Tonight I watched The Last Train Home.
UK link HERE
Long-time readers here know that I keep an eye on Chinese films. This is a documentary about the 130+ million migrant workers in China who strive to return home for the important New Year observance.
The issue is viewed through the lens of a single family.
I had to stop it a couple times.
Among other themes it tackles, as much of Chinese film does, intergenerational conflict, city v country, the disparity of rural and urban life in the face of modernization, the plight of migrant workers (as THIS and THIS), but in a far more naturalistic and grittier way.
It is a documentary. The people are not actors.
Every liberal and critic of what they, in their ravings, call unfettered capitalism should be forced to sit and watch this movie, while being sprinkled with Holy Water, while we chant “shame… shame…” in their ears, because, effectively, the life these people live is what they advocate with their lunatic ravings about the only economic system that can bring masses up from poverty. Tie them to a chair and let them rant about libertarians while watching this. Then let them consider what can come of limited and channeled government involvement, as opposed to the State control they advocate. (No one.. no one… wants unfettered capitalism in the way libs paint it. Read: straw man. They seem these days to call anyone who doesn’t want the state to redistribute wealth a “libertarian”.)
Okay… I’m ranting a bit to make a point. Thus endeth the rant.
Econ aside, the intergenerational dimension of the movie will be familiar to anyone who has ever been born. It is also interesting to see their faith and prayer efforts in the face of adversity. (Hint: not Christian, but welling up as a basic human reaction to stress, etc.)
In any event, even if you are not so interested in larger economic questions, you parents out there should show this to your bratty teenagers.
And watch it for yourselves and learn about family and sacrifice and aspirations for the future.
UPDATE:
May I remind the readership that a migrant is a person who moves from point A to point B, while an immigrant is a person who moves from point A, that point being outside of a boundary, to point B, which is within the boundary. The people in the film I am talking about are migrants. They are migrating back home, within the borders of their nation.
They are not illegal immigrants from Mexico. Okay?
