Review of Last Train Home (2009) by Jj B — 14 Mar 2011

Every year 130 million migrant workers embark from their place amongst Chinese industry, as a part of the largest human migration in the world, to unite with their families for the Chinese New Year. As a documentary, Last Train Home follows a poor rural family as they battle to provide for each other, ensure a better future for their children, and when the time comes, get see one another - no easy feat considering the other 130 million people pushing to get on trains and battling for transportation.

The mother and father, only two among the weight-bearers of a growing economic superpower, have no other future to look to other than that of their children's. They see rigorous studying as their children's only ticket of out of a cyclical life spent in poverty.

However, their daughter does not desire the same future, as she resents the absence of her parents and their interaction being limited to only her marks in school. She desperately yearns for her own personal freedom.

But just as those who came before her, the call for personal sacrifice may soon be approaching as her parents become less productive with age ... [Throughout the first half of the film I was taken aback by the intrusion of the camera on its subjects - some interactions in particular with the children seemed unnatural, and I even felt the children themselves showed awareness of their parents' altered behavior in front of the camera - however, I found myself truly connecting with the second half as the camera becomes more acknowledged as a presence in the family.

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