归途列车 Last Train Home (2009)

Every spring, China's cities are plunged into chaos as 130 million migrant workers journey to their home villages for the New Year's holiday. This mass exodus is the world's largest human migration-an epic spectacle that reveals a country tragically caught between its rural past and industrial future. Working over several years in classic verité style Chinese-Canadian filmmaker Lixin Fan (with the producers of the award-winning hit documentary Up the Yangtze) travels with one couple who have embarked on this annual trek for almost two decades. Like so many of China's rural poor, Changhua and Sugin Zhang left behind their two infant children for grueling factory jobs. Their daughter Qin-now a restless and rebellious teenager-both bitterly resents their absence and longs for her own freedom away from school, much to the utter devastation of her parents. Emotionally engaging and starkly beautiful, Last Train Home's intimate observation of one fractured family sheds light on the human cost of China's ascendance as an economic superpower.

The conflicts in “Last Train Home” are important watching focus. Either the conflict between the migrant worker before going home and the policeman, these people who maintain order or the conflict between the main characters Mr. Zhang Changhuas and their daughter after they came back home at the Spring Festival has touched the hearts of many viewers. Such conflicts in the movie are the creative approaches: dramatization which is used in documentary, and people are more and more familiar with it.

The story technique has been used in documentary for a long time. It has been used in the documentary of “Nanook of the North” made in 1922. More and more documentary filmmakers recognized that story technique is the only way to realize documentary internationalization.

When recalling the creative process of the “Last Train Home”, Fan Lixin mentioned that we may think “Spring Festival travel” as a very easy way to film. Foreigners have never seen it, and it was certainly easy to get the money. I also have had this idea, but soon I found it would be naive. As a film, the story itself is more valuable than the subject matter. ① Considering the overseas audiences, the “Last Train Home” identified the its story strategy. In order to overcome this cognitive impairment, the director chooses the family problems as the entry point cleverly. Outwardly, the “Last Train Home” tells a family’s journey to home, but in fact, it talks about the common human emotions. This is a good point of penetration.

During filming process, apart from being a good observer and recorder, the photographer also need to handle the relationships with the subject properly, so that the subject can show their true side, which is an important work for the photographer. In process of filming, the photographer spent a lot of time in establishing a good relationship with the subject in order to let the subject maintain a natural ease status in front of the camera. Photographer’s efforts ensure the film’s authenticity as much as possible.

《归途列车》展现的矛盾冲突是它的一个很重要的看点，无论是片中打工者回家之前在火车站与警察和维持秩序的人发生冲突，还是主角张昌华夫妇春节回家后与女儿的冲突，都打动了很多观众的心。影片中的这种矛盾冲突，实际上是纪录片越来越为人们所熟悉的一个创作手法：故事化。
纪录片使用故事化手法由来已久。1922年拍摄的纪录片《北方的纳努克》，采用的就是现在已为我们所熟悉的故事化手法。越来越多的纪录片制作者认识到故事化手法是纪录片国际化的必经之路。
范立欣在回忆《归途列车》创作过程时提到，大家一定都想到“春运”很讨巧，外国人没见过，一定容易拿到钱。这样的想法我也有过，但很快我发现这样想很幼稚。作为一部影片，比题材更有价值的应该是故事。①正是面向海外观众的考虑，使《归途列车》确定了故事化的策略。为了克服这样的认知障碍，编导很巧妙地从家庭问题切入。《归途列车》表面上讲一个家庭归乡的旅途，其实讲的是人类共通的情感。这是一个很好的切入点。
在拍摄中，拍摄者除了做好观察者和记录者外，一个很重要的工作是处理好与拍摄对象的关系，让拍摄对象能够呈现他们真实的一面。在拍摄的过程中，拍摄者花了大量的时间与拍摄对象建立良好关系，其目的就是让拍摄对象在镜头前保持自然自如的状态。拍摄者的努力最大限度地保证了该片的真实性。