I have a special relationship with Li Tsunxing (although he somehow became Kunksin in the English version). I was lucky enough to live with him in the same city - Brisbane, which is the capital of the Australian state of Queensland. To me, Lee is a living legend. But everything in order.
The first time I heard about Lee was when my eldest daughter was taking his autobiographical novel in Grade 7. Many parents here have a habit of selling textbooks on completion by children in each class, because private schools are expensive. I only sold math textbooks (may the science lovers forgive me!). So the book "Mao's Last Dancer" settled forever on our shelf and then passed by inheritance to my youngest daughter. She was engaged in modern dance, went to the ballet with me, so she was interested in the personality of Li Tsungshin. She read the book with interest. We also visited with her an exhibition at the Brisbane Museum dedicated to Lee's creative career.
Under Lee (he is the artistic director of the Queensland Ballet), the Queensland Ballet has blossomed and I enjoy going to their productions. On several occasions I saw Lee delivering a speech before performances, and on one occasion I was very lucky to have him perform one of the main parts of the ballet Manon on the night I bought my ticket. His current wife, Mary (who appeared in the second half of the film), played a minor role.
For everything in life you have to pay, and for freedom too, and here “Mao’s Last Dancer” echoes “White Raven” about Nureyev, when the heroes have to make a choice between freedom of creativity and homeland.
Talent is always half the battle. Another key to success is hellish work, patience and determination, and the film hints at that very transparently. Despite the rating of 18+, I would recommend it to all teenagers and young people, so that they do not rely only on luck and fortune-lottery.
Very emotional was the scene of the meeting of parents and son right on the ballet stage. Of course, no one forbids me to go to Russia, as Li Tsungshin once did to China, but I have not been to my homeland for 7 years. Now it is very expensive and difficult for many reasons. So it resonated very much when GG wakes up after a nightmare with heartbreaking thoughts. I understand his feelings and feelings well. Yes, there is a comfortable, comfortable life, but sometimes you feel lost, and thoughts creep in: was it not a mistake to move here? Therefore, the words of GG “What have I done?” made everything inside me turn over and prompted me to project the situation on myself.
Not everything was in the book. For example, the film fails to mention that one of Lee’s daughters, Sophie, was deaf from birth and Mary Lee had to sacrifice her career as a ballet dancer to pursue a child. At the age of four, the girl was given cochlear implants, and she began to hear, but there was still a social adaptation, which also cost a lot of work.
The politicization of art is inevitable, but it should not be emasculated for the sake of a political agenda, as Madame Mao demanded, otherwise, if you remove sensuality and aesthetics from it, art risks turning into a dead fish or a grassroots agitation.
Despite the phrase thrown in the film that the alliance between East and West is short-lived, Russia and China have gone through a similar path of changing socio-political formations. In short, they have a similar experience. And I hope that the union of the two bears (brown and panda) will still be strong in spite of movie forecasts.
There is also a ballet that can be combined. The language of dance is universal, it is understood by everyone, and it does not require translators. And no matter how much our country is scolded abroad, still such names as Nureyev and Baryshnikov are on everyone’s ears (and in honor of the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova in Australia even called a Christmas cake, however, with an emphasis on the second syllable – PavlOva). And, in general, the Russian school of ballet has unshakable authority, which is also mentioned in The Last Dancer. Yes, we are scolded, but at Australian classical music concerts Russian composers are constantly performed. Because real masterpieces that bring up a sense of beauty in a person are priceless and immortal and have already become part of world art.
8 out of 10