Mao's Last Dancer (2009)

Director:

Bruce Beresford

Writers:

Jan Sardi (adaptation) and
Cunxin Li (memoir)

Release Date:

1 October 2009 (Australia)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A drama based on the autobiography by Li Cunxin. At the age of 11, Li was plucked from a poor Chinese...

Cast

Amanda Schull	...	Elizabeth Mackey
Bruce Greenwood	...	Ben Stevenson
Kyle MacLachlan	...	Charles Foster
Joan Chen	...	Niang
Jack Thompson	...	US Federal Judge
Alice Parkinson	...	Alice
Chi Cao	...	Li Cunxin - adult
Camilla Vergotis	...	Mary McKendry
Aden Young	...	Dilworth
Christopher Kirby
Penne Hackforth-Jones	...	Cynthia
Ferdinand Hoang	...	Consul Zhang
Chengwu Guo	...	Li Cunxin - teenage
Suzie Steen	...	Betty Lou
Chloe Traicos	...	Frizzy head girl
Steven Heathcote
Madeleine Eastoe
Sam Anderson	...	Stage Manager
Ian Meadows	...	Backstage manager
Laurence Fuller	...	Aspiring Dancer
Brenda Kuciemba	...	Concert Patron
Yang Li	...	Shi Dao
Shuangbao Wang	...	Dia
Elia Da Costa	...	Disco Dancer
Robin Choi	...	Embassy Guard
Tony Hall	...	Office Worker

Runtime:

Canada:117 min (Toronto International Film Festival)

Country:

Australia

Language:

English | Mandarin

Color:

Color

Certification:

Australia:PG

Filming Locations:

Acer Arena, Olympic Boulevard, Sydney Olympic Park, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Goofs:

Errors in geography: When Liz is leaving for San Francisco, She is driving out of the street. In the corner, it is obvious in the corner there is a street post saying "Darling St." in Sydney, with the City of Sydney logo on it. This scene is played in Houston.

Mao's dancer becomes capitalist roader

Bruce Beresford is one veteran Australian director who can produce popular films, and this one is definitely a crowd-pleaser, at least for the crowd that likes to watch dance. The story itself (naïve young dancer from totalitarian regime defects to the freedom of the West) is pretty hackneyed but is framed by some exquisite dancing scenes. My former Red Guard colleague "Robin" thought that the protagonist Li Cunxin was a bit of a goose, for, given his extraordinary talent, if he had gone back to China he would have reached the top of the dance establishment. Instead, seduced by the shopping malls and high rise of Houston as well as by a young American dancer, and outraged when he discovers the Party has lied to him about America, he defects, causing a minor diplomatic incident and cutting himself off for the time being at least from his family. Still, he was only 18 at the time.

The two actors portraying Li, Chengwu Gao as a boy and Chi Cao as an 18 year old, do excellent work, given that neither is a professional. In fact all the Chinese actors were terrific. The American / Australian support cast was OK (Jack Thomson reprising his good ole legal boy act, Kyle Maclachlan playing a straight role), though I found Bruce Greenwood as the Houston Dance Company director Ben Stevenson mildly irritating. One does see his point, however, about most of the Chinese dancers being athletes rather than artists. There were some sloppy aspects. Some of the Houston scenes were filmed in Balmain, Sydney, green street signs and all, which by no stretch of the imagination looks anything like anywhere in Houston. Yet Beresford filmed in Houston, and went to considerable trouble to film in China. The Qintao village scenes are beautifully composed and the very last scene shows how Beresford must have convinced suspicious local party officials that he was making a movie they could approve of. I guess he didn't show them the scenes with the Madam Mao–like character chucking her weight about.

It's not mentioned in the film, but it's well known that when Li's dance career came to an end he re-trained as a stockbroker, an unlikely "happy ever after" scenario. He now lives in Melbourne. Beresford and Jan Sardi based the script on Li's own best-selling memoir and there's no doubt they have added something, if only some great ballet scenes – the extract from Stravinsky's "Firebird was fabulous.