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Review: Mao's Last Dancer (2009)
This was a movie focused on the life of Li Cunxin, a ballet dancer who defected from China. It was a little cheesy at times but I think as a narrative about a hero finding their calling in life, I think it was ok.
Spoilers.
Story
The movie flashed back from Li’s past and his present. He came from a family of peasants, and was selected to attend a dance academy. He was chosen to study at Houston Ballet for a summer, living with Ben Stevenson, Artistic Director. He also performed Don Quixote, wowing the crowd. Towards the end of his stay, Li did not want to return to China, having married Elizabeth “Liz” Mackey to stay. Still, there was a big fuss raised and a standoff held at the Chinese consulate in which Li wanted to stay but the Chinese government wanted him to go back. Eventually, he was granted stay, but his Chinese citizenship was revoked. While Li continued moving on up in the dance world, Liz struggled to find opportunities to split.
Later on, Li’s parents visited him and attended a performance he was putting on. It was the first time they had seen each other since Li left home as a child. Eventually, Li married Mary McKendry, another dancer he danced with, and the end was shown with Li and Mary returning to his village, where he reunited with his family and one of his teachers from the dance academy.
Much of the beginning of the movie was the typical fish out of water schtick, with Li having limited understanding of English and American culture, but it was mostly portrayed positively, with Li’s encounter with racism being framed as a good thing by Ben.
I will say that the script felt very much like it was written by Western writers. The way the students questioned Communism in class, terms that were used in Mandarin dialogue that sounded directly translated from English. I also thought the English subtitles were suspect. It paraphrased and omitted quite a few things in the Mandarin dialogue. There was a part in Li’s classes where the teacher said one of the goals of Communism was for everybody to be equal. I rewinded three time to see if I’d simply missed it in the subtitles but that was completely omitted. Don’t get me wrong, Communist China was definitely very hard on the Chinese people and I can understand why Li would have wanted to leave. But it wasn’t just this scene, there were scenes where Li was having more personal conversations with his family or with other Chinese folks that I felt were contorted to be less human than they actually were, to further the narrative that Chinese people are robots with no feelings.
Otherwise, the politics was mostly just boiled down to Li feeling no freedom to pursue his dream in China and wanting to stay in the West to achieve that. I felt the story was more focused on Li’s personal journey of understanding his own goals. As a child, he had little interest in ballet until his teacher showed him the video of the Russian dancer. Then as he went to the West, he danced different types of performances and became more expressive in his dance and expanded his technical and performance ability. And with him achieving career greatness, that came back to making his family proud, making his village proud. The ending was very much a big happy ending where he was allowed to go home and all that he loved was around him.
Production
The first time I heard of this movie was actually because I heard the music. Granted, much of the music I’d noticed from this movie was ballet music of performances that Li danced to. But I did feel that the score enhanced the emotions that Li felt when he saw his parents for the first time as an adult, and when he finally returned home to his village.
The acting was fine. The script was awkward at times, but I think the actors did their best. I felt more drawn to the female actresses in this movie though, the actresses who played Liz, Lori, Li’s mom. And I’m not sure if it was because their dialogue tended to be a little more expressive.
The dancing was definitely very nice to watch though. I know the actors who played Li were dancers, and that helped us really see them as Li Chunxin the amazing dancer. In movies like this where the characters have a certain skill, I am always so distracted when the frame cuts away and you can definitely tell that someone else is actually performing. So it was great that I could actually see Li Chunxin dancing as opposed to a stand in who we only see the back of the head of.
Characters
Li Cunxin
Our main character. We first met him as he arrived in the US as part of a summer program and he was hit with culture shock. A lifestyle of plenty, strange food and dancing, that was all a shock to him. But he was a dancer, and the most interesting parts about Li was shown in the story lines related to dance.
It’s not clear why Li’s teacher had selected him to audition for the academy, but perhaps she wanted at least one of her students to have this opportunity and felt he had the best shot. Anyway, he auditioned and was admitted to the dance academy where training was tough. Honestly I didn’t feel that the training sequences felt very harsh to me because the teachers were actually praising the students and such. But I guess we were meant to focus on the teacher who was hard on Li, as well as the teacher who admired the Russian style of ballet. Those two teachers both came to be proud of Li and recommended him to attend the summer program.
At the Houston Ballet, Li got his big break when he was recommended by Ben to fill in for a role in Don Quixote because he knew most of the dances already. He impressed the crowds and that was his first taste of performing something on the big stage that was not political.
