Thoughts on Mao's Last Dancer, the movie

I don't normally do posts on movies, but we have the book for this one in our school library....

Instead, I am going to rave about the movie I saw last night: Mao's Last Dancer. We received the book Mao's Last Dancer at our school library the same week the DVD showed up at my house from Netflix. I felt like this was a sign: watch this movie! I thought it was going to be kinda' boring but we finally got around to watching it last night.

Wow! An Australian company made this film so it wasn't sensationalized (sorry Hollywood), but rather was an intimate look at how children in China were chosen at a young age to attend athletic/dance schools, their training, and how Li Cunxin had the opportunity to go to the US as a student one summer. I don't want to give away what happens once he comes to the US, but it's a great story full of heartache, hope, and beautiful dancing.

The story is true, which make it even more interesting. Here are two links if you are interested: This link about the movie tells you about the amazing cast and more while this link tells the biography of Lu Cunxin, the dancer.