Movie

Mao’s Last Dancer

2009 · 117 min

A sweeping, heartfelt true story of artistic triumph and personal freedom, with tense moments and emotional payoffs.

Directed by: Bruce Beresford
Genres: Drama, Romance
Starring: Bruce Greenwood, Kyle MacLachlan, Joan Chen

Tagline: Before you can fly, you have to be free.
Overview: 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.

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In the UKNo streaming, rental or purchase options known.

Directed by: Bruce Beresford
Genres: Drama, Romance
Starring: Bruce Greenwood, Kyle MacLachlan, Joan Chen

In your watch list

How it feels

Written by AI. It can be wrong.

Tone: earneststrength 3 of 3
upliftingstrength 2 of 3
melancholicstrength 2 of 3
tensestrength 1 of 3
Pacing: measured, 2 of 4, from slow-burn to relentless
Attention: engaged, 3 of 4, from background-friendly to demanding
Themes: freedom
identity
family
ambition
love
Places: countryside
big city
workplace
Era: period
Audience: teen
Form: true story
nonlinear
Content intensity: Gore none
Language mild
Violence mild
Sex mild

All scales, 0 to 10

Scales, 0 to 10
Scale	Value	0 to 10
Action	2
Horror	0
Humour	3
Realism	8
Romance	5
Tension	5
Darkness	4
Complexity	5
Emotional weight	7

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Where to watch in the UK

No UK streaming, rental or purchase options are known.

Streaming data from JustWatch.TMDB

Details

Genres: drama, romance
Directed by: Bruce Beresford
Written by: Jan Sardi
Starring: Bruce Greenwood, Kyle MacLachlan, Joan Chen, Chi Cao, Amanda Schull, Wang Shuangbao, Aden Young, Jack Thompson
Music: Christopher Gordon
Cinematography: Peter James
Runtime: 117 min
Country: Australia, China
Languages: Mandarin, English

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Mao’s Last Dancer

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