If you are a train aficionado, you cannot miss On the Train—it captures from the birth to the last moment of the railway, 98.2 kilometers long and opened in 1992, crossing southern Taiwan. The virtue of this film lies in meeting the people who have been involved with this railway and having them rewrite the history of trains through their mouth. The film diligently collects the vivid voices of the railway workers, including railway designers, laborers who dug tunnels and lay the tracks, conductors, and train attendants. It also tells the stories of people who testify about the changed surroundings with the construction of the railroad, people who have made a living along the tracks, train photographer, train researcher, and train part collectors. This film is a meaningful resource as an omni-directional oral archive on the Southern Railway and also a self-portrait of Taiwan seen from a train.
