Bringemovies
← Browse Movies
Mao’s Last Dancer
TITLE DETAILS

Mao’s Last Dancer

2009-10-01 · 117 min · ★ 6.6

Drama · Romance

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.

Open detail page

Trailers are previews, not full movies.

No authorized playback source configured. Use the legal watch options below.

Production details

Directors
Bruce Beresford
Production companies
Great Scott Productions Pty. Ltd.
Countries
Australia, China
Status
Released
Budget
USD 25,000,000
Revenue
USD 23,914,731

Top Cast

Bruce GreenwoodBruce GreenwoodBen Stevenson
Kyle MacLachlanKyle MacLachlanCharles Foster
Joan ChenJoan ChenNiang
Chi CaoChi CaoLi Cunxin - adult
Amanda SchullAmanda SchullElizabeth Mackey
Wang ShuangbaoWang ShuangbaoDia
Aden YoungAden YoungDilworth
Jack ThompsonJack ThompsonJudge Woodrow Seals
Penne Hackforth-JonesPenne Hackforth-JonesCynthia Dodds
Chengwu GuoLi Cunxin - teenage
Wen Bin HuangLi Cunxin - boy
Madeleine EastoeLori
Camilla VergotisMary McKendry
Steven HeathcoteSteven HeathcoteBobby Cordner
Kip GamblinKip GamblinDavid
Christopher KirbyChristopher KirbyMason
Suzie SteenSuzie SteenBetty Lou
Yang LiCunmao - 19 yrs
Ferdinand HoangFerdinand HoangConsul Zhang
Xiguo WuDirector Wang

Title information and images are supplied by TMDb. Explore our discovery guide for advice on comparing metadata and legal viewing options.

Where to watch

Availability provided by JustWatch via TMDb. Offers can change. Provider links are listed on TMDb; full playback requires a separately authorized source.

Streaming

Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads

Rental

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

Purchase

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

Free

Kanopy

With ads

The Roku Channel, Pluto TV, YouTube Free, Plex, Plex Channel, Tubi TV

View authorized watch options on TMDb

Recommendations

Coco Chanel
★ 6.6
Coco Chanel2008Drama · Romance

Fashion icon Coco Chanel, steeped in wealth and fame, still issues game-changing designs and collections. The audience is taken backwards in time to the woman's upbringing in an orphanage, and traces her path to ubiquity as it winds through poverty, wars, doomed romances, and rather glamorous betrayals.

Footloose
★ 6.7
Footloose1984Drama · Romance

When teenager Ren and his family move from big-city Chicago to a small town in the West, he's in for a real case of culture shock after discovering he's living in a place where music and dancing are illegal.

A Woman of Paris: A Drama of Fate
★ 6.7
A Woman of Paris: A Drama of Fate1923Drama · Romance

When Marie St. Clair believes she has been jilted by her artist fiance Jean, she decides to leave for Paris on her own. After spending a year in the city as a mistress of the wealthy Pierre Revel, she is reunited with Jean by chance. This leaves her with the choice between a glamorous life in Paris, and the true love she left behind.

The American
★ 6.8
The American2023Drama

American ballet dancer Joy Womack is accepted into Moscow's infamously tough Bolshoi Ballet Academy, with the dream of becoming a great ballerina.

The Greatest Showman
★ 7.9
The Greatest Showman2017Drama

The story of American showman P.T. Barnum, founder of the circus that became the famous traveling Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

Take the Lead
★ 6.9
Take the Lead2006Drama

A former professional dancer volunteers to teach dance in the New York public school system and, while his background first clashes with his students' tastes, together they create a completely new style of dance. Based on the story of ballroom dancer, Pierre Dulane.

Save the Last Dance
★ 6.6
Save the Last Dance2001Drama · Romance

After the death of her mother, Sara moves to the South Side of Chicago to live with her father and gets transferred to a majority-black school. Her life takes a turn for the better when befriends Chenille and her brother Derek, who helps her with her dancing skills.

The Turning Point
★ 6.6
The Turning Point1977Drama · Romance

As young dancers, they were best friends and fierce rivals. Deedee left the stage for marriage and motherhood, while Emma would become an international ballet icon. But when Deedee's teenage daughter is invited to join Emma's dance company and begins an affair with a young Russian star, the two women are forced to confront the choices they've made, the resentments they've hidden and the emotional truths they must face at the turning point.

StreetDance 3D
★ 6.5
StreetDance 3D2010Drama · Romance

In order to win the Street Dance Championships, a dance crew is forced to work with ballet dancers from the Royal Dance School in exchange for rehearsal space.

