It is rare for a film to be better than the book it is adapted from, and Mao’s Last Dancer is disappointingly no exception. It is hard to take seriously a film which presents the inner politics of a ballet company as more cutthroat than those of Communist China.
Li Cunxin’s story is an incredible one and hugely worthy, hence the success of his autobiography. Unfortunately director Bruce Beresford isn’t able to convert this story to film in a way that does justice to the extraordinary source material.
In the early 1970s, the young Li is plucked from his rural commune at age 11 to join the Beijing Ballet School, overseen by Madame Mao. Surviving the hard work and purges, at 19 he catches the eye of the travelling Houston Ballet’s artistic director, Ben Stevenson (Bruce Greenwood). Li is given a scholarship to study ballet in Texas. Here his talent as a performer is recognised, and after achieving success, Li is not ready to go back to China and its insular society. His application to extend his stay in the USA is rejected and Li faces the tough decision of defecting and risking the safety of his family or going back and risking his career.
The major drawcard for the film is the dancing, which is beautiful. Chi Cao from the Birmingham Royal Ballet, plays the adult Li. He is an incredible athlete, with amazing strength, poise and grace. It feels a little mean to say it, but he should stick to his day job, because his acting abilities pale in comparison to his exquisite dancing. The actors playing the young Li (Huang Wen Bin) and teenage Li (Chengwu Guo) both do a great job inhabiting the character.
As Sydney, more precisely Glebe, takes on the persona of Houston, there are also some Aussie actors posing as Americans. The casting director should be forced to write lines, ‘I must try harder’ for some very dubious female casting. It is difficult to engross yourself in the film when you are pulled out by some truly terrible acting.
When adapting a book for screen, often time-frames have to be played with and characters condensed. This is understandable, it is impossible to transfer exactly from page to screen. It is however unacceptable to lose the essence of the story, which is what has happened here. Li’s defection to the West is not given the gravitas it deserves and the depiction of smiling Chinese peasants is downright insulting.
It feels like a half-hearted, budget attempt to tell the story of a man with immense determination, who worked hard for everything he got. It is sad that the same can’t be said for the cast and crew of this film. Please read the book, don’t allow the film to be your only experience of Li Cunxin.
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Australian Release Date 1st October
Director Bruce Beresford
Cast: Chi Cao, Huang Wen Bin, Chengwu Guo, Joan Chan, Bruce Greenwood, Kyle MacLachlan, Amanda Schull
Hey who is this person Beth Wilson. She obviously didn’t see the same film as us. It’s a great film and everyone who was in the theatre with us loved it as well. She couldn’t even put up the real poster for the film. Beth Wilson obviously watches too many movies and hasn’t made one decent comment. I see she is preparing herself for her dream future career as a doco film-maker. In your dreams Beth.
Ouch Maria, That was quite harsh- but you are entitled to your opinion (as I am mine). I hope if you liked the film you will check out the book if you haven’t already.
With all the hype this film’s been getting, I expected to be in for a real treat. Not so. Choppy scenes, melodramatic scenarios, underdeveloped characters and sub-plots left me disappointed.
Elizabeth, Li Cunxin’s wife, for example, was a grossly underdeveloped character (who was after all, the reason for Li Cunxin’s defection} and we hardly heard a word from Mary ( Cunxin’s new prima ballerina and future wife) who featured with him in the most of the supposedly heart tugging scenes.
The bloke with the mustache (I forgot his name) and the old American shelia did not serve the development of the plot at all. The film could have been made without them, and would have been no less for it. As for master Chen. Where did he come from? A few lines and a few tears, and he was gone, until the end.
There were seven people in the session I attended. And at the end of the movie, there was not a tear to be seen…
I don’t know what you were watching alex? go to see it in cinema and you will see how much tears there is. and i don’t think people will give a s..t what you think beth. they will go and see it and will love it. I guess we will know how well the film does in few days. and Maria, thannnnnnnnnk you!
With all due respect to freedom of speech and opinion, this is a film review that, by nature, is a cross section of personal opinion and cinematic critique. It absolutely invites discussion and debate, but can we keep the personal jibes to a minimum, that isn’t what it’s all about.
Wow! It’s great to see an Australian film raising so much passionate debate. Though I agree with Trespass that personal attacks are totally uncalled for.
My review (published in The Brag and available here: http://www.alicetynan.com/2009/09/maos-last-dancer.html) echoes Beth’s sentiments and that of many other local critics. Beresford had some brilliant material to work with, and it’s such a shame to see it turned into a Hollywood melodrama. “Mired in midday movie sentimentality,” is my postcard review.
That said, I thought Graeme Murphy and the Sydney Ballet Company did an amazing job, and I hope this film gets audiences to read the Li’s beautiful memoir, and maybe get themselves to a live ballet as well.
And I love the poster, Beth. It’s much more dramatic than the Australian one!
for as long as the film entertains the people, its a good movie. isn’t it? I guess also if you want the whole book to be made to a film, it would have been 10 hours long. maybe they should made it to a 5 parts tv drama for those who think the film is disappointing. I have read the book and saw the film. it is a little different but still touching, for me and most of people I knew whom saw the film anyway. i guess its not the film for you guys then. ciao
Trespass Magazine said.but can we keep the personal jibes to a minimum, that isn’t what it’s all about.
funny! maybe you should tell the author that! and maybe achieve something first before criticize someone who had made more than 25 films and one which won a oscar!
Just want to give a word of support to Beth. I haven’t seen the movie yet, and therefore have no opinion on it. But the personal jibes being tossed about are bizarrely aggressive.
I can only assume some of the people who posted on this page are Bruce Beresford children…
Is Mao’s Last Dancer secretly the last great, missunderstood work of Lars Von Trier or something? If you don’t want to know someone’s opinion of a film, don’t click on their review. If you do click, it’s not particularly appropriate to attack the writer on a personal level.
If you only want to read the positives about a movie, just email the movie studio and ask for a press release.
We saw it last night & I loved it…yes, I thought the first wife character was weak and poorly acted and not even very well cast either, she actually annoyed me! Jack Thompson’s character was there to provide the means to stop Li leaving the country I guess…small & unimportant really as a criticism. I’ve read the book and I thought it was true to the book but yes, the book is better! However I still found the movie quite moving.
So I saw this last night. Really not good. Really. A few things
1) Why cast Amanda Schull if she’s not going to dance? Acting isn’t her strong point, I’d understand if you cast a dancer over an actor if they need to dance, but she didn’t.
2) The Australian actors were abysmal. The accents were jarringly bad.
3) The acting fullstop was medicore.
4) There seemed absolutely no attempt to disguise the Sydney location.
5) The scenes of the Chinese family seemed unrealistic and almost Westernised in the interaction
The whole film felt superficial and cheap. There was no depth, no justice done to the dynamic, tension filled premise. I completely agree with Alex above: Choppy scenes, melodramatic scenarios, underdeveloped characters and sub-plots left me disappointed.
Liv, I had exactly the same thought re: Amanda Schull – but can only guess there were dancing scenes cut. If it was only that one scene where she’s on point, then surely they could have cast a real actress and faked the point work.
Also felt the ‘smiling Asians’ were borderline racist, or at the least grossly underdeveloped. When you think of all the poignant descriptions in Li’s book – gah, just makes me annoyed.
I think that Beth is entitled to her opinion, since everyone else seems to be making theirs apparent. I liked the film, though I was disappointed at the slightly hard to follow scenes and the finding out that Mary became his wife, when there was nothing about this throughout the movie.
I agree about Amanda Schull, =/ not sure why she was cast.
But the dancing was breath-taking, by all the dancers.