[LJ2ME] So You Think You Can Dance?
A five-hankie weepie I certainly did not expect the movie to be. Mao's Last Dancer is one of those movies that will not interest or attract the limited and selected niche audience it was made for. All the more a pity when it is as good as it gets.
Chronicling the life story of Chinese ballet star, Li Cunxin from when providence plucked him from the rural countryside to the city to be trained at the dance academy to his finding success on stage in America, the movie segues into a comfortable pace that doesn't have the audience either spacing out or on tenterhooks.
The much slammed defection for its anti-climactic non-event was not as bad as made out, though a little skimpy in the facts of the matter, glossing over the political redtape that would have bored the audience otherwise.
And for the waterworks? When Li has all but lost contact with his family for his decision, having achieved fame and fortune, his sleep is still plagued by nightmares. At the acme of his profession and the peak of his career, resolution comes in a surreal performance of The Rites of Spring where the thematic element of sacrifice was brought to the fore as the attendance of VIPs cemented his life and career.
I could have watched Ip Man 2. I could have watched Iron Man 2. The fists of fury and the heavy metal of both protagonists of said movies could not have compared with this man's dance of survival.
Chronicling the life story of Chinese ballet star, Li Cunxin from when providence plucked him from the rural countryside to the city to be trained at the dance academy to his finding success on stage in America, the movie segues into a comfortable pace that doesn't have the audience either spacing out or on tenterhooks.
The much slammed defection for its anti-climactic non-event was not as bad as made out, though a little skimpy in the facts of the matter, glossing over the political redtape that would have bored the audience otherwise.
And for the waterworks? When Li has all but lost contact with his family for his decision, having achieved fame and fortune, his sleep is still plagued by nightmares. At the acme of his profession and the peak of his career, resolution comes in a surreal performance of The Rites of Spring where the thematic element of sacrifice was brought to the fore as the attendance of VIPs cemented his life and career.
I could have watched Ip Man 2. I could have watched Iron Man 2. The fists of fury and the heavy metal of both protagonists of said movies could not have compared with this man's dance of survival.