The political troubles came towards the end of his stay, when Li did not want to return. His lawyer suspected Li was considering a marriage of convenience and advised against it but Li did so anyway. The consul tried to forcibly remove Li, but ultimately gave in. In the movie, the consul wanted the press to go away. Li’s lawyer had previously said that China respected international marriage laws though so I wonder if that was the real reason. In any case, China revoked his citizenship as a result of the scuffle.
Li was now free to pursue the American dream. He and Liz would go to Florida to audition. However, Ben offered him a soloist contract to stay. From then on, Li’s career grew far and wide. However, he had a number of personal problems. He missed his family and constantly thought of them, not having communicated with them for years. In addition, his relationship with Liz was falling apart. He was displeased with Liz not upkeeping the home, and Liz was displeased at going nowhere in her career. She said she would go to San Francisco to audition. That signalled their split. Li being drawn to Mary was mostly implied, as she returned from Australia and they started to dance together.
The next big event was when Li performed the Rite of Spring with his parents in the audience. It was a very striking performance, emotions very raw, both from the performance and because we knew what it meant for Li’s parents to be there. After the performance, when the audience applauded for Li and Mary, Li spotted his parents, and they had a tearful reunion on stage. I admit that I teared up a bit at the reunion. After all, they hadn’t seen each other since he left their village as a child. He continued to think of them, and not knowing what became of them would have killed him. I will say I felt it was a bit weird to have their reunion be so public though, I would have been a bit uncomfortable at seeing such a private moment. Nonetheless, everybody could see how moved the family was.
The movie was a big happy ending for Li. His career was great. He was with Mary who was his partner both in dance and in life. And he was finally able to return home after years, seeing not only his family and his village, but also his teacher who had first encouraged him.
Li’s character was not super complex but I think the point was still made. He was a man who just wanted to be a good dancer, and everything else happened because of that.
Ben Stevenson
Ben was the artistic director at the Houston Ballet who first took notice of Li. He found the other Chinese dancers to be emotionless, more athletes than dancers, but he did like Li. When Li arrived in Houston, he stayed with Ben who introduced him to American culture. It was a shock to Li and at times it was a bit hard to accept for him, such as the life of excess. But Ben tried to ease him in to it.
As the movie went on, we saw that Ben was always an artistic director first. He cared more about his ballet company than anything else. He was angry when he found out about Li getting married to stay in the US, because he was worried it would jeopardize the Houston Ballet’s standing with the Chinese government. And when Li was going to go to Florida, he offered him a contract to get him to stay.
Elizabeth “Liz” Mackey
Liz was a ballet dancer that Li started dating. Unfortunately she was not one of the top ballet dancers at the company and struggled to land jobs. Nonetheless, she and Li got along, despite the language and culture barriers. When Li’s political troubles came up, the idea of marrying was put in his head, and so he and Liz got married to keep him in the States.
Things started to change after Li was allowed to stay in the States. Ben offered Li a contract to be a soloist, but told Liz that she could enter the open audition. At the time, Liz had congratulated Li which sounded…rather detached, like they were still just friends and not a married couple. Liz struggled to keep up with Li, particularly when he had nightmares about his family. She also struggled to keep up with his expectations as he felt that she did not take care of the house enough. Meanwhile, she wanted to be a dancer too and there was likely some resentment over Li moving on up and her struggling. They eventually parted ways, implied by Liz saying that she would go to San Francisco.
Niang
Li’s mom was a kindly woman. When Li had the opportunity to go to the academy, she was very proud and she wanted him to achieve his dreams. For Li, he wanted to do his country proud but he also wanted to give back to his family. Whenever he had any good news he would make a phone call back to excitedly tell his parents.
Niang found out about the defection from some villagers. She managed to drive them off but it was probably a shock to find out second hand that her son had defected and would likely never return. When they were apart, Li would have nightmares about his family being executed (for his actions). In an interview, he said that he constantly thought of them.
They finally reunited after Li performed the Rite of Spring. It was a very tearful reunion. Li resumed the role of a filial son, one that he longed to be. And at the end, his family happily welcomed him home. Throughout the movie, Li’s mom (and family) never lost their love for him. Which may be a bit ideal. I would think that some very patriotic people may disown family members for being defectors. But his family were family first and foremost and they never lost their love for him.
Themes
I think the general theme of the movie was just that Li was unable to pursue his goal of becoming a better dancer in China, particularly not under Communist rule. He had to go against his country, his family, to pursue that dream. It was what his mom wanted, but it still haunted him. But in the end, it all came together.
Overall
It was an alright movie. I can see why this story may be inspiring. It’s not that it wasn’t inspiring to me, I just wasn’t superbly moved. It was a fairly straightforward story without much complexity or nuance. The dancing was fun to watch though.
Spoilers.
Story
The movie flashed back from Li’s past and his present. He came from a family of peasants, and was selected to attend a dance academy. He was chosen to study at Houston Ballet for a summer, living with Ben Stevenson, Artistic Director. He also performed Don Quixote, wowing the crowd. Towards the end of his stay, Li did not want to return to China, having married Elizabeth “Liz” Mackey to stay. Still, there was a big fuss raised and a standoff held at the Chinese consulate in which Li wanted to stay but the Chinese government wanted him to go back. Eventually, he was granted stay, but his Chinese citizenship was revoked. While Li continued moving on up in the dance world, Liz struggled to find opportunities to split.
Later on, Li’s parents visited him and attended a performance he was putting on. It was the first time they had seen each other since Li left home as a child. Eventually, Li married Mary McKendry, another dancer he danced with, and the end was shown with Li and Mary returning to his village, where he reunited with his family and one of his teachers from the dance academy.
Much of the beginning of the movie was the typical fish out of water schtick, with Li having limited understanding of English and American culture, but it was mostly portrayed positively, with Li’s encounter with racism being framed as a good thing by Ben.
I will say that the script felt very much like it was written by Western writers. The way the students questioned Communism in class, terms that were used in Mandarin dialogue that sounded directly translated from English. I also thought the English subtitles were suspect. It paraphrased and omitted quite a few things in the Mandarin dialogue. There was a part in Li’s classes where the teacher said one of the goals of Communism was for everybody to be equal. I rewinded three time to see if I’d simply missed it in the subtitles but that was completely omitted. Don’t get me wrong, Communist China was definitely very hard on the Chinese people and I can understand why Li would have wanted to leave. But it wasn’t just this scene, there were scenes where Li was having more personal conversations with his family or with other Chinese folks that I felt were contorted to be less human than they actually were, to further the narrative that Chinese people are robots with no feelings.
Otherwise, the politics was mostly just boiled down to Li feeling no freedom to pursue his dream in China and wanting to stay in the West to achieve that. I felt the story was more focused on Li’s personal journey of understanding his own goals. As a child, he had little interest in ballet until his teacher showed him the video of the Russian dancer. Then as he went to the West, he danced different types of performances and became more expressive in his dance and expanded his technical and performance ability. And with him achieving career greatness, that came back to making his family proud, making his village proud. The ending was very much a big happy ending where he was allowed to go home and all that he loved was around him.
Production
The first time I heard of this movie was actually because I heard the music. Granted, much of the music I’d noticed from this movie was ballet music of performances that Li danced to. But I did feel that the score enhanced the emotions that Li felt when he saw his parents for the first time as an adult, and when he finally returned home to his village.
The acting was fine. The script was awkward at times, but I think the actors did their best. I felt more drawn to the female actresses in this movie though, the actresses who played Liz, Lori, Li’s mom. And I’m not sure if it was because their dialogue tended to be a little more expressive.
The dancing was definitely very nice to watch though. I know the actors who played Li were dancers, and that helped us really see them as Li Chunxin the amazing dancer. In movies like this where the characters have a certain skill, I am always so distracted when the frame cuts away and you can definitely tell that someone else is actually performing. So it was great that I could actually see Li Chunxin dancing as opposed to a stand in who we only see the back of the head of.
Characters
Li Cunxin
Our main character. We first met him as he arrived in the US as part of a summer program and he was hit with culture shock. A lifestyle of plenty, strange food and dancing, that was all a shock to him. But he was a dancer, and the most interesting parts about Li was shown in the story lines related to dance.
It’s not clear why Li’s teacher had selected him to audition for the academy, but perhaps she wanted at least one of her students to have this opportunity and felt he had the best shot. Anyway, he auditioned and was admitted to the dance academy where training was tough. Honestly I didn’t feel that the training sequences felt very harsh to me because the teachers were actually praising the students and such. But I guess we were meant to focus on the teacher who was hard on Li, as well as the teacher who admired the Russian style of ballet. Those two teachers both came to be proud of Li and recommended him to attend the summer program.
At the Houston Ballet, Li got his big break when he was recommended by Ben to fill in for a role in Don Quixote because he knew most of the dances already. He impressed the crowds and that was his first taste of performing something on the big stage that was not political.
