Last Train Home

Name: Last Train Home
Genre: Drama, Documentary
Released: September 3, 2010
Duration: 85 min
Rating: 86
Cast: Changhua Zhan, Suqin Chen, Yang Zhang

2010

METASCORE

Universal acclaim based on 18 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 32 Ratings

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8.0

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8.0	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 32 Ratings

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Last Train Home

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Movie Details & Credits

Zeitgeist Films | Release Date: September 3, 2010

Starring: Changhua Zhan, Suqin Chen, Yang Zhang

Summary: Every spring, China’s cities are plunged into chaos as 130 million migrant workers journey to their home villages for the New Year’s holiday. This mass exodus is the world’s largest human migration—an epic spectacle that reveals a country tragically caught between its rural past and industrial future. Working over several years in classicEvery spring, China’s cities are plunged into chaos as 130 million migrant workers journey to their home villages for the New Year’s holiday. This mass exodus is the world’s largest human migration—an epic spectacle that reveals a country tragically caught between its rural past and industrial future. Working over several years in classic verité style Chinese-Canadian filmmaker Lixin Fan (with the producers of the award-winning hit documentary Up the Yangtze) travels with one couple who have embarked on this annual trek for
almost two decades. Like so many of China’s rural poor, Zhang Changhua and Chen Suqin left behind their two infant children for grueling factory jobs. Their daughter Qin—now a restless and rebellious teenager—both bitterly resents their absence and longs for her own freedom away from school, much to the utter devastation of her parents. Emotionally engaging and starkly beautiful,
Last Train Home’s intimate observation of one fractured family sheds light on the human cost of China’s ascendance as an economic superpower. (Zeitgeist Films)… Expand

Director: Lixin Fan

Genre(s): Drama, Documentary

Runtime: 85 min

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Metascore

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Critic Reviews

100

David Fear

The attention to visuals is above and beyond what most vérité is capable of; doing double duty as the film's cinematographer, Fan demonstrates a pitch-perfect photojournalistic eye. Read full review

100

A.O. Scott

Mr. Fan's documentary is informed by a melancholy humanism, and finds unexpected beauty in almost unbearably harsh circumstances. It tells the story of a family caught, and possibly crushed, between the past and the future - a story that, on its own, is moving, even heartbreaking. Multiplied by 130 million, it becomes a terrifying and sobering panorama of the present. Read full review

100

Lisa Schwarzbaum

This is essential viewing for understanding our world. Read full review

Noel Murray

Sometimes the story is so much like a fiction feature-complete with explosive family arguments and pointed cross-cutting between the free-spirited Qin and her beaten-down folks-that it feels exploitative, as though Lixin were turning real people into characters. Read full review

Boxoffice Magazine Steve Ramos

Fan finds the delicate balance between broad socio-political themes and a single family torn between centuries-old traditions and the desire to succeed in the capitalist world. Read full review

Carrie Rickey

Fan's fly-on-the-wall perspective enables the viewer to empathize with all the players in the family drama, unlikely to have a happy ending. Read full review

Michael O'Sullivan

It's depressing enough to watch this family's struggles with life. But their pain really hits home when you think that the pants you might be wearing could have contributed to it. Read full review

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User Reviews

Trailesque

Jul 31, 2021

This is an excellent documentary that shows the drab and difficult life of a blue collar Chinese family. The mother and father work in sweatshops making clothes, hundreds of miles away from their home village. They get to come home once a year, for the New Year holiday. The kids areThis is an excellent documentary that shows the drab and difficult life of a blue collar Chinese family. The mother and father work in sweatshops making clothes, hundreds of miles away from their home village. They get to come home once a year, for the New Year holiday. The kids are growing up with their grandmother, and becoming increasingly alienated from their parents, who mean well. It is poignant and as real as can be.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

camelion

Jan 25, 2011

Lixin Fan's film retains an extraordinary relationship with it's direct subjects; a struggling family, and the tensions of some 130 million other peasants toiling in similar fashion, trying to make a living in the enormous industrial complex that is modern China. Juxtaposing the intimate,Lixin Fan's film retains an extraordinary relationship with it's direct subjects; a struggling family, and the tensions of some 130 million other peasants toiling in similar fashion, trying to make a living in the enormous industrial complex that is modern China. Juxtaposing the intimate, enchanting portrait of the Zhang family with the action footage of them lost in the utterly insane annual event that constitutes 'goin home for the holidays in China was a masterstroke. This, thankfully, is one of those documentary films that never feels like it intrudes, so much so that a sense of voyeurism crept up on me. I found the cinematography so fluid and captivating that the solitary occasion wherein the tension of a cameras glaring presence is brought to bare became an unforgettable scene of wrought emotion. I actually had to press pause. This film is a real achievement in CinÃ©ma vÃ©ritÃ©, from a special artist, and an important one too.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

snow_walker

Jan 17, 2011

This film is a wonderfully paced and visually stunning portrait of a cultural phenomenon - economic migration within China. The struggle of one family is shown rather than explained, with snippets of conversation as a chorus to the imagery. A sensory treat.

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