Art Film Event

 On Thursday February 3, 2011 Sabrina and I went to the Nickelodeon to see the Last Train Home. I believe this event was kind of a big deal. The theater was sold out, this was the opening night of the Chinese Film Festival   sponsored by the Confucius Institute of the University of South Carolina in partnership with the moving Image Research Collections, the Chinese Association of Columbia and the Nickelodeon Theater.

This was a documentary that followed one migrant family of workers from 2006 to 2008. The movie shows the family struggles of working far away from home to support their children so that they may have a better life than what they did.

The Establishing Shot

The Establishing Shot of Last Train Home was taken from an overview shot. The camera began in what appeared to be an empty parking lot  and scanned across to a mass crowded of people. The overview shot really gave the audience a chance to take in how many people were actually in this small space. Amongst the people you could see scatters of different colors of umbrellas, which defiantly meant that it was raining outside. As the camera scanned across this group of people you could defiantly tell that there was almost no space between each person, there was nothing in view but little tiny heads and umbrellas. The amount of people shown almost made me uncomfortable, being that I hate large crowds.

This establishing shot set up the context for the movie, the scene signified that later in the movie this crowd of people would play a major role, as we found out that the migration of Chinese workers is that largest migration of people in the world. Tickets are hard to come by because so many workers are trying to make it home by the Chinese New Years. The large crowd also in some ways signifies that struggles that these migrant workers face in their day to day lives. Essentially this crowed showed the relationship of this migration to the lives of the Chinese.

The shot sets up the setting of the movie. Although this shot only lasted at most 5 seconds, it is defiantly a lasting image  that left an imprint in my mind.

This Establishing Shot kind of set a heavy mood for my experience at the Nickelodeon. Not did these people appear uncomfortable in their circumstance, but it was also raining. I kind of put myself in their position and immediately started to feel sad, but knowing that this was going to be a real experience about life. As well as I was surrounded by Chinese people on both sides, really made me respect the movie more.

Interesting Camera Angles

I found the shots in the crowd as well as the shots in the train to be the most interesting. The shots in the crowd were so interesting because I began to wonder how did the camera man fit himself as well as all the equipment into these crowds. How did the people around him react? I wondered if he became uncomfortable as he was shooting when the crowds began to push, at  one time you could even see the camera man lose control of his camera. How did he feel riding on the train for 3 days plus, riding on the boat. These camera shots are also what made the movie so real!

Also during the scenes on the train, it appeared that the camera man was holding his camera out of the train. He may have been seated in the back of the train because you could see most of the train in front of it. This camera angle gave the feeling of riding on the train and just peering outside of the window. It really put you in the mind set of actually riding on the train. It makes you feel as if you were actually riding the train, and gave the audience a different view.



Story line

The Last Train Home follows the lives of a peasant Chinese family. The mother and father along with more than 130 million migrant workers attempt to return home via train to their families living in rural villages. The movie covers about a 2 year span beginning in 2006 and ending in 2008.

The mother and father left their daughter Qin when she was less than a year old. They seeked work in the factories to send money back home to support their children. Qin and her younger brother Yang are raised by their grandparents on the family farm, their grandfather has recently passed leaving the grandmother to raise the children.

The movie flashed from life on the farm to life in the factory. The first year Qin's parents struggle to find a ticket to make it home by the new year, the travel to the ticket agency everyday for a week with no luck. Eventually they find two tickets home at high prices that someone has returned. This is the first time they have been home in years.

Once home the family gathers, they discuss how all their hopes and dreams lie in the children's success in school. The parents are never satisfied with their children's work, they tell them they must study harder, school is the only way out.

The absence of Qins parents in her life has had a tremendous effect on her. She feels no emotion towards her parents, and resents them for leaving her, stating they are so concerned with money, they forget about her. She rebellious against her parents drops out of high school and heads to the work force.  She enjoys making her own money and living on her own.

