed to have promise as a dancer. While life at the school is difficult for Li and many of the instructors are harsh and unforgiving, Chan (Zhang Su) takes the boy under his wing and grooms him into one of the school's star pupils. In 1981, Li (now played by Chi Cao) is chosen to travel to the United States as part of a student exchange with the Houston Ballet Company. Under the tutelage of Ben Stevenson (Bruce Greenwood), the company's director, Li impresses his peers and is given a key role in a televised production of Die Fledermaus; despite an attack of stage fright, Li's performance is a triumph. As Li came to love life in the United States, he also falls for an attractive young dancer, Elizabeth (Amanda Schull), and when his time in America draws to a close, he makes the decision to leave his old life behind and pursue a life of personal and creative freedom in America. Also starring Kyle MacLachlan and Camilla Vergotis, Mao's Last Dancer received its world premiere at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: PG, 1 hr. 57 min.
Directed By: Bruce Beresford
Written By: Jan Sardi, Li Cunxin
Genres: Drama, Musical & Performing Arts, Art House & International

In Theaters: Aug 20, 2010 Wide
On DVD: May 3, 2011
Studio: Samuel Goldwyn Films

Critic Reviews

Jonathan F. Richards, Film.com
Bruce Beresford's biopic of Li Cunxin, the Chinese ballet dancer who defected while on a student visa in Houston in 1981, is sometimes the movie equivalent of Oscar Meyer cold cuts. But the dancing is pure caviar.
Peter Brunette, Hollywood Reporter
Feel-good movie about a Chinese dancer presses all the right buttons.
Tom Long, Detroit News
Lovely and astounding, Mao's Last Dancer is a modern epic of art and ambition triumphing oppression.
Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor
Too often, though, the film plods along on the ground.
Andrea Gronvall, Chicago Reader
Ballet star Li Cunxin's best-selling autobiography gets a curiously tepid treatment in this 2009 adaptation by director Bruce Beresford.
Manuel Mendoza, Dallas Morning News
Ballet dancer Chi Cao does a great job of capturing both Li's chops on the stage and his sincerity and culture shock in the face of American opulence.
Don Groves, sbs.com.au
Missteps prevent ballet drama from reaching great heights.
Philip Martin, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
...somehow makes the extraordinary true story it's based on seem like common corn while succeeding in modest ways.
Nick Schager, Lessons of Darkness
Woefully creaky and corny.
Sean Means, Salt Lake Tribune
The script is far too melodramatic, and the performances ... are hamfisted and overwrought.
Graham Killeen, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Mao's Last Dancer is such a profoundly moving story, it's hard not to get drawn in as Li must decide how much he's willing to sacrifice for his American dream.
John Beifuss, Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)
Debuting actor Chi Cao's athleticism is the movie's most striking element.
Mike Ward, Richmond.com
Ballet is kinda like ice hockey. It's more impressive when you're up close at the real deal. When you're 30 yards away, the snap of a slipper after a 90-lb ballerina lands a glissade is just as impressive as a 290-lb hockey goon hitting the boards.
Chris Robinson, Deseret News, Salt Lake City
Mao's Last Dancer is an epic tale of love and betrayal, triumph and heartbreak, that captures the real-life drama and emotion of one man's search for freedom. Well, it almost is.
Josh Bell, Las Vegas Weekly
Whenever Beresford concerns himself with politics or, even worse, personal drama, Dancer falls limply to the ground.
Robert W. Butler, Kansas City Star
The movie works, thanks in large part to Chi's performance.
Keith Cohen, Entertainment Spectrum
Let the trumpets blare for artistic freedom of expression that is perfectly reflected in this uplifting and moving biopic.
Ken Hanke, Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)
Beresford knows the only way to deal with schmaltz is to just go ahead and embrace it.
Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Australian director Bruce Beresford handles the culture-clash aspects of the story with a surprising lack of subtlety.
Marc Savlov, Austin Chronicle
Beresford and the entire cast cover the proceedings with a light touch and just the right amount of gravitas (given the situation).

Read all 20 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Cynthia S

This is one of those must see based-on-a-true-story movies, even if you aren't into ballet. Beautiful. Entertaining. Inspiring.
Jennifer X

Oh my god, this is such a bad, melodramatic movie. I wanted to watch this because I thought it was a documentary, but Mao's Last Dancer couldn't be further from that.
Nicki M

Enjoyed watching it once, but don't think it is one I will be watching again. Acting is kind of bad, but I guess some of these were cast more for their dancing skills, which are excellent. I found it more interesting in modern day than the flashbacks, but it is okay, I guess.… More
Enjoyed watching it once, but don't think it is one I will be watching again. Acting is kind of bad, but I guess some of these were cast more for their dancing skills, which are excellent. I found it more interesting in modern day than the flashbacks, but it is okay, I guess. It did seem to be a bit dumbed down for an American audience, (not sure if that is a fair comment or not), but I do watch quite a lot of foreign movies, and this to me seemed a bit lacking.
Dean M

The true story was deeply moving film and showed how disciplined a Chinese guy must be in order to become a great dancer. Li Cunxin is played magnificently by Chi Cao (as an adult) as well as Chengwu Guo (as a teenager). Chi Cao, a highly recognised ballerino in his own right, must… More
The true story was deeply moving film and showed how disciplined a Chinese guy must be in order to become a great dancer. Li Cunxin is played magnificently by Chi Cao (as an adult) as well as Chengwu Guo (as a teenager). Chi Cao, a highly recognised ballerino in his own right, must receive the bulk of the accolades for what is truly a seamless breakthrough performance by a first time actor. The rest of the cast are also fantastic including Bruce Greenwood who plays the difficult and complex part of a slightly camp Ballet Director who must confront his own values.
Byron B

