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Last Train Home

Original title: Gui tu lie che
  • 2009
  • Not Rated
  • 1h 25m
IMDb RATING
7.6/10
3.7K
YOUR RATING
Last Train Home (2009)
A family embarks on an annual tormenting journey along with 200 other million peasant workers to reunite with their distant family, and to revive their love and dignity as China soars as the world's next super power.
Play trailer2:37
1 Video
18 Photos
DocumentaryDrama

A couple embarks on a journey home for Chinese new year along with 130 million other migrant workers, to reunite with their children and struggle for a future. Their unseen story plays out a... Read allA couple embarks on a journey home for Chinese new year along with 130 million other migrant workers, to reunite with their children and struggle for a future. Their unseen story plays out as China soars towards being a world superpower.A couple embarks on a journey home for Chinese new year along with 130 million other migrant workers, to reunite with their children and struggle for a future. Their unseen story plays out as China soars towards being a world superpower.

  • Director
    • Lixin Fan
  • Writer
    • Daniel Cross
  • Stars
    • Changhua Zhang
    • Yang Zhang
    • Suqin Chen
  • See production, box office & company info
  • IMDb RATING
    7.6/10
    3.7K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Lixin Fan
    • Writer
      • Daniel Cross
    • Stars
      • Changhua Zhang
      • Yang Zhang
      • Suqin Chen
    • 33User reviews
    • 52Critic reviews
    • 86Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 14 wins & 13 nominations

    Videos1

    Last Train Home
    Trailer 2:37
    Watch Last Train Home

    Photos18

    Last Train Home (2009)
    Last Train Home (2009)
    Changhua Zhang and Suqin Chen in Last Train Home (2009)
    Changhua Zhang in Last Train Home (2009)
    Last Train Home (2009)
    Last Train Home (2009)
    Last Train Home (2009)
    Qin Zhang, Changhua Zhang, and Suqin Chen in Last Train Home (2009)
    Changhua Zhang in Last Train Home (2009)
    Qin Zhang, Changhua Zhang, and Suqin Chen in Last Train Home (2009)
    Qin Zhang in Last Train Home (2009)
    Last Train Home (2009)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Changhua Zhang
    Changhua Zhang
    • Self
    Yang Zhang
    • Self
    Suqin Chen
    • Self
    Qin Zhang
    Qin Zhang
    • Self
    Tingsui Tang
    • Self
    • Director
      • Lixin Fan
    • Writer
      • Daniel Cross
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

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    Did you know

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    • Soundtracks
      Xiaotu Guaiguai
      Lyrics by Zebing Hua

      Recorded and Performed by Lijun Zheng

    User reviews33

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    8/10
    Little light at the end of the tunnel
    While the problem of migrant workers exists all over the world, in China the problem is particularly acute. According to Chinese government statistics, the current number of migrant workers in China is estimated at 130 million, approximately 9% of the population. The migrant worker's working and living conditions in the cities are precarious with most unskilled workers working ten to twelve hour days and having one or two days off a month without benefits, pensions, or health insurance.

    Until recently the children of migrant workers were kept out of urban schools and high fees still prevent them from entering schools, so most migrant workers leave their children at home in the countryside. They grow up there with grandparents or other relatives and grow estranged from their parents, of¬ten seeing them only once a year, usually during the Chinese New Year. Despite these many problems, the migrant workers continue to come to the cities, because for many staying in the villages is no longer an alternative.

    Lixin Fan's revealing documentary Last Train Home is not a film about economics but about humanity and the personal toll families of migrant workers must endure. Last Train Home is the first documentary for Fan, who worked as associate producer on the acclaimed film Up the Yangtze and as editor on To Live Is Better Than To Die, about AIDS in China. The film focuses on five members of the Zhang family whom the director met when touring a denim factory in Guangdong province, shooting 300 hours of footage over a period of several years as he became almost a member of the family.

    Fan reveals that the Zhang's left their home in the countryside sixteen years ago just after the birth of their daughter to work in the factories of Guangdong province, making cheap goods for the West and only return home once a year for a few days during New Year. Along with 140 million other migrant workers, this is often the only occasion in which they can spend time with their children and parents. The story is about the Zhang's attempt to leave the city to journey to their countryside home while having to fight the inhuman crush of workers who crowd into Guangdong's dirty railway station to secure tickets. It is not a pretty picture.

    The trip covers more than 2,000 kilometers and it is an exhausting and stressful journey by train, bus, and ferry. When they finally arrive, they are able to spend only a few days with their son Yang (10) and daughter Qin (17), who have grown up under the care of their grandparents and who they hardly know. During the last ten years, Qin has become resentful at never seeing her parents, even though the economic necessity of the arrangement is self-evident. The parents' only conversation is to tell the children to study hard but they show no interest in what they are studying or exploring with them their areas of weakness. In a rebellious frame of mind, Qin decides to leave school and go to work in a factory just like her parents, thinking that that is the path to freedom.

    During one visit, adolescent acting out together with lack of parenting skills erupt into an ugly physical confrontation between father and daughter over her use of the "f" word, an altercation that could have easily been avoided if either one had shown some emotional maturity. "It was totally unexpected and just happened after this long train ride," Fan says. "I was actually in the next room changing a light bulb and heard a shout. It was a very tough moment because we were so emotionally attached by that point. But it reveals so much of the conflict in this family and how it's an inevitable result of this society and this time, and how this big nation is just dashing towards modernity." Last Train Home was shown at the Guangzhou Documentary Film Festival last year and it was an emotional experience.

    The young audience, many of them students, loved the film. One boy said he couldn't stop crying during the screening — it was like seeing his own life on screen. His older sister, he said, had to give up school and go to work in the factory so he could continue studying. While the Zhang family shows much determination and resilience, their story has basically little upside to it. In exploring the dark side of the Chinese economic miracle, Last Train Home has plenty of tunnels along the journey but little light at their end.
    helpful•18
    5
    • howard.schumann
    • Mar 14, 2010

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • September 9, 2010 (Denmark)
    • Countries of origin
      • Canada
      • China
      • United Kingdom
    • Official site
      • Official site
    • Language
      • Mandarin
    • Also known as
      • Последний поезд домой
    • Filming locations
      • Chongqing, China
    • Production companies
      • Eye Steel Film
      • Téléfilm Canada
      • Rogers Group of Funds
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $288,328
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $20,418
      • Sep 5, 2010
    • Gross worldwide
      • $309,717
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 25 minutes
    • Color
      • Color

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