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Mao's last dancer - Chi Cao, Kyle McLachlan, Bruce Greenwood, Bruce Beresford

Threat advisory: Elevated - Significant risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

Mao's last dancer is based on the extraordinary true story and memoirs by Cunxin Li, who, from the Shandong Province in China, was plucked at the age of 10 from his poverty stricken small village school to train to be a dancer in Beijing. Enduring the strict discipline of the Academy of Dance and suffering the heartache of separation from his family, Li ultimately seizes the gift of his incredible opportunity with determination to succeed. He was later offered to study with one of the top ballet companies in the world, the Houston Ballet in America.

Li's fate could so easily have been the anguish of an individual who vanished, like millions of other peasants living amidst the chaos of Mao's Cultural Revolution, but there was to be another and more thrilling destiny for Li. One day he would have to make an agonising choice between duty and freedom. One day he would be regarded as one of the greatest ballet dancers of his time. One day he would be a friend to a president and first lady, movie stars and the most influential people in America. One day he would become a star: Mao's last dancer and the darling of East and West.

Theatrical propaganda posters

Mao's last dancer theatrical one sheet image

Target demographic movie keyword propaganda

Film Cunxin Li biography dance China Australia peasant ballet USA culture shock Communism Texas

Persons of interest

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

Cinematic intelligence sources

Mao's last dancer official movie sites:

Australia
International

Mao's last dancer film production notes
Mao's last dancer QuickTime movie trailers
Awards and film festivals:

Australian Film Institute (AFI) 2009: Won: Best original music score (Christopher Gordon), News Limited Reader's Choice Award
Film Critics Circle of Australia 2009: Nominated: Best Film, Best Director (Bruce Beresford), Best Editing (Mark Warner), Best Music Score (Christopher Gordon)
if Awards: Nominated:Best script (Jan Sardi), Best cinematography (Peter James), Best music (Christopher Gordon), Best director (Bruce Beresford), Best actor (Chi Cao), Best actress (Joan Chen), Best feature film

Studios and distributors:

Roadshow Films

Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Australian resident rewards programme

You could win one of five DVDs of Mao's last dancer by sending an email to the Director of Intelligence with your name and address in the body. Closed midnight 18 March 2010. Won by Glenn, Ian, Andrew, Tony and Christine.

Theatrical report

This report is embargoed until 15 September 2009.

In some respects, Cunxin Li's life is the classic rags-to-riches, small-town boy makes good, life imitates art, Communism vs Capitalism story that is the backbone of many a mundane movie. What makes Mao's last dancer special is that it's real. This is not just a plot with pictures, it's someone's life. Abandoning your family to an evil dictatorship is a hard thing to do, even when it's the only way for you to be the man you are inside.

The ballet is something of a leitmotif in this film (unlike, say, Centre stage, in which it is the reason for the things that happen off-stage), giving us just enough dancing to understand what it's all about but not drowning us in extraneous tutus.

As the biography of a dancer overcoming adversity, Mao's last dancer is not as exciting a story as Billy Elliot but it has its charms.

The Cunxin Li biography movie Mao's last dancer is directed by Bruce Beresford and stars Chi Cao, Kyle McLachlan, Bruce Greenwood.