During the Chinese New year of 2008, Qin with her parents head back to the village for New Years. A winter storm knocks the power out to the train service. They are stuck in the crowd, no food no water for up to 5 days waiting to get home. Once home tensions rise as her parents try to convince her to go back to school she argues back. She disrespects her father saying "fuck "to him, her father explodes this leads to blows.  This is defiantly a defining moment in movie

Qin moves to another city and picks up a waitress job at a night club. Her parents remain working at the factory, eventually her mother returns home to be with Yang to see he does not follow in his sisters foot steps.

Scenes

The scenes that drew me in the most where defiantly the scenes with Qin. I felt like I could relate to her because we were so close in age. This also made me think about how different peoples lives are in the world. Although she is in another country I think teen rebellion is a universal theme, at some point in our lives we disappoint our parents, we do not make the decisions that they think we should make. This just shows us at the end of the day we are all human, no matter what race we are.

The most surprising scene was the fight between Qin and her father. Although my parents are physical disciplinarians, I have never seen a daughter fight her father. They were fist fighting, like a pair of angry teenagers, or two men. This also made me very uncomfortable, in my culture it is very taboo for a man to hit a woman, especially a father. In America I am almost positive that is considered child abuse of domestic violence. In that moment of the movie everything became all to real, this is really a family at odds, challenged by their environment and situation.

Also the film in which Qin yelled at the camera asking if this was real enough yet.

Staging

There was no staging in the film because this was a documentary, it was life in real time. I am assuming no retakes. I am sure their was discussion as to camera position and angles though. The camera position changed often to make the viewer truly apart of the experience, almost as if you were their in present time.

Because this was a documentary I am not sure if any Mise-en-scene was used.  Again maybe with the position of the camera their was a manipulation of the articulation of the cinematic space; but then again they were filming real time so their is no predictions as to what might happen and when or where the best place for the camera to be was. I am sure they did not use all the footage, so there were decisions as to what shots would best convey the themes and ideas of the film.

The Role of the Actors

This film was a documentary so their were no actors. The main characters were Qin, her father, and her mother. I do not think the acted any differently then the would have because the cameras were filming. The movie was defiantly real and genuine with real emotions. That is what I like most about documentaries, you get the real, raw material, their is no faking it, it life up front in your face.

Music and Soundtrack

There was no music nor soundtrack to this film because it was a documentary. I guess you could say the soundtrack was the natural sounds within the film. The lack of music defiantly added to the real life effect of the film, because their is no music that plays in the background of actually life. There is no perfect song that just starts to play at the perfect moment. The "music" heard was the actually sounds a person would hear had they been present in that moment. Nothing is dramatized for effect, no fluff no extras, this is what really draws me in to documentaries. I love that their are no additions.

Genre

The Last Train Home  falls into the genre of a documentary film, which is intended to document an aspect of reality. It is a willed presentation of something made by someone in a specific way. This documentary covered the lives of the migrant worker family, this essential represents a group of people within the Chinese culture

Context of the film

Describe
The context of the film is  the lives of the the migrant workers. The film covers a two year span. It follows the family from the family farm in rural China to the factories in urban China. This film really displays many aspects of china that usually are not. When I think of China I think of advance technology, fashion, and a fast paced city. This is defiantly a view that I never knew about. This movie is a documentary that does not hold back, it confronts the struggles  and hardships of these people. Also not this movie was in Chinese with sub titles

Analyze
The movie open with an establishing shot of the 130 million migrant workers trying to make it home. The movie was in Chinese with subtitles to give the viewer a feeling of being there. The movie went into the rooms that the people lived in as well as to the farmers and in the factory, it shot every aspect of their lives giving the audience a try understanding of their way of life.

Interpret
I think the artist is really trying to convey and educated people about these people. They want to convey the struggles of day to day life just to make ends meet. She shows how the Chinese people feel about Americans, how they stereotype us just as we stereotype them. How we can become so consumed with our own life's that we do not even take a second to think about the lives of other people. These people work so hard for so little and somehow are not so concerned with materialist things. I think the artist is trying to convey a lesson to viewers, as well as educated us at the same time.

From the film I defiantly learned about a new culture, this made me value the opportunities that are afforded to me even more, as well as my way of life. This movie also made me appreciate the lives of other people,as well as appreciate and understand a simpler way of moving.

Taylor Ferguson