Thursday, August 19, 2010

About "Mao's Last Dancer," the Movie

From USA Today:
Sometimes it takes an outside perspective to remind Americans how good they have it. Australian-born filmmaker Bruce Beresford and a Chinese-born former ballet dancer named Li Cunxin are happy to oblige.


On Friday, Beresford's latest film, Mao's Last Dancer, based on Cunxin's best-selling 2003 autobiography, arrives in U.S. theaters, following a successful opening last year in Australia and a fistful of nominations and awards. Besides spectacular dancing and music, the film packs an emotional wallop about the power of art and love to transcend borders and America's continuing allure to freedom-seekers.
The book was absolutely fabulous -- if the movie is even half as good, it will be terrific.

5 comments:

Stacey said...

The movie was FANTASTIC! I saw it at a film festival and the director was there to talk about it and answer questions. I highly recommend it. The book is still the best, but I think the movie was very well done and worth watching.

Unknown said...

Malinda- we are eagerly waiting for this one too! Have you seen the trailer? It looks wonderful. A few months ago I stumbled across a children's book version of the novel at our local library.

Zoe said...

the movie is great! I was so impressed. I am Aussie, it came out here ages ago - I can't believe it has taken so long to be released over there.
Absolutly worth seeing. (And the dancing is beautiful).

malinda said...

Stacey & Zoe (and anyone else who has already seen it), what do you think about taking my kids to it? It's rated PG, but I'm not quite sure why. I'm pretty sure my kids would enjoy it, since they both do ballet, but advice appreciated! They're almost 7 and almost 10, btw.

Anonymous said...

I spent 2 years living a 5min drive away from where he lived in Qingdao ... much of the city has changed (to put it mildly) but enough of remains that is still just like in his childhood ... it was sobering to walk thru these areas and remember my own childhood (I'm a similar age to him) at the same time ... and how simply unaware I was of the difficulties so many were living with.
I would sit in a coffeeshop, overlooking the beach he once played at, and be thankful for my now opened eyes.
Can't wait to get the movie!
Bernice