Working over several years in classic verite style chinesecanadian filmmaker lixin fan with the producers of the awardwinning hit documentary up the yangtze travels with one couple who have embarked on this annual trek for almost two decades. From claustrophobic train cars to the wide expanses of their rural village home, this gorgeous verite film compassionately portrays the personal consequences of a consuming devotion to work, revealing the everyday realities of chinas emergence as a global economic power. It follows a typical migrant worker family over a threeyear period. He describes the family that is at the center of the film, and the challenges he faced while filming them. Their unseen story plays out as china soars towards being a world superpower. An official selection of the 2010 sundance film festival. Rent last train home 2009 on dvd and bluray dvd netflix.
Last train home takes viewers on a heartstopping journey with the zhangs, a couple who left infant children behind for factory jobs 16 years ago, hoping their wages would lift their children to a. As an outreach tool, the film forces viewers to look at the human cost of chinas ascendance as an economic superpower and confront the ways in which poverty and policy fracture families. The film depicts the fate of some of the last remaining jews in berlin, who in april 1943 were rounded up at the berlingrunewald station and sent to the nazi concentration. They no longer live in a country without consumer luxuries. Then lixin narrows his focus to one married couple. Last train home is a haunting, vivid documentary exploring the human toll of chinas economic boom in intimate, unforgettable detail. With ron white, noam zylberman, donna goodhand, katharine isabelle. In this pbs video interview, lixin fan discusses the inspiration behind his film last train home. The film deals with the worlda s largest human migration by millions of factory workers every year during the chinese new year. Use one of the films accompanying resources to learn about the issues and get involved.
Jul 01, 2012 the most important film ive seen in years. Watch last train home, the chinese documentary by lixin fan. Last train home 2009 annually, an estimated million factories workers in china migrate from their city of employment back to the village they grew up in. Can you tell us what the reaction has been among u. Lixin fan opens his debut documentary feature, last train home, with an overhead shot of chinese migrant workers gathered by the thousands outside a railway station, hoping to get tickets so they can head home for the new years holiday. It won the best documentary feature at 2009 idfa and has been distributed by zeitgeist films in the us. Watch last train home directed by lixin fan online vimeo on. Last train home, a 2009 documentary directed by lixin fan. Last train home is a stark, bleak, and unflinching revelation of a film. A couple embarks on a journey home for chinese new year along with million other migrant workers, to reunite with their children and struggle for a future. Rarely in a documentary does every shot matter as a bearer of emotion and information. With changhua zhang, yang zhang, suqin chen, qin zhang. Every spring, chinas cities are plunged into chaos as million migrant workers journey to their.
Seeing this film, you suspect there are many suicides among workers in factories whose brands are less famous than apple. In this madeforcable family drama set in the 1880s, a teen and his dog set out on a crosscountry journey to find the boys father, who escaped police custody after being falsely accused of murder. Watch last train home directed by lixin fan online. Rivaling chinas finest documentarians, firsttime director lixin fan begins his last train home with a handful of unshakable images. Cut to a rural village, where zhangs two kids, teenage girl qin zhang and her younger. Heading to winnipeg where his father and a friend, the real killer, have gone, he is befriended by a mountie who starts watching out after. Last train home, an extraordinary documentary, watches that conflict play out over a period of three years in one family. Last train home takes viewers on a heartstopping journey with the zhangs, a couple who left infant children behind for factory jobs 16 years ago, hoping their wages would lift their children to.
It is a documentary of one migrant family and the sad realities of life in sweat shop china. Last train home 2009 stream and watch online moviefone. Homeward train is a 2009 documentary film directed by lixin fan and produced by daniel cross and. This single was the bands joint highest charting in the uk, tied with rooftops a liberation broadcast. Set in the 1880s, this fictional film blends reallife characters as a teen jumps freight trains in his trek to find his father who has been accused of murder.
The movie has been out for a few years, and it has. The chinese governments urbanisation plan wants 60% of people living in cities by 2020 with 45% to have full urban. Last train home is the second single from start something, the second album by the welsh rock band lostprophets. Watch last train home english subtitled prime video.
Last train home takes place over a few years and the generational rift only grows wider. Making a sailor full length documentary 2018 duration. Last train home, an emotionally engaging and visually beautiful debut film from chinesecanadian director lixin fan, draws us into the. Filmmaker lixin fan may very well be one of modernday chinas great nonfiction storytellers. An illustration of a computer application window wayback machine an illustration of an open book.
