Review of Last Train Home (2009) by Mike M — 04 Feb 2011

Fan's extraordinary documentary gets so close to its chosen, heartbreaking truth that it contains sequences I found damn near unwatchable, as they would be in any other context... Somehow, miraculously, in the middle of these heaving establishing shots, Fan locates a distinct personality for each of the principals: the apparently matter-of-fact dad, who blithely walks through police lines, yet explodes in terrifying rage when his daughter uses the F-word - and who seems to be suffering most for this need to save face and make ends meet; his loving wife, supremely dignified even as she collapses in tears; their young son, insistently underlining his number five position in class (where he remains at the film's end: he's not going anywhere); and their daughter, who moves from smiles and cheeky asides to sulky resentment of her situation, and must, surely, be left to go her own way as the credits roll.

At all points, their work ethic, their dedication and commitment to supporting the family, is simultaneously a marvel and somehow tragic, unthinkable in the West; this, we must conclude, is the reason China's is the biggest economy in the world, and why the rest of us, who may or may not know better, probably won't have any jobs to go for by the time our own New Year comes around.