Nobody Has to Know
★ 6.7
Nobody Has to Know2022Drama · Romance

After a stroke and no memories from his past, Phil encounters Millie who inhabits a desert part of Isle of Lewis. She will shortly entrust him with his deepest secret : they were in love.

The Red Shoes
★ 8.0
The Red Shoes1948Drama · Romance

A fledgling ballerina falls in love with a brilliant composer, but the jealous head of the ballet company plots to drive them apart.

The Lost Husband
★ 6.7
The Lost Husband2020Drama · Romance

Trying to put her life back together after the death of her husband, Libby and her children move to her estranged Aunt's goat farm in central Texas.

Skin
★ 6.4
Skin2009Drama

Based on the true story of a black girl who was born to two white Afrikaner parents in South Africa during the apartheid era.

Ballet Shoes
★ 6.3
Ballet Shoes2008Drama

An unusual explorer named Gum and his kindly niece adopt three orphans -- Pauline, Petrova and Posy -- and raise them as sisters in 1930s London. But the girls must fend for themselves when Gum doesn't return from one of his adventures. Together, they nurture their passions for acting, aviation and ballet in this charming TV adaptation of Noel Streatfield's novel.

Dance with Me
★ 6.9
Dance with Me1998Drama · Romance

Young Cuban Rafael just buried his mother, and comes to Houston to meet his father John for the first time. The difficult part is that John doesn't know he is Rafael's father. John runs a dance studio, and everyone prepares for the World Open Dance championship in Las Vegas. It soon becomes clear Rafael is a very good dancer, and Ruby is the biggest hope for the studio at the championship.

Lovely, Still
★ 6.6
Lovely, Still2009Drama · Romance

A holiday fable that tells the story of an elderly man discovering love for the first time.

The Secret: Dare to Dream
★ 7.4
The Secret: Dare to Dream2020Drama · Romance

A widow with three children hires a handyman to fix her house during a major storm. When not doing home repairs, he shares his philosophy of believing in the power of the universe to deliver what we want.

High Strung Free Dance
★ 7.3
High Strung Free Dance2018Drama · Romance

Zander Raines, a dazzling and tempestuous young choreographer, gives the break of a lifetime to two hopeful artists when he casts a stunning contemporary dancer, Barlow, and innovative pianist, Charlie, in New York’s most-anticipated new Broadway show: Free Dance. But the move throws off the show’s delicate creative balance when Charlie falls hard for Barlow, while Zander embraces her as his muse.

There's Always Tomorrow
★ 7.2
There's Always Tomorrow1956Drama · Romance

When a toy manufacturer feels ignored and unappreciated by his wife and children, he begins to rekindle a past love when a former employee comes back into his life.

Great Expectations
★ 6.4
Great Expectations2012Drama · Romance

Orphan Pip discovers through lawyer Mr. Jaggers that a mysterious benefactor wishes to ensure that he becomes a gentleman. Reunited with his childhood patron, Miss Havisham, and his first love, the beautiful but emotionally cold Estella, he discovers that the elderly spinster has gone mad from having been left at the altar as a young woman, and has made her charge into a warped, unfeeling heartbreaker.

Similar titles

Antonia's Line
★ 6.9
Antonia's Line1995Drama

After World War II, Antonia and her daughter, Danielle, go back to their Dutch hometown, where Antonia's late mother has bestowed a small farm upon her. There, Antonia settles down and joins a tightly-knit but unusual community. Those around her include quirky friend Crooked Finger, would-be suitor Bas and, eventually for Antonia, a granddaughter and great-granddaughter who help create a strong family of empowered women.

Brother of Sleep
★ 6.7
Brother of Sleep1995Drama

In the beginning of the 19th century, Johannes Elias Alder is born in a small village in the Austrian mountains. While growing up he is considered strange by the other villagers and discovers his love of music, especially rebuilding and playing the organ at the village church. After experiencing an "acoustic wonder", his eye color changes and he can hear even the most subtle sounds.

The Gold Rush
★ 8.0
The Gold Rush1925Drama

A gold prospector in Alaska struggles to survive the elements and win the heart of a dance hall girl.

Paths of Glory
★ 8.3
Paths of Glory1957Drama

A commanding officer defends three scapegoats on trial for a failed offensive that occurred within the French Army in 1916.

The Jazz Singer
★ 6.1
The Jazz Singer1927Drama

A young Jewish man is torn between tradition and individuality when his old-fashioned family objects to his career as a jazz singer. This is the first full length feature film to use synchronized sound, and is the original film musical.

The Ambush
★ 6.0
The Ambush1969Drama

Idealistic young man supports the party and the new Yugoslavia's communist regime, but soon gets involved in various political and criminal machinations becoming more and more confused about what's right and what's wrong.

