Write a film review/response paper on Railroad of Hope.

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Film Review
The number of internal immigrants in China has been on the rise over the years. A majority of the migrants come from the village. In the past, workers and peasants were the backbones of socialist China, have now become part of the disadvantaged groups. While China has experienced a steady and impressive growth of the economy, rural migrants have not benefited much. They have not managed to enjoy the benefits of the growth like their urban middle-class counterparts. This is despite the fact that their labor has made this growth possible. Most of the challenges of rural immigrants remain undocumented. However, Railroad of Hope, a 2002 Chinese documentary film directed by Ning Ying attempts to document the plight of these individuals.
In the film, Ning Ying interviews more than 30 people, who are living their native Sichuan province in South West China. These men and women are moving to the far Northwestern Province of Xingjiang. Their ultimate aim is to work in the farms as seasonal cotton pickers. The viewer soon learns that the thousands of farmworkers will be traveling for to the “far west” in search of better opportunities (Ying). The need for workers to harvest the enormous cotton has prompted the government to encourage the peasants to leave their homes in search of better opportunities. A close look at the film indicates that the workers have been promised better returns. They have been told that the wages are better and the taxes are less steep. A majority of the interviewees are leaving home for the first time. In fact, some of them are boarding a train for the first time in their lives. The thousands of workers are forced to board the overcrowded train. Despite being piled, the workers are determined to reach their destination.
Ying does not focus on specific characters; rather takes into account the stories of the different interviewees. Due to the involvement of a large number of interviewees, the film is not restricted to a certain line of the storyline. While Ying seeks to present the issue of rural migration, she does not limit the movie to a particular aspect of the migration. Instead, the director addresses the plight of the migrants from a broad perspective. The film hence does not restrict the viewer to a specific aspect of the migration process. Instead, the viewer is free to decide on what to take from the film. This i...