Fish out of water tale as Chi Cao playing Li Cunxin finds his way through the culture shock of moving from communist China to capitalist America. He grows up in regimented, propaganda filled, government controlled China in the 1970's. He is trained as a ballet dancer and in the… More
Fish out of water tale as Chi Cao playing Li Cunxin finds his way through the culture shock of moving from communist China to capitalist America. He grows up in regimented, propaganda filled, government controlled China in the 1970's. He is trained as a ballet dancer and in the early 1980's he arrives in Texas to dance with the Dallas ballet. Lies are also an important theme of the story. The ballet segments are beautiful. However the plot seems rushed as so much time is condensed. The most inspiring parts of the story are quiet brief when Li's father tells him a tale about a frog and a toad and when Li's favorite teacher tells him about the archer. I felt like dance was given the focus at the exclusion of dramatic character development at times, but now thinking back on the movie I remember plenty of instances of dramatic conflict that will keep one interested as the movie progresses.
Chihoe H

"Mao's Last Dancer" chronicles the life of Li Cunxin who grew up during the heyday of China's Cultural Revolution in a poor rural village and was picked to join the Beijing Dance Academy. While in Houston on an exchange, he defected to America, leaving his family… More
"Mao's Last Dancer" chronicles the life of Li Cunxin who grew up during the heyday of China's Cultural Revolution in a poor rural village and was picked to join the Beijing Dance Academy. While in Houston on an exchange, he defected to America, leaving his family and the life he had known behind, and eventually becoming a world-renown ballet dancer. The film got to me and I weeped, as did many people in the theatre. It also elicited plenty of responses from the audience throughout the film due to its depictions of society and politics in 1970s China, and the portrayal of a family torn apart and the perseverance and athleticism in training for ballet. If you plan on watching, prepare to be emotional by the end of it.
Panta O

I read all sorts of critics writting about this movie and most of them are concentrated analyzing Li as a person... well, I came to watch a movie and I enjoyed it. That was a smooth movie, with good acting and dancing, nice photography, strong hand directorship (as I'll expect… More
I read all sorts of critics writting about this movie and most of them are concentrated analyzing Li as a person... well, I came to watch a movie and I enjoyed it. That was a smooth movie, with good acting and dancing, nice photography, strong hand directorship (as I'll expect from a movie about Chinese dancer) and a screenplay which was following the book the best possible way.
Cinema F

How do you distil the journey of a life that takes place over 25 years into a film that's well under two hours? Mao's Last Dancer is a biopic story of Li Cunxin's journey and his escape from peasant boy in Mao's Cultural Revolution to become a world famous… More
How do you distil the journey of a life that takes place over 25 years into a film that's well under two hours? Mao's Last Dancer is a biopic story of Li Cunxin's journey and his escape from peasant boy in Mao's Cultural Revolution to become a world famous ballet dancer. Under Mao's communist regime Li 's chosen to become a student at the Beijing dance academy. In 1979, Li's picked in a cultural exchange by Houston Ballet's director Ben Stevenson (Bruce Greenwood) to train with them in Texas. In the US, he soon begins to find his niche in the ballet company. He falls for an aspiring dancer Liz (Amanda Schull) and decides to fight for his new-found freedom. I was told that the film was reduced from 680,000 words to 160,000 words, which could be a paintufl process for the author himself. Nevertheless, Mao's last Dancer is beautifully shot, particularly in it's dance sequences. Beresford uses a unique blend of live action and slow motion capture shots to fully encapsulate the performances. The ballet scenes are so well choreographed that they add a level of authenticity to the film. Inasmuch as the dialogue is delivered less convincingly than the pirouettes, it's rather easier to forgive overly earnest acting than it would've been to ignore clumsy dancing, particularly if you fancy going to the cinema to see the ballet. Those that have read the book may be a little reluctant to see the film, in fear that it will ruin their experience of the book. Maybe yes, maybe not. But I still believe that the film still strikes a chord. There's something deep within Li that makes his story quite compelling...
Noah N

'Mao's Last Dancer' (2010) is fascinating, beautiful, and a perfect movie to watch if you want your heart to fly.
Daisy M

Mao's Last Dancer was a true life story of ballet dancer, Lu Cunxin. The movie showed his youth, his education, his career path and the Communist China. An opportunity to complete his ballet studies in USA, with the Houston Ballet presented him another possibilities of life.… More
Mao's Last Dancer was a true life story of ballet dancer, Lu Cunxin. The movie showed his youth, his education, his career path and the Communist China. An opportunity to complete his ballet studies in USA, with the Houston Ballet presented him another possibilities of life. Different stories of Lu's relationships with his family, his first ballet instructor, his first wife and his dance partner who later became his second wife were shown in a narrative way.The movie showed these relationship in more ways and made the results a deeply moving film. The heart breaking scene of his reunion with his parents just as he finished his last performance. were very emotional scenes that characterize this movie. The pacing was not bad, there was drama, but it did not dragged on that long.It managed to succeed good as true life story and very enjoyable to watch.
Robert F

Efficiently made and thoroughly engrossing.