Return To Dust (film)

''Return to Dust'' () is a Chinese drama film written and directed by Li Ruijun. It had its world premiere at Berlinale 2022. Its main spoken language in rural Gansu dialect with a run time of 133 minutes. It premiered in the United Kingdom at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in August 2022, and will go on general release in November. As of September 2022 the film had made 100 million yuan (US$14 million) at the box office, on a budget of 2 million yuan.

The film was pulled from streaming services in China on September 26, 2022. Western news outlets such as Radio Free Asia reported that mentioning the film on Weibo had been banned. It was later reported by the ''South China Morning Post'' that discussion about the film had not been prohibited on Chinese social media, but the reason for the film's removal from streaming services had not been made clear. Other sources later reported that posts about the film were blocked on Weibo, suggesting that there was a ban on mentioning the film. Prior to its recall, a version of the film with an alternative ending was available.

Synopsis

The story follows the lives of Ma Youtie and Cao Guiying in rural Gansu throughout the year of 2011. Guiying is disabled, incontinent, and infertile, and has been mistreated by her family, and is past the normal age by which women are normally expected to be married in rural China. Their families arrange their marriage, and they develop some emotional closeness and tenderness. They lead a simple life farming with their donkey. There are multiple empty properties in their hometown and they move into one of them.

However, the owner, who had migrated to Shenzhen in search of work, unexpectedly returns because a government incentive grants substantial cash payment to owners who allow their poorly-built and unoccupied houses to be demolished. Youtie and Guiying move to another unoccupied property before they decide to build their own homestead. They use mud bricks which they make themselves, and old wooden posts salvaged from previous demolitions.

In the meantime, a powerful local businessman requires blood transfusions. Youtie is told that he shares the same rare blood type and is frequently called to donate blood to save the businessman's life. In return for his blood donations, the businessman's wealthy family offers Youtie cheap gifts, which he only accepts as borrowed items. Youtie's brother suggests Youtie and Guiying should move into a new apartment in a high-rise public housing building, but Youtie and Guiying find it impractical because the apartment cannot house their farm animals.

Guiying becomes ill and Youtie tells her to rest in bed while he goes out to work. Youtie is shown later passing a group of locals sitting unconcernedly by the irrigation canal. They tell him that Guiying had been looking for him to give him some food, but that she felt dizzy and fell into the water and drowned. The locals were not able to retrieve her body. Youtie is devastated and jumps into the canal to retrieve Guiying's body. Youtie quietly finishes his harvest in the coming days, then frees his faithful hard-working donkey and sells all his possessions to settle his debts, keeping nothing aside as he would normally do for the coming season's planting. Even in this final transaction, Youtie is cheated by the buyer who forces him to round down the price "to make the book-keeping easier". When preparing Guiying's body for burial, Youtie presses some grains of corn to make a mark in her hand. In an earlier scene, Youtie had explained that he felt he could always feel close to her through this mark. Youtie takes some food, and lies down, specially positioning his head at the side of the bed to be near to some smouldering charcoal. His body shakes uncontrollably. There is no clear evidence, but it is implied that Youtie might have committed suicide. Youtie's few remaining belongings are shown being taken away in a handcart, while payment is made from a government official to Youtie's brother for permission to demolish the house which Youtie and Guiying had built and where they had lived happily for a brief period of time. The donkey is shown as having returned to the house by himself, but is ignored, unwanted by anyone.

The film became a target for China's censors, and some changes were imposed upon the ending. In his final scene, Youtie is not shown drinking poison, but a bottle is shown on the altar that he has made for Guiying. In the final scene, when the house is being demolished, one character says that Youtie will now be moving to his new apartment in the city, even though this makes little sense in the context of the previous scene, where it is implied that Youtie had died. Before the film was removed from streaming platforms in China, the revised version added a line of text at this point before the credits begin, stating (in Chinese):

Controversy

The film was released in July 2022 in China and by the first week of September it ranked as the most successful film in Chinese cinemas. Almost 1.5 million viewers had seen the film in Chinese cinemas.
Two weeks later, the film was removed from cinemas and Chinese streaming platforms. No explanation was provided by the government on the removal of the film and observers were left to speculate on the cause of the censorship. The success of the film was unexpected for a low-budget art house production, which seemed to have gone unnoticed by the authorities at first. The September box office figures might have inconvenienced the preparations of the Chinese Communist Party national party congress in October. This would be the case, as the film depicts an idyll between poor peasants that do not want to move to an apartment in the city and their aspirations are at odds with the vision on the Chinese leadership. The film did not put forward any criticism of the Chinese political regime, yet Chinese dissident artist Ai Wei Wei described the censorship as predictable.

Cast and crew

Production

In order to make the film, the cast and crew had to live in a remote town in the northwest of Gansu. Hai Qing, who is an acclaimed film star in China, actually lived with Wu Renlin, who is a local man who is an untrained actor. Hai was taught the skills required to be a farmer and participated in the mud brick house building. Hai also learned the local dialect. Wu normally works as a farmer.

Reception

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a score of 95% based on 20 reviews, with an average rating of 7.8/10. Jessica Kiang of ''Variety'' described the film as "an absorbing, beautifully framed drama that makes a virtue — possibly too much a virtue — of simplicity." Anna Smith of ''Deadline Hollywood'' said of the film, " tisn’t always an easy watch, but it’s a thought-provoking one with beautifully-judged performances that radiate warmth and encourage empathy. It marks Li Ruijun as a significant cinematic talent."

Accolades