Mao's Last Dancer

In 1972, 11-year-old Cuxin Li (Huang Wen Bin) is plucked from a dirt-poor village in Shandong province and sent to Madame Mao’s Beijing Dance Academy. Here, he is subjected to years of gruelling training and Maoist claptrap. Spotted by Houston Ballet director Ben Stevenson (Bruce Greenwood), the adult Li (played by Birmingham Royal Ballet principal Chi Cao) is seconded to America, where he quickly realises that the West is not the den of poverty and decadence the party’s propagandists would make out. After falling for an American dancer called Liz (Amanda Schull), Li starts hatching plans to stay, but faces the agonising possibility of never seeing his family back in China again.

The production enjoyed a surprising amount of access to Chinese locations and these scenes – photographed by Peter James – are shot in a grainy, nostalgic style. Chi Cao is a likeable leading man whose dancing is spectacular, and Joan Chen is moving in brief scenes as Li’s mother. The film’s galvanising performance, however, comes from Canadian actor Bruce Greenwood as Li’s mentor Ben Stevenson. A scene in which Stevenson, a driven but gentle and nurturing man, has to explain to Li the meaning of a racist term, is quite affecting.

Aussie moviemakers have shown themselves adept at a range of genres this year and we should not be surprised to see a great ‘coming-to-America’ film among them. Mao’s Last Dancer’s two hours go by in a flash, and the ballet sequences choreographed by Graeme Murphy are an added visual treat in a film with an embarrassment of riches. Late in his career, Bruce Beresford has delivered one of his best movies.

       – Nick Dent, Time Out Sydney