Maos letzter Tänzer (2009)

Maos letzter Tänzer: Directed by Bruce Beresford. With Chi Cao, Bruce Greenwood, Penne Hackforth-Jones, Christopher Kirby. In Maoist China, a boy is taken from his family and trained to become a dancer, but everything he knows is challenged when he is chosen to attend a ballet summer school in Houston, Texas.

“I donu0026#39;t normally watch many movies about ballet, I respect it as an art form but as a guy, just donu0026#39;t u0026quot;get itu0026quot;. This movie however, transcends the ballet aspect because it involves a personal and true-to-life story. I think the film captures well post-revolutionary China and the US in the early 1980u0026#39;s.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eEven though the story is based on a actual events and you know actors are portraying these real people, the acting is quite believable (both Chinese and Western) . The dancing scenes are quite good, this coming from a layman. Chi Caou0026#39;s acting was a bit forced as it was apparent that though he was Asian, probably was probably well versed in Western culture. (Being an Westen cultured Asian myself) it takes one to know one. This very slight oversight can be forgiven, given that Chi Caou0026#39;s dancing is obviously authentic.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe early relationship of Li Cunxin and Elizabeth is very well portrayed, capturing the cultural differences which were a bit more pronounced 30 years ago. There were some very touching family scenes that made me cry.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI had not heard of Bruce Beresford before, but I see by his filmography that he has had a long and distinguished career and may check out more of his films. Yet another underrated and unappreciated gem of a film which deserves more exposure, squeezed out by the big studios and their big marketing budgets churning out inferior, self gratifying fare.”