Mao's Last Dancer (2009) - Even better than the legendary cult movie "The Shawshank Redemption" - 10/10 (20/03/11)

I didn't expect that much from the movie as I bought it at a cheap price for several reasons. First of all, I am interested in Chinese culture and history and in my university classes, we were recently talking a lot about the era of Mao. Second, I saw that Kyle MacLachlan and Joan Chen would be starring in this movie and I both adored them in the legendary Twin Peaks series and thought it would be interesting to see them come back together for another movie. I also thought that the artistic side of the movie could be beautiful.

But I didn't expect too see a masterpiece, maybe the best drama I have ever seen in my whole long life. This movie blew me completely away in every sense of the word.

Usually I happen to hate dance movies, but the choreographers' works in this movie are stunning and overall beautiful. The decorations, the music and the dancers are majestic and were touching and you don't have to be a fan of ballet dancing or classical music to feel so.

The acting of the movie was brilliantly played by every single actor. Let's underline the stunning performance of the sympathetic, powerful and yet naive Chi Cao who played his role as if he was really living this. The young actors Wen Bin Huang and Chengwu Guo did also a very great job and I hope to hear and see more of those rather unknown talents very soon. The more well known actors like Bruce Greenwood and Kyle MacLachlan are as always very solid and charismatic.

The story of the movie is highly intriguing and touching. This is a movie about having dreams and ambitions, about fighting and believing, about hope and despair. There is a very philosophical touch in the whole story and thanks to the brilliant acting you get immediately drowned into this tragic drama where a young dancer must make many sacrifices to hold on to his dreams. When the young dancer finally gets a surprise on stage towards the end of the movie, I just began to cry. This was one of the most magic moments I have ever seen in a movie and I am not a very sentimental person. Someone that won't be touched by the intensity of emotions in this movie must have a heart of ice and stone and someone that is rather emotional might be touched all along the movie. Knowing that this movie was inspired by a true story underlines the intensity of it and shows us that the best stories are often written by life and fate.

This movie goes straight to the top ten movies I have seen in my life and I have seen many movies and big classics. This movie is about romance, family, freedom, faith, cultures and dreams and comparable to the great Shawshank Redemption that broke all the records on this site. Needless to say that I slightly prefer Mao's last dancer to it and I hope that this underrated movie might attract your interest and get more popular one day. Everyone that liked Shawshank Redemption must watch this flick and won't be disappointed. This is easily the best movie of the year 2009.