What kind of system has the global community created for itself if families are being splintered and teenage girls are being forced out of school and into the bars all in the name of providing oversized Americans inexpensive jeans? Director Lixin Fan uses his debut film to explore the strain that is being placed on one Chinese family as they struggle to make ends meet and maintain relationships all while being completely enslaved by the factory that they work at. Zhang Changhua and Chen Suquin are the parents are two children and the heart of this emotional family drama that would have truly sung to Ozu. They have spent their years sewing clothing for Western companies so that their daughter Qin could one day attend college and then hopefully be able to provide a better life for herself and her family. The sacrifices are gigantic, that much is clear, but what Fan shrewdly reveals is the ways in which the parents are not as altruistic as you might think and how a plan so simple can detonate so violently.
The film takes place over a three year time frame with much focus being placed upon the journey that the migrant workers make every New Year so that they can spend time with their families. Of course if you have pretty much the entire country traveling at once shenanigans are most likely going to go down and we get to see all sorts of unfortunate turns for these people. Trains are cancelled and sold out, a snow storm blows into town and put everything on hold for a week. One extended scene, that is hauntingly reminiscent of War of the Worlds, finds the protagonists stuck for days waiting for a train. After a while the wait and the exhaustion begin to wear on them and we begin to see the cracks in their veneer. We pretty much go everywhere else with them as well, into the homes, into their workplaces, and uncomfortably far into their private lives and all along the way Fin, who did most of his own cinematography, captures the lush beauty of everyday life in China.
What drives this film, however, is the tragedy behind this family dynamic, how none of them are in an ideal situation and how that drives them to do some ugly things. The parents, especially the father, come off as almost repugnant in their treatment of their daughter who is, granted, unappreciative and spitting on them in her own little way. Watch the way Chen Suquin, the mother, lectures Qin, “You have not tasted the bitterness of life,” with that very bitterness tainting her every word. Then there is the climax (of sorts) which happens while the whole family, even Grandma, is together for the holiday. People start to talk, resentments start to shine on through and pretty soon Qin is dropping the F Bomb and all hell is breaking loose. Cultural relativism aside I’m pretty sure that even if telling your daughter you merely “tolerate” her, berating her for not achieving anything in life, blaming her for her grandpa’s death, and then physically beating her down isn’t frowned upon worldwide it should be. Making matters worse is the transparency of the parents constantly talking about all the respect they deserve meanwhile hardly veiling the fact that they are pushing their children so hard in the hopes that they will grow up to become meal tickets.
The cover of the box brags about Fan’s participation in Up the Yangtze but I found that movie to be a case of minimalism run amok. If studying modern China is a hobby then Manufactured Landscapes and China’s Unnatural Disaster are better picks than this film.
Last Train Home also dabbles in minimalism and finds only slightly better results. The narrative structure is too loose to provide any real emotionality except in cases of extreme sensationalism. As mentioned above the cinematography is flawless and we as a country need to put our ADD aside and look into the soul of our addiction to low low prices. In the end the family winds up even more scattered than before and the saddest part of all is that they might just be better off because of it.
The picture is beautiful and crisp and I would recommend that you watch these images on the biggest screen that you can find.
The special features are limited and do not do much to bolster the viewing experience. There are a few deleted scenes from the overstuffed Guangzhou Train Station but there is nothing there that wasn’t covered elsewhere in the film. Had it remained in the movie it would have felt like filler. There is also a short travelogue that is mildly informative, and the standard issue US Theatrical trailer.
What’s most interesting about this film is the way that we stare at this tragic tale and are not given any direction in how to feel about it. Is the daughter the villain because she turned her back on her parents plan for her that they had devoted their life too? Is the father the villain for not being able to emotionally handle his daughter’s freedom? Also, who is to blame for this terrible quality of life? Westerners and their obsession with acquiring low priced goods? The Chinese government happy to rise their citizens cheap labor into a position of world power? Or the family themselves who were far more greedy than I was expecting?
Zeitgeist Films presents Last Train Home. Directed by: Lixin Fan. Starring: Qin Zhang Changhua Zhang, Suquin Chen. Running time: 85 minutes. Rating: NR. Released on DVD: February 22, 2011.
