MAO’S LAST DANCER

Bruce Beresford directs real audience-pleaser in true story of Chinese dancer Li Cunxin. (Review by Billy Suter, courtesy of The Mercury)

Australian director Bruce Beresford, whose credits include Breaker Morant and Driving Miss Daisy, has created a real audience-pleaser with his tackling of the true story of Chinese dancer Li Cunxin, on whose bestselling autobiography of the same name Mao’s Last Dancer is based.

However, anyone anxious to get a deeper and more satisfying understanding of the inner turmoil faced by the young dancer, who in defecting to the US was prepared to choose an uncertain future for the family he dearly loved and who, he was told, he would never see again, might be more than a little disappointed. Mao’s Last Dancer touches too lightly on this important issue, as it does the whole issue of communism-versus-capitalism and the sincerity of the dancer’s relationship with a young American (played by Centre Stage star Amanda Schull) who married him and helped pave his way to the West. Consequently, Beresford’s film, while undeniably captivating, is not as memorable as it might have been.

It’s the story of a rural peasant, one of seven sons who, at the age of 11, became one of a chosen few selected by representatives of Madame Mao to be trained at the Beijing Arts Academy. There Li underwent vigorous training, communistic brainwashing and years of demanding discipline. He eventually rose to be star after pushing himself to impress a coach who continually referred to him as “pighead” and labelled him physically weak.

It was in 1980, when he was invited to Houston, Texas, as part of a cultural exchange programme initiated by Houston Ballet’s somewhat effete artistic director, Ben Stevenson (Bruce Greenwood), that Li warmed to Western ways. As portrayed by striking dancer-actor Chi Cao, everything is “fantastic” when Li arrives in America, where Beresford milks the fish-out-water scenario, particularly in scenes showing the dancer experiencing his first disco and first sip of Pepsi. On finding love and fame, and a preference to dance the classics rather than the political ballets demanded by Madame Mao, Li opts to remain in Texas. This lead to a lot of press interest, particularly when Li and his lawyer tussle with officials at the Chinese embassy and, as the film shows, the dancer is bundled off to a small room with the intention of being flown back to China as soon as possible. However, thanks to quick official judicial intervention, all went well in the end.

The film comes alive in its dance sequences, particularly wide-shot performances of Swan Lake and The Rite of Spring, and owes a lot throughout to the talent and charisma of Chi Cao, a principal dancer at Birmingham Royal Ballet since 2002. Greenwood also deserves special mention, giving a warm, understated performance as the artistic director who introduced Li to the wonders of the West and became his friend. The film also features Joan Chen as Li’s mother and Desperate Housewives star Kyle MacLachlan as his lawyer.

Mao’s Last Dancer can be seen at Cinema Nouveau at Gateway, Umhlanga. – Rating 7/10 - Billy Suter