Le Dernier Train

Last Train Home is heartbreaking, incredibly moving, and documentary film-making at its best. Director Lixin Fan forces no comment, political otherwise, as he follows the lives of two Chinese migrant workers over a period of two years. The camera is purely an observer- it's this kind of focused observational film-making that makes this film so moving and poignant.

Reality is bleak for some 130 million Chinese migrant workers who work for long hours sewing clothes in derelict factories and travel huge distances home to their families just once a year during Chinese New Year. The journey is chaotic, brutal, and the physical and emotional toll is high - but the damage it does to families is even greater. Changhua Zhang and Suqin Chen work hard to provide for a more promising future for their children. Their daughter Qin is a lonely and unfulfilled teenager who harbours much resentment towards the parents that have been largely absent from her life. She decides to quit school and become a migrant worker herself, treading that same path that her parents have worked so tirelessly to prevent.

To witness the estrangement and disconnect within the family is heart- wrenching. The camera captures expressions and scenes of humanity that speak volumes of the lifelong ordeal of China's migrant workers. While the country has reaped many benefits from its export-driven economy, it is questionable as to whether the workers, the very engine of this rising prosperity, have seen any margin of fortune themselves.

This is a human story so mercilessly gripping that it should resonate with all. How we live in the western hemisphere is directly interwoven with the lives of people halfway across the world. Last Train Home is a sharp reminder of that. This is a superbly crafted film that you need to watch.

Short and sweet: the best documentary I've ever seen, and it doesn't even feel like one when you are watching it. A must see.

Now the details for those of you who want it.

The Last Train home is a beautiful and tragic picture of what China is like for factory workers. Forced to work in a city factory, the Zhangs sacrifice their beautiful yet difficult life on the farm with their children in hopes that they can get enough money to send them to college. All the factories allow them to go home one time during the year, meaning thousands and thousands of people all trying to get back to their rural towns in China all at the same time. A surprising and eye opening experience into a world you never knew existed. The train stations are filled to the brim, people turn violent, and people faint from exhaustion. All for something so simple that many take for granted; going home.

The factories are not demonized in this film, in fact, it shows us how dependent the people are on it. If a factory closes down, it's workers are devastated. So many work there so they can scrap together enough money to help their families in the country. All are in danger of extreme poverty and starvation. It raises a lot of moral questions on if sweat shops are necessarily as bad as everyone thinks. The quality of living is horrible, sure, but on the other hand these people desperately need the money just so that their children maybe luckier than they were and go to college. It's a topic that leaves you torn, even if it's not focused on in the film.

Like I mentioned above, this documentary doesn't feel like one. Documentaries, though interesting, can come off as artificial. With Last Train Home this isn't the case. It is a seamless flowing film that drops you into this family's lives as a silent observer. The director never makes a comment on his project and lets the family tell their story for us. I believe this is what makes this film so strong and emotionally stirring. It's easy to get lost in their many, many, beautiful and painful moments and then you realize that these people are real. They exist. This really happened. Then it is all the better or all the worst.

Now this film isn't all doom and gloom. You laugh, you cry, just like it should be. The director is able to get his point across with out making it feel like there is no hope. Instead you cling to it. Things have to get better, you tell yourself, and sometimes it does. However this is the main component that keeps you glued to the very last second and leaves you wanting more. Such a simple thing but in a film like this one it could have been easily lost in all of the misery.

It also should be added that this film is great for showing the conflict between 'Old China' thinking vs the 'Modern China' thinking. It has been a topic that has come up in various literature, such as Pearl Buck's 'The Good Earth', but it has never rung so clear as in this film. The Grandmother's old superstitions and old way of thinking is conflicted with her grandchildren's modern view on the world.

Overall, this film is as close to perfection as it could get. It draws you in and keeps you there until the final moment, until the credits roll and until the last line of dialogue is spoken. It's a film of sacrifice, family, and survival. It has a powerful message that needs to be heard.

A modern train glides smoothly over a ravine bridge against a framed backdrop of snow-covered peaks and deep valleys.

It is a breathtakingly scenic surprise that sharply contrasts with the passengers crammed into the train, exhausted, heading home for a day or two after a week's wait at the city train station.

Lixin Fan's film of three consecutive New Year's migrations provides startling insight into modern China and the devastation that recent industrialization has wrecked upon a country once steeped in family-centered culture.

A young girl offers prayers for her grandfather. He has raised her and she doesn't really know much at all about her parents.

They have spent her lifetime in Guangzhou's factories making jeans for the world and sending money back home in hopes their children (they also have a younger son) will receive a strong education and rise above the menial factory work.

It is an aching portrait of modern China that should be seen.

There is a brief scene in this semi-documentary where one of the workers working on an immense pile of blue jeans for import to the U.S. laughs at the enormous waistline--a 40! He comments that only in America are there enough people who could fill so many of those jeans; I was in Costco two days later, and one of those folks was behind me in line , cart crammed with huge portions of food, loudly complaining because the line wasn't moving fast enough for her. I wanted give her a copy of this tender, sad, revealing true story about people waiting in line, sometimes in the rain, for five days just to catch a train for their once a year vacation, usually to visit children they have left behind so that can earn enough money for the kids to live well and educate themselves and move ahead. Even with the mountain of personal and financial problems the family shares, their essential humanity shines through, and as with families all over the planet, they just want things to be better for their children. This is a penetrating and thoughtful film about a nation that doesn't know how to handle its sudden growth and power, and is about the results of such power that often impact the victims of the system

I cannot express better what so many other reviewers have expressed already. Having moved to the United States at a very young age, and having never been able to build a relationship with my parents as they worked 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, I can personally relate to this sad, unfortunate and all too real migrant story.

The sacrifice the parents made to provide a chance for a better future and the complexity of emotions: love, anger, resentment, and disparity all reminded me of my sister and I growing up.

Powerful films can shape people's hearts and minds. This is one of them. It is a fair and true story of any migrant worker in this world and reminds us those of us writing and reading this have luxuries have it better than most in this world. Be great full, be humble.