Every spring, chinas cities are plunged into chaos, as all at once, a tidal wave of humanity attempts to return home by train. He describes the family that is at the center of the. Last train home, an emotionally engaging and visually beautiful debut film from chinesecanadian director lixin fan, draws us into the fractured lives of a. Throughout springtime in china, millions of migrant workers go home to their families. We need more movies that talk about the asian culture. Every spring, chinas cities are plunged into chaos as million migrant workers journey to their home villages for the new years holiday. A copresentation with the center for asian american media. Last train home, an emotionally engaging and visually beautiful debut film from chinesecanadian director lixin fan, draws us into the fractured lives of a single migrant family caught up in this desperate annual migration. Jun 30, 2010 each year in china more than million migrant workers travel home for the new years holidaythe one time theyll reunite with family all year. The unsustainable system in which the prc continues to function as the factory. In september 2011, last train home director lixin fan provided the latest news on the zhang family and the films reception in china. This film very accurately and with poignancy shows the emotional and. Sixteen years ago, the zhangs abandoned their young children to find work in the city, consoled by the hope that their.
Last train home suggests that the times they are achangin. A couple embarks on a journey home for chinese new year along with million other migrant workers, to reunite with their children and. Lixin fan is a socialpolitical documentary filmmaker. Complications arise when denzel crosses paths with the leader of the retribution clan, john, who hides a dark secret of hatred and. Last train home full frame documentary film festival. Filmed with almost voyeuristic style, its hard not to want to turn away when you see the eyes of those being filmed glaring back at you as if daring you to look hard at the. Feature film 2018 83 mins last train home every spring, chinas cities are plunged into chaos as million migrant workers journey to their home villages for the new year in the worlds. Last train home tv movie 1989 cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more. Heading to winnipeg where his father and a friend, the real killer, have gone, he is befriended by a mountie who starts watching out after him after he is arrested for stealing a purse. Zhang changhua and chen suqin, who have to wait days and pay triple the regular fare to take a steamy. Lixin fans nonfiction debut, last train home 2009, is just such an exceptional movie. Homeward train is a 2009 documentary film directed by lixin fan and produced by daniel cross and mila aungthwin of eyesteelfilm. The film can be utilized in the classroom in a number of ways, the two most straight forward of which are to show short clips, followed by.
Last train home is selected in world documentary competition at sundance film festival 2010 and won the top prize at ridm montreal and the whistler international film festival. Lixin fan discusses the inspiration behind his film last train home. Last train home reveals a nation tragically caught between its rural past and industrial future. Last train home tracks the zhang family, opening with scenes in a clothing warehouse where married couple changhua zhang and chen sugin work assiduously to support, one discovers through interview footage, their two children living over 1,000 kilometers away. Broadly, the film last train home follows a family of migrant workers over an approximately 3 year period, as they struggle with issues of family separation, poverty, educational opportunity, and intergenerational alienation. Last train home is a documentary film about the lives of migrant workers who continuously live life traveling and working. Watch last train home directed by lixin fan online vimeo. Rent last train home 2009 starring changhua zhan and suqin chen on dvd and bluray.
Oct, 2010 seeing this film, you suspect there are many suicides among workers in factories whose brands are less famous than apple. Chinas cities are plunged into chaos as million migrant workers journey to their home villages for the new years holiday. Last train home has now been seen by audiences in america, both in theaters and now on pbs. Last train homes intimate observation of one fractured family sheds light on the. The film continues to show how they all live trying to overcome such difficult lifestyles. Last train home was an interesting, but disturbing, documentary by lixin fan showing us the modern china,where most of the manufacturing for the world were made today. Last train home, a visually striking debut film from chinese canadian director lixin fan, draws us into the fractured lives of a single migrant family caught up in this desperate annual migration. Chinese peasants no longer live without television and a vision of another world. Financial analysis of last train home 2010 including budget, domestic and international box office gross, dvd and bluray sales reports, total earnings and profitability. The wave is made up of millions of migrant factory workers. Last train home itvs documentary film funding itvs. A young black insurance salesmen named denzel finds himself on the wrong side of the tracks in a town which still bears the scars of racial hatred from years past. Last train home, a 2010 album by foghat, also a song on the album. When qin drops out of school to work in a textile factory and later in a restaurant, the rosy vision of mr.