Heavenly Creatures
★ 7.0
Heavenly Creatures1994Drama

Precocious teenager Juliet moves to New Zealand with her family and soon befriends the quiet, brooding Pauline through their shared love of fantasy and literature. This friendship gradually develops into an intense and obsessive bond.

The Inheritors
★ 6.6
The Inheritors1998Drama

In a small farming valley in Austria in the beginning of the 20th century a tyrannical farmer is found dead, and all the farmhands are relieved to be free of their tyrant. But the farmer was childless, so suddenly they all inherit the farm together. Now conflicts begin, as nobody is the boss and nobody has to obey.

Sommersby
★ 6.4
Sommersby1993Drama · Romance

Set in the South just after the US Civil War, Laurel Sommersby is just managing to work the farm without her husband, believed killed in battle. By all accounts, Jack Sommersby was not a pleasant man, thus when he suddenly returns, Laurel has mixed emotions. It appears that Jack has changed a great deal, leading some people to believe that this is not actually Jack but an imposter. Laurel herself is unsure, but willing to take the man into her home, and perhaps later into her heart.

The Front
★ 7.1
The Front1976Drama

A cashier poses as a writer for blacklisted talents to submit their work through, but the injustice around him pushes him to take a stand.

Footloose
★ 6.7
Footloose1984Drama · Romance

When teenager Ren and his family move from big-city Chicago to a small town in the West, he's in for a real case of culture shock after discovering he's living in a place where music and dancing are illegal.

Russian Dolls
★ 6.6
Russian Dolls2005Drama · Romance

Five years after their summer together in Barcelona, Xavier, William, Wendy, Martine and Isabelle reunite.

Lord of War
★ 7.4
Lord of War2005Drama

Yuri Orlov is a globetrotting arms dealer and, through some of the deadliest war zones, he struggles to stay one step ahead of a relentless Interpol agent, his business rivals and even some of his customers who include many of the world's most notorious dictators. Finally, he must also face his own conscience.

We Shall Overcome
★ 7.2
We Shall Overcome2006Drama

A drama about a boy who's inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and challenges repressive school authority in 1969 Denmark.

The Gunman
★ 5.8
The Gunman2015Drama

Eight years after fleeing the Congo following his assassination of that country's minister of mining, former assassin Jim Terrier is back, suffering from PTSD and digging wells to atone for his violent past. After an attempt is made on his life, Terrier flies to London to find out who wants him dead -- and why. Terrier's search leads him to a reunion with Annie, a woman he once loved, who is now married to an oily businessman with dealings in Africa.

Inherit the Wind
★ 7.6
Inherit the Wind1960Drama

Schoolteacher Bertram Cates is arrested for teaching his students Darwin's theory of evolution. The case receives national attention and one of the newspaper reporters, E.K. Hornbeck, arranges to bring in renowned defense attorney and atheist Henry Drummond to defend Cates. The prosecutor, Matthew Brady is a former presidential candidate, famous evangelist, and old adversary of Drummond.

Exodus
★ 6.7
Exodus1960Drama

Ari Ben Canaan, a passionate member of the Jewish paramilitary group Haganah, attempts to transport 600 Jewish refugees on a dangerous voyage from Cyprus to Palestine on a ship named the Exodus. He faces obstruction from British forces, who will not grant the ship passage to its destination.

Master of His Own Body
★ 7.1
Master of His Own Body1957Drama · Romance

Due to negligence that caused the death of a family cow, an extremely poor but handsome young man Iva must obey his father's demands to marry an unattractive and limping daughter of wealthy villagers.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
★ 7.6
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly2007Drama

Jean-Dominique Bauby, editor-in-chief of French fashion bible Elle magazine, has a devastating stroke at age 43. The damage to his brain stem results in locked-in syndrome, with which he is almost completely paralyzed and only able to communicate by blinking an eye. Bauby painstakingly dictates his memoir via the only means of expression left to him.

No Good Deed
★ 5.4
No Good Deed2002Drama

While doing a friend a favor and searching for a runaway teenager, a police detective stumbles upon a bizarre band of criminals about to pull off a bank robbery.

Your favorites

Recently viewed

Watch

Choose an authorized server.

Full video from an operator-configured authorized source. Official trailers use a separate player. If a server fails, retry or select another authorized server.

Legal watch options

Official trailer

Trailer preview only. Press Play to start.

Privacy choices

Favorites stay in your browser. Movie images load from TMDb. YouTube trailers contact YouTube only after you allow external media and choose a trailer. Advertising consent, if ads are enabled, is managed separately by the operator’s certified CMP.

Privacy policy

After allowing external media, choose the trailer button to load its player.