Mao's Last Dancer
March 24th 2010 22:53
“What’s wrong?” she asked with concern on her face.
When I explained to her I had just watched Mao’s Last Dancer her concern turned to laughter. “God he’s an arrogant prick.”
I wiped away my tears quickly to hear her take on the film. She hadn’t watched it, but had read the book, written by the man himself Li Cunxin.
I guess that’s what’s different about film and books. I could just watch and see that he was a great dancer, whereas in the book he had to tell everyone to capture the memories. People are entitled to their own opinion.
For me, a non book reader, Mao’s Last Dancer was very moving and quite spectacular. My emotions were heaving in my chest like waves in the ocean. It’s a rags to riches story about Li Cunxin, growing up in communist China. He’s taken away from his family to dance school and is finally given the opportunity to go to America (that evil EVIL place according to China’s regime). He breaks through into stardom, meets a nice girl and wants to stay. After a political shitstorm he’s allowed to stay in the US but is never allowed back into his home country. Not knowing if his family is still alive or if they have been punished for his supposed ‘betrayal’ he dances “for them” and has nightmares frequently about what they are going through, whether they are still alive or if they have been shot straight through the temple.
The best part of the movie came when the government organised for his parents to come and watch one of his performances. At the end of the dance he sees them out in the crowd and the reaction is played out in front of the whole audience, who knows of his sob story. His parents join him on stage and their emotions are allowed to run free. It had been over 10 years since they had seen each other. It brought tears to my eyes. They were alive and well HURRAH!
It was a good film. Worth watching. Still some empty pieces such as his relationship with Elizabeth and I don’t think his love for America and his feelings towards dancing were explored enough but all in all very good.
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