(2009, English and Mandarin) In 1981 Li Cunxin (Chi Cao), a 20-year-old cultural-exchange student from China, arrives in Houston to dance with the Houston Ballet, under the artistic direction of Ben Stevenson (Bruce Greenwood). Revealed in flashbacks, the sixth son of Dia (Wang Shuang Bao) and Niang (Joan Chen), Li was chosen at the age of eleven in 1971 from among children of an impoverished rural village in Shandong Province to train in classical ballet at the Arts Academy in Beijing under teacher Chen.

His mother gently exhorts her son to "Make a better life for yourself" while his father, who tells the boy a fable of a toad who urges a frog in the well to come out and see the world, kindly says, giving the boy a gift of his own father's ink pen: "Make us proud." Small and weak in comparison with other students, Li is repeatedly criticized by an instructor as "Pig head." As a teenager he says to Chen: "I don't like ballet. I don't understand it."

But with Chen's encouragement - a gift of a videotape of Baryshnikov dancing - Li works hard at making his body supple and strong to fly through the air. When Madame Mao visits the academy, she demands revolutionary politics be incorporated into the performances; Chen is denounced as a counter-revolutionary.

In 1980 Ben arrives with his two principal dancers, Mary McKendry (Camilia Vergolis) and Bobby, for a summer workshop with the Chinese dancers. With only a few exceptions, the Chinese students appear to him more like athletes than artists, lacking emotion in their movements; he requests permission from the authorities for Li to accompany him back to Houston for three months.

Following a discussion among political officials, questioning Li's being politically ready for America, he's reminded: "Let your Communist principles guide you." Upon his arrival in Houston, Li finds the lavishness of his new surroundings in contrast with China amazing and overwhelming; he complains of Ben's spending $500 in one day on him when Dai earned only $50 in a year.

Learning a new language (English for him is "hard to chew"), he makes acquaintance with Elizabeth Mackey (Amanda Schull), another dancer with a dream, "trying to get Ben to notice me," with whom he begins a secret romance (telling Ben he's having a "fantastic" time going to kung-fu movies in the evenings), he answers her when she asks if he knows what sex is: "One, two, three, four, five, …"

At the Miller Theater, following an injury to Bobby, Li becomes a last-minute substitute to dance Don Quixote with Mary - "tombé, pas de bourrée, glissade, lift, pirouette, tombé, arabesque, soutenu" - with Vice President George H.W. Bush and Barbara in the audience. Li arrives as a student in director Bruce Beresford's heartwarming biopic - screenplay by Jan Sardi based on Li Cunxin's autobiography - and becomes a star danseur noble, with scenes including performances from Swan Lake and The Rite of Spring.

However, when Ben requests an extension for Li's stay, the Chinese government refuses. Worried about his family, Li tells Liz that though he feels "more free" in the US, he "may not come back." Conflicted, Ben, who doesn't want to disrupt arrangements for his dance company's becoming the first American troupe's receiving permission of touring China while hoping to keep Li, brings attorney Charles Foster (Kyle MacLachlan), a member of the US-Sino Friendship Association, to negotiate with Consul General Zhang.

Considering his options, Li fears that defection could bring harm to his family, but Foster points out that China recognizes marriage under international law. During discussions at the embassy, the Chinese abduct Li, resulting in an international incident.

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Copyright © 2011 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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