HMB’s Coastside Film Society: Last Train Home
Last Train Home
“Last Train Home represents the best kind of documentary filmmaking: It is transportive cinema, taking viewers to a place they never much considered and immersing them in an experience they never knew existed.” — Mike Scott, The Times-Picayune
The Chinese industrial revolution is fueled by the labor of hundreds of millions of Chinese workers who have left home and family behind for jobs in the factories that circle the big cities. Most of these workers are given a single week each year to reconnect with family during the Chinese New Year’s celebration. The result is the world’s largest human migration, during which an unfathomable 130 million human souls cram into every available mode of transport to grab a week of family time. The shots of this mad migration at the beginning of Last Train Home are majestic and overwhelming.
Chinese-Canadian director Lixin Fan humanizes her film by focusing most of the story on the plight of a single couple. Fifteen years ago, Zhang and Chen left young children in the care of Grandma to take low-paying jobs in a textile factory a thousand miles away. They live in a dorm with no privacy; they spend their days bent over sewing machines, from dawn to dusk, to earn enough money to pay for a good education for their kids. Fan follows the family for three years as the now-teenage kids gradually detach from the aspirations their parents have held for them.
“This is a reality Dickens could hardly have imagined. The fruit of their toil has contributed to China’s emergence as a global economic power. But their lives are a grim contrast to the glittering Beijing of the Olympics, the towers of Shanghai, the affluent new business class. And here is the part you may sense coming: Are their children grateful for what amounts to the sacrifice of two lifetimes?” — Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
“Last Train Home will tug at your heartstrings as it opens your eyes, but it also will make you feel incredibly lucky and more than a little spoiled.” — Mike Scott
Professor Jenny Lau, a Chinese film scholar at San Francisco State University, will handle the introductions and the post-screening discussions.
Running time: 87 minutes. Mandarin with English subtitles.
Friday, June 17, 8 p.m. Community United Methodist Sanctuary
777 Miramontes St., Half Moon Bay (corner of Johnston Street
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