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Poster for Mao’s Last Dancer

Movie

Mao’s Last Dancer

Before you can fly, you have to be free.

2009 · PG · 1h 57m

Directed by Bruce Beresford

6.6

TMDB audience score
126 votes, out of 10

Trailer Where to watch

Synopsis

At the age of 11, Li was plucked from a poor Chinese village by Madame Mao's cultural delegates and taken to Beijing to study ballet. In 1979, during a cultural exchange to Texas, he falls in love with an American woman. Two years later, he managed to defect and went on to perform as a principal dancer for the Houston Ballet and as a principal artist with the Australian Ballet.

Where to watch

Official options in the United States:

Subscription

  • Amazon Prime Video
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Free

  • Kanopy

Free with ads

  • The Roku Channel
  • Pluto TV
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  • Plex
  • Tubi TV

Rent

  • Amazon Video
  • Apple TV Store
  • Google Play Movies
  • YouTube
  • Fandango At Home

Buy

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  • Apple TV Store
  • Google Play Movies
  • YouTube
  • Fandango At Home

All options on TMDB

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Trailer

Play trailer: Mao's Last Dancer - Official HD Trailer by Bruce Beresford

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Cast

  • Bruce Greenwood
    Ben Stevenson

  • Kyle MacLachlan
    Charles Foster

  • Joan Chen
    Niang

  • Chi Cao
    Li Cunxin - adult

  • Amanda Schull
    Elizabeth Mackey

  • Wang Shuangbao
    Dia

  • Aden Young
    Dilworth

  • Jack Thompson
    Judge Woodrow Seals

  • Penne Hackforth-Jones
    Cynthia Dodds

  • Chengwu Guo
    Li Cunxin - teenage

  • Wen Bin Huang
    Li Cunxin - boy

  • Madeleine Eastoe
    Lori

  • Camilla Vergotis
    Mary McKendry

  • Steven Heathcote
    Bobby Cordner

  • Kip Gamblin
    David

  • Christopher Kirby
    Mason

  • Suzie Steen
    Betty Lou

  • Yang Li
    Cunmao - 19 yrs