what did you think?


Having read the book before, I think that my opinion about the film is somehow biased. But this said, i am still happy to say that the film is a good one. All the actors / ballet people plays their parts beautifully. Special mention goes to Chi Cao (who plays Li Cunxin adult) who succeeds to pull off the emotions required during dificult scenes, but also manages to add humor & a sense of innocence & charm to his role. Bruce Greenwood seems to get a lot of attention for his role in the film & i think that he deserves it since he plays his role perfectly as someone passionate about teaching ballet. As for the sequence that the film plays, the jumping forward-backards is done adequately & the audience can relate & easily follow the story. My only concern is as follows: the first part is slow to develop, followed by an exciting & beautifully made second part, but finish with a mediocre third part. Having read the book, the third act doesnot do justice to Li's life about his journey from when his parents are allowed to visit him in the US, to the reasons he marries Mary, to him going back to China. However the film succeeds to pull off some deeply emotional scenes that connects with the audience, and the second part feels just amazing and fantastic. In bonus the director succeeds to capture the magic of ballet with each ballet scene he shot.

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I enjoyed it. I hadn't read the book but knew of the story from interviews Li has done.

The only bits that bothered me were the slow mo's and speed up's Beresford used at times in the dancing section and the continual clips to audience reaction. As if we (the audience) were so stupid we needed to be told it was good. Corny.

That alone dropped it back 1 star in my estimation.

I loved the early provincial scenes in China and trust (I hope correctly) they were accurate and not embellished to serve a dramatic purpose.

The only other question I have is whether in the latter sections, the Chinese Government is made to appear more "user friendly" to suit current day international relationships rather than reflect the actual conditions of the time.

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I liked it :) I was a bit disappointed that they didn't show more of his childhood at the beginning, because it was so interesting to read about in the book.

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