Once a year, Chinas cities are plunged into chaos as the country sees the largest human migration on the planet. Every spring, just in time for Chinese New Year; more than 100 million migrant workers down tools throughout factories and retreat to the rural villages and the families they left behind.
Last Train Home, filmmaker Lixin Fans documentary debut, focuses upon a single family caught up in this epic annual migration. Having left behind their children in the care of ageing grandparents some 16 years previously, the Zhangs made the heartrending decision to leave for Chinas booming cities, their paycheques banked for their childrens education, or wired home to feed their family. Their dreams of a bright future for their children are soon dashed however when, after making the days long journey home, they discover their daughter Qin has followed in their footsteps and has thrown in the towel on school, intent on a future with the factories and a daily grind.
Incredibly candid and intensely absorbing, Last Train Home excels in probing a foreign culture in a universally intimate way. As subjects, the Zhangs are an endearing and engaging bunch, constantly challenging perceptions. At first glance, its hard to sympathise with the parents for their abandonment of their children, however well intended. But very soon, when the family first gather around a dinner table, we instantly see their burning love for their children and how, in their eyes, years long estrangement is worth the cost if a decent future for their offspring can be assured.
Likewise, rebellious daughter Qin provides a rollercoaster of responses in the audience. Its easy to put her behaviour down to her age, her hormones and the example set by her parents but as the film plays out and were witness to more candid exchanges, layers are exposed. When she indeed does follow in her parents footsteps, shes easily excited at the prospect of a disposable income and gleefully does away with the fresh cash burning a hole in her pockets. It only illuminates the loving intent of her parents, but also reminds us the girl has been deprived of any true parental guidance.
Fan is entirely adept behind the camera, offering us an immersive and candid insight into the goings on of the Zhangs family as he shoots shoulder to shoulder with his subjects. In the case of the family, this makes for thoroughly absorbing affair during the many domestic interactions, and elsewhere, in the more sweeping moments of the film, proves a very powerful tool. Were thrown right into the action as Fan documents the mass exodus of the hundred million plus migrant workers, showing us an ordeal more akin to a cataclysmic evacuation than the minor scuffles we experience day to day on the public transport system. And elsewhere, were dealt a diverse landscape of China; from the hazy streets of the boom towns, to the breathtaking beauty of its rural lands.
Overall Verdict: Impressive visuals of a distant land and a foreign culture might seem to put this documentary at a distance to most audiences, but Last Train Home enthrals with its candid and instantly intimate portrayal of a fractured family facing universal ordeals.
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Reviewer: David Steele