Essay on The Last Train Home: A Movie Directed by Lixin Fan

Lixin Fan’s Last Train Home aims to depict the strenuous lifestyle of laborers’. It demands the viewer to consider the cost at which products are made by foreign manufacturers that are clearly exploited and exposed by their employers. We must watch the films above in order to completely grasp the spectrum of work from the laborer to the consumer to truly comprehend the future of work.

Four Chinese mothers have migrated to America. Each hope for their daughter’s success and pray that they will not experience the hardships faced in China. One mother, Suyuan, imparts her knowledge on her daughter through stories. The American culture influences her daughter, Jing Mei, to such a degree that it is hard for Jing Mei to understand her mother's culture and life lessons. Yet it is not until Jing Mei realizes that the key to understanding who her

As they spot a village nearby Yuming, Jing, Li, and Kai crawl their way through to tall grasses towards the village. On their way to the village, they spot Mrs. Zhang and a guard looking for them. The text states, “My heart pounds. The windows are down and exhaust rolls over us. The car is parallel to us now; it is so, so close. The car is crawling even more slowly than it was a moment ago-slowly that it has nearly stopped. Mrs. Zhang turns her head toward the left, toward us, and her rodent-like face scours the hillside. I hold my breath” (Polonsky 103). After Mrs. Zhang pulls off and they are out of her sight, they steal some food from a grocery store nearby, and then they sneak onto a bus to The Great Wall of China. Clara, who still thinks Yuming is stuck inside the factory, has finally reached China after a long flight. The first place Clara and her parents visit is The Great Wall of China. The only information Clara has about Yuming is a note as well as a torn picture that came with the note inside of the purse. Although Clara and Yuming are both at the Great Wall of China, they never see each other due to crowds of tourist separating

They wouldn’t get to eat as much food. They wouldn’t be enjoying their precious time with their family. Instead they would be working hard in the fields to earn a sufficient living wage. But Chinese New Year was a time when they felt they were on top. They thought that they were living the high life. They “all looked forward to, the one time when we would be guaranteed wonderful food, was the Chinese New Year.” It was one joyous occasion that helped them to endure their destitute lives.

Orphan trains and Carlisle and the ways people from the past undermined the minorities and children of America. The film "The orphan Trains" tells us the story of children who were taken from the streets of New York City and put on trains to rural America. A traffic in immigrant children were developed and droves of them teamed the streets of New York (A People's History of the United States 1492-present, 260). The streets of NYC were dirty, overcrowded, and dangerous. Just as street gangs had female auxiliaries, they also had farm leagues for children (These are the Good Old Days, 19). During the time of the late 1800's and early 1900's many people were trying to help children. Progressive reformers, often called

Early in childhood Jing Mei dreamed of finding her prodigy and being a famous Chinese American, mostly because of the views and actions her mother placed on her. Her mother believed you could be anything you wanted to be in America. (pg 405) Her mother was always pushing new tests and talents on Jing Mei. She even went as far as having her daughter Jing Mei models her physical appearance and actions after a child-star Shirley Temple. Her other was always testing her with many different things trying to discover Jing Mei’s talent. Later Jing Mei started to feel like her mother was just trying to make her into someone she was not and started to just fail and not try to do anything right hoping her mother would give up. When her mother died she had realized what her mother had been trying to do. Her mother had only wanted her to do her best. She had then to realize what her mother had

“It was not easy to live in Shanghai” (Anyi 137). This line, echoed throughout Wang Anyi 's short piece “The Destination” is the glowing heartbeat of the story. A refrain filled with both longing and sadness, it hints at the many struggles faced by thousands upon thousands trying to get by in the city of Shanghai. One of these lost souls, the protagonist, Chen Xin, was one of the many youths taken from his family and sent to live the in the countryside during the Cultural Revolution. Ten years after the fact, Chen Xin views the repercussions of the Cultural Revolution internally and externally as he processes the changes that both he, and his hometown have over-gone in the past ten years. Devastatingly, he comes to the conclusion that there is no going back to the time of his childhood, and his fond memories of Shanghai exist solely in memory. This is in large part is due to the changes brought on by the Cultural Revolution. These effects of the Cultural Revolution are a central theme to the story; with repercussions seen on a cultural level, as well as a personal one.

Last Train Home is a documentary in “observational” mode—directed by Lixin Fan— that follows through the life of the Zhang family. The family consists of Changhua Zhang, father; Suqin Chen, mother; Qin Zhang, daughter; Yang Zhang, son; and Tingsui Tang, the grandmother. The film takes place in 2006 and ends in 2008. Fan does an amazing job in covering the migrant worker’s family by not hiding the truth from the viewers; Fan could have easily cut out the most sentimental scenes and the fighting scenes, but he did not, and instead uses it to appeal to the audience through the usage of pathos. In addition to using pathos, Fan edits his documentary in a way that makes the documentary easy to follow and interesting.

Countless quest narratives – ranging from modern texts all the way back to ancient texts – have all conformed to a certain archetypal structure. Christopher Vogler writes:

The movie, The Shawshank Redemption (1994), is based on a character Andy Dufresne. Andy is a young and successful banker who is sent to Shawshank Prison for murdering his wife and her secret lover. His life is changed drastically upon being convicted and being sent to prison. He is sent to prison to serve a life term. Over the 20-years in prison, Andy retains optimism and eventually earns the respect of his fellow inmates. He becomes friends with Red, and they both comfort and empathize with each other while in prison. The story has a strong message of hope, spirit, determination, courage, and desire.

Described as utopian in nature, the Chinese culture is often in pursuit for the perfect individual, a harmonious and structured society where the citizens as a whole create the ideal culture. In a collection of short stories entitled The Bridegroom, author Ha Jin documents this aspect of reality in homeland China. Primarily for the purposes of instruction and satirical verse, Ha Jin, shows how people are trying to find themselves in a society that focuses on the ‘whole’ of the country rather than the individual. He is able to interconnect this theme of individualism through four major stories in the book while presenting ‘Chineseness’ or satire of fictional verse as a way to focus on the changes throughout China

However, her mother sees it as a way for her daughter to be the best. Meanwhile, Jing-mei decides to rebel against her mother’s wishes. During piano lessons with Mr. Chong she realizes easy ways to get out of practicing.

Unlike Chinese culture, Jing-Mei starts to revolt against her mother. As a result of her mother

Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye and Roman Polanski’s Chinatown are both good examples of neo-noir. They both carry elements of classical film noir with them, such as the “hard boiled detective” archetype, the “femme fatale” archetype, and they both deal with the gritty side of human nature. But while they both have some overlapping noir tropes that can be seen in classical noirs, these films are actually incredibly different from one another. They both act as examples for John Cawelti’s Modes of Generic Transformation. They both share one mode, but then have different modes in addition, making them noir-like in essence, but still incredibly different films.

It is only when Bao has to leave to fight the foreign devils does he leaves his father and family to fight the foreign devils that are burning cities and harming innocent