Last Train Home

 

Story:

Documentarian Lixin Fan follows a couple who, like 130 million other Chinese peasants, left their rural village for work in the city, leaving their children to be raised by grandparents. The husband and wife return only once each year, on an arduous 1,000-mile journey. But their homecoming is not a warm one, as their now teenage daughter, Qin, makes her bitter resentment known and debates pursuing a factory job herself. (NetFlix)

Review:

If you’re a purist in the documentary world, cinema verite is the only way to go. It avoids all the biased ramblings of a narrator, strips away the glitz and glamour of animations and special effects and leaves audiences with the core subject. There is no story (in the traditional sense), just life. In terms of these goals, Lixin Fan’s Last Train Home is a great film.

Before I sing its praises, a warning: this documentary isn’t for everyone. If you read the above paragraph and find such ideals boring, then I’d avoid Last Train Home. This is like watching baseball at Wrigley Field; there are no amenities, no gimmicks for the casual fans, just the purity of what’s in front of you. The lack of a coherent story, in particular, will drive some viewers crazy.

So why watch Fan’s documentary? Because it brings you into a life experience you wouldn’t otherwise come to terms with while also highlighting difficulties everyone endures. The family in Last Train Home is both unique and universal. Not everyone must travel hundreds of miles to work long hours for little pay all for a family they never see. Few must haggle, fight and plead with officials just to cram themselves into a train car for countless hours, but we all know the thrill of returning home to loved ones.

But perhaps the most engaging element found in Last Train Home is the conflicts between parents and children. The bitterness both sides express for the sacrifices they’ve made is visible and even erupts in a fury so consuming even the film crew (who remain otherwise invisible and callous) are sucked in. And in the end, somehow, they are still family, still supportive. Don’t get me wrong, you won’t feel all warm and fuzzy by the end, but you can’t call this a dysfunctional family either. Such complexities are what make Fan’s film so interesting.

That and the palpable emotions the family expresses on film. You don’t just see the situations, you almost endure them yourself. Audiences can’t help but feel claustrophobic as the couple crams into a train full of people and even exhaustion from a months of grueling work is transmitted to viewers.

Again, this isn’t a film for everyone and may even be a struggle for viewers who decide to watch it, but if you let it sink in, you’ll see the beauty of Last Train Home. It truly is life, stripped of all the usual clutter to reveal the complexities we all face.

Reviewed by Matthew Abshire for Documentary Film Online on April 23, 2010

In Conclusion: