Mao’s Last Dancer

Oct 1, 2009

1h 57m

★ 6.6

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.

Genres

Drama

Romance

Production Companies

Great Scott Productions Pty. Ltd.

Mao’s Last Dancer Trailers

Cast

Elizabeth Mackey

Amanda Schull

Li Cunxin - adult

Chi Cao

Li Cunxin - teenage

Chengwu Guo

Li Cunxin - boy

Wen Bin Huang

Niang

Joan Chen

Ben Stevenson

Bruce Greenwood

Charles Foster

Kyle MacLachlan

US Federal Judge

Jack Thompson

Mary McKendry

Camilla Vergotis

Lori

Madeleine Eastoe

Bobby Cordner

Steven Heathcote

Dilworth

Aden Young

County Durham, England, 1984. The miners' strike has started and the police have started coming up from Bethnal Green, starting a class war with the lower classes suffering. Caught in the middle of the conflict is 11-year old Billy Elliot, who, after leaving his boxing club for the day, stumbles upon a ballet class and finds out that he's naturally talented. He practices with his teacher Mrs. Wilkinson for an upcoming audition in Newcastle-upon Tyne for the royal Ballet school in London.

7.9

Braveheart

May 24, 1995

Enraged at the slaughter of Murron, his new bride and childhood love, Scottish warrior William Wallace slays a platoon of the local English lord's soldiers. This leads the village to revolt and, eventually, the entire country to rise up against English rule.

7.7

Hotel Rwanda

Dec 22, 2004

Inspired by true events, this film takes place in Rwanda in the 1990s when more than a million Tutsis were killed in a genocide that went mostly unnoticed by the rest of the world. Hotel owner Paul Rusesabagina houses over a thousand refuges in his hotel in attempt to save their lives.

8.3

Dead Poets Society

Jun 2, 1989

At an elite, old-fashioned boarding school in New England, a passionate English teacher inspires his students to rebel against convention and seize the potential of every day, courting the disdain of the stern headmaster.

7.5

Volver

Mar 17, 2006

Three generations of women deal with family secrets while surviving the east wind, fire, insanity, superstition, lies and even death.

7.4

Boys Don't Cry

Sep 2, 1999

A young transgender man explores his gender identity and searches for love in rural Nebraska.

7.0

Man of Marble

Feb 25, 1977

A young Polish filmmaker sets out to find out what happened to Mateusz Birkut, a bricklayer who became a propaganda hero in the 1950s but later fell out of favor and disappeared.

7.6

King Richard

Nov 18, 2021

The story of how Richard Williams served as a coach to his daughters Venus and Serena, who will soon become two of the most legendary tennis players in history.

7.2

The Divine Order

Mar 9, 2017

Nora is a young housewife and mother, living in a quaint little village with her husband and their two sons. The Swiss countryside is untouched by the major social upheavals the movement of 1968 has brought about. Nora’s life is not affected either; she is a quiet person who is liked by everybody – until she starts to publicly fight for women’s suffrage, which the men are due to vote on in a ballot on February 7, 1971.

5.6

Sex Hunter

Oct 25, 1980

A beautiful young ballet dancer is accepted into a prestigious and exclusive dance academy. Overjoyed at the opportunity to further her career and repair her relationship with her boyfriend, she soon discovers that the academy has a dark side to it--and she may not be able to escape it.

6.0

The Defection of Simas Kudirka

Jan 23, 1978

Based on the true story of the attempted defection in 1970 by a Lithuanian seaman seeking political asylum in the United States. Kudirka was denied asylum and returned to the Soviets, charged with treason, and sentenced to ten years of hard labor. It was later discovered and verified that his mother had been born in Brooklyn and gone to Lithuania at a young age, which meant she was a U. S. citizen. As a result, Kudirka was declared a U. S. citizen and in 1974 released by the Soviets.

5.2

Pendular

Sep 21, 2017

The trajectory of a romantic couple of contemporary artists reveals how the limits, contradictions and obsessions of a romantic relationship are reflected in each of their artistic endeavors.

7.6

Better Man

Dec 6, 2024

Follow Robbie Williams' journey from childhood, to being the youngest member of chart-topping boyband Take That, through to his unparalleled achievements as a record-breaking solo artist – all the while confronting the challenges that stratospheric fame and success can bring.

8.4

Seven Samurai

Apr 26, 1954

A samurai answers a village's request for protection after he falls on hard times. The town needs protection from bandits, so the samurai gathers six others to help him teach the people how to defend themselves, and the villagers provide the soldiers with food.

7.0

Capote

Sep 30, 2005

A biopic of writer Truman Capote and his assignment for The New Yorker to write the non-fiction book "In Cold Blood".

7.4

Erin Brockovich

Mar 17, 2000

A twice-divorced mother of three who sees an injustice, takes on the bad guy and wins -- with a little help from her push-up bra. Erin goes to work for an attorney and comes across medical records describing illnesses clustered in one nearby town. She starts investigating and soon exposes a monumental cover-up.

7.2

Monster

Dec 24, 2003

In 1989, prostitute Aileen Wuornos befriends and enters a relationship with a young woman named Selby. Determined to straighten out her life, Aileen's limited education lands her back on the corner. She's raped by a trick, who she kills. A string of murder and robbery follows that ultimately leads Aileen to becoming America's first female serial killer.

No Image

0.0

Malá mořská víla

Dec 22, 2019

An original ballet by the National Theatre with music by Z. Matějů, choreography by J. Kodet, and directed by the SKUTR duo. Performers: M. Matějková, O. Vinklát, M. Ogimoto, M. Wenzelová, M. Deneux, A. Watanabe, and others. The National Theatre Orchestra is conducted by A. S. Weiser. Directed by P. Lauze... Hans Christian Andersen's immortal story of the little mermaid's love for an earthly prince, for whom she sacrifices the most precious things she has – her voice and her life – inspired librettists J. Kodet, M. Kukučka, L. Trpišovský, and above all composer Z. Matějů. In collaboration with choreographer J. Kodet and directed by the SKUTR duo, an evening of poetic dance images was created to the interesting, communicative, and inventive music of the Czech composer.