Movie Review (Mao's Last Dancer)

Movie Review

David Park

So, a few days ago, I watched a movie called “Mao’s last dancer.” It was released on September 13, 2009 and was based on a true story. I personally thought that this movie was great, so I decided to write a movie review.

Summary:

The movie is about  11 years old boy named Li CunXin. Li was living in a sleepy old town, but then, one day, officials from Beijing came to the town in order to select some gifted students to take to Beijing. As Li was getting examined, he was selected. Li soon found himself in Beijing school of ballet, practicing ballet for a few years. During those years, Li experienced lots of things, such as a new type of ballet. In China, they enforce the Revolutionary style ballet, but from a teacher named Chen, he gets inspired to Western ballet. Times passed and one day officials from the Houston Ballet came to choose some candidates to go with them to Texas to learn ballet. Li gets picked and went to Texas for 3 weeks. He changed a lot during those weeks. You should watch the actual movie to find out more.

Question No.1

If you watch the movie, you can easily connect the movie with the phrase: “The frog in the well.” I strongly think that this phrase is strongly connected since I portray Li as the frog. In China, they enforce Revolutionary form of ballet, and since Li is in China, the well, he is forced to practice that way. However as soon as he goes to Texas, he learns a new style of ballet which is more free and natural compared to that of China. Additionally in this movie, America or Texas is seen as outside the well, since it gave Li a new point of view of the world.

Question No.2

In the movie, as time passes, Li doesn’t want to go back to China, since he finds love and finds the western culture so attractive and great. So, in the end, Li decides not go back to China. I think that his actions have both pros and cons, and I will now talk about them. First the positive side is that he will get to marry Liz, his girlfriend. Additionally another good thing is that he would be able to stay in the United States and do what he wants to do rather than doing strict, revolutionary Chinese ballet. However, there are many negative sides of not going back to China too. One of the main consequences that Li had to follow was that he couldn’t no longer go back to China since he opposed to the Chinese government. That is really bad for Li because he won’t be able to go back to his own home country! The second negative thing is that he wouldn’t be able to see his parents from now on. Other bad thing about staying in the United States is that his love with Liz isn’t entirely secure. If you watch the movie, you can clearly see that it was love by first look.

Overall:

Overall this movie is a great movie that teaches you many things on choices and life. I would like to give it 8.5 stars out of 10. Thank you for reading my movie review.