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66% Critic Match
Mao’s Last Dancer
“Before you can fly, you have to be free.”
6.6 / 10• 2009• 1h 57m•PG• English
DramaRomance
Storyline
At the age of 11, Li was plucked from a poor Chinese village by Madame Mao's cultural delegates and taken to Beijing to study ballet. In 1979, during a cultural exchange to Texas, he falls in love with an American woman. Two years later, he managed to defect and went on to perform as a principal dancer for the Houston Ballet and as a principal artist with the Australian Ballet.
Cast & Crew
Bruce Greenwood
Ben Stevenson
Lead
Kyle MacLachlan
Charles Foster
Joan Chen
Niang
Chi Cao
Li Cunxin - adult
Amanda Schull
Elizabeth Mackey
Wang Shuangbao
Dia
Aden Young
Dilworth
Jack Thompson
Judge Woodrow Seals
What People Are Saying
4.0
“A staggering achievement of craft and ambition. Bruce Beresford's vision lands with breathtaking precision.”
3.0
“Every frame feels alive. Mao’s Last Dancer is the rare release that takes its audience seriously.”
