Last Train Home

The Film “Last Train Home” was directed by LiXin Fan in 2009.  It tells the story of migrant workers in China. The film begins with a man and a woman working in a garment factory.  Then they tried to take a train home before Chinese New Year. It is a constant yearly struggle since the train is not reliable.  Then the film zooms into a grandmother taking care of two young children. The two children do not live with their parents because their parents are working in the garment factory.  When the parents returned home, they do not have much to say to their children, except that they want them to work hard in school to get good grades. There is a disconnect between the daughter and the parents that eventually the daughter leaves school and works in a factory against her parents’ wishes.  This film will be useful in my class because, throughout the movie, the parents knew that in order to change their economic status, they need their children to do well so they can have a better future. Many of the students in my class come from Central America and their parents left their homeland so that they can have a better life.  The sentiment is the same. The children do not see their parents as often.