The political troubles came towards the end of his stay, when Li did not want to return. His lawyer suspected Li was considering a marriage of convenience and advised against it but Li did so anyway. The consul tried to forcibly remove Li, but ultimately gave in. In the movie, the consul wanted the press to go away. Li’s lawyer had previously said that China respected international marriage laws though so I wonder if that was the real reason. In any case, China revoked his citizenship as a result of the scuffle.
Li was now free to pursue the American dream. He and Liz would go to Florida to audition. However, Ben offered him a soloist contract to stay. From then on, Li’s career grew far and wide. However, he had a number of personal problems. He missed his family and constantly thought of them, not having communicated with them for years. In addition, his relationship with Liz was falling apart. He was displeased with Liz not upkeeping the home, and Liz was displeased at going nowhere in her career. She said she would go to San Francisco to audition. That signalled their split. Li being drawn to Mary was mostly implied, as she returned from Australia and they started to dance together.
The next big event was when Li performed the Rite of Spring with his parents in the audience. It was a very striking performance, emotions very raw, both from the performance and because we knew what it meant for Li’s parents to be there. After the performance, when the audience applauded for Li and Mary, Li spotted his parents, and they had a tearful reunion on stage. I admit that I teared up a bit at the reunion. After all, they hadn’t seen each other since he left their village as a child. He continued to think of them, and not knowing what became of them would have killed him. I will say I felt it was a bit weird to have their reunion be so public though, I would have been a bit uncomfortable at seeing such a private moment. Nonetheless, everybody could see how moved the family was.
The movie was a big happy ending for Li. His career was great. He was with Mary who was his partner both in dance and in life. And he was finally able to return home after years, seeing not only his family and his village, but also his teacher who had first encouraged him.
Li’s character was not super complex but I think the point was still made. He was a man who just wanted to be a good dancer, and everything else happened because of that.
Ben Stevenson
Ben was the artistic director at the Houston Ballet who first took notice of Li. He found the other Chinese dancers to be emotionless, more athletes than dancers, but he did like Li. When Li arrived in Houston, he stayed with Ben who introduced him to American culture. It was a shock to Li and at times it was a bit hard to accept for him, such as the life of excess. But Ben tried to ease him in to it.
As the movie went on, we saw that Ben was always an artistic director first. He cared more about his ballet company than anything else. He was angry when he found out about Li getting married to stay in the US, because he was worried it would jeopardize the Houston Ballet’s standing with the Chinese government. And when Li was going to go to Florida, he offered him a contract to get him to stay.
Elizabeth “Liz” Mackey
Liz was a ballet dancer that Li started dating. Unfortunately she was not one of the top ballet dancers at the company and struggled to land jobs. Nonetheless, she and Li got along, despite the language and culture barriers. When Li’s political troubles came up, the idea of marrying was put in his head, and so he and Liz got married to keep him in the States.
Things started to change after Li was allowed to stay in the States. Ben offered Li a contract to be a soloist, but told Liz that she could enter the open audition. At the time, Liz had congratulated Li which sounded…rather detached, like they were still just friends and not a married couple. Liz struggled to keep up with Li, particularly when he had nightmares about his family. She also struggled to keep up with his expectations as he felt that she did not take care of the house enough. Meanwhile, she wanted to be a dancer too and there was likely some resentment over Li moving on up and her struggling. They eventually parted ways, implied by Liz saying that she would go to San Francisco.
Niang
Li’s mom was a kindly woman. When Li had the opportunity to go to the academy, she was very proud and she wanted him to achieve his dreams. For Li, he wanted to do his country proud but he also wanted to give back to his family. Whenever he had any good news he would make a phone call back to excitedly tell his parents.
Niang found out about the defection from some villagers. She managed to drive them off but it was probably a shock to find out second hand that her son had defected and would likely never return. When they were apart, Li would have nightmares about his family being executed (for his actions). In an interview, he said that he constantly thought of them.
They finally reunited after Li performed the Rite of Spring. It was a very tearful reunion. Li resumed the role of a filial son, one that he longed to be. And at the end, his family happily welcomed him home. Throughout the movie, Li’s mom (and family) never lost their love for him. Which may be a bit ideal. I would think that some very patriotic people may disown family members for being defectors. But his family were family first and foremost and they never lost their love for him.
Themes
I think the general theme of the movie was just that Li was unable to pursue his goal of becoming a better dancer in China, particularly not under Communist rule. He had to go against his country, his family, to pursue that dream. It was what his mom wanted, but it still haunted him. But in the end, it all came together.
Overall
It was an alright movie. I can see why this story may be inspiring. It’s not that it wasn’t inspiring to me, I just wasn’t superbly moved. It was a fairly straightforward story without much complexity or nuance. The dancing was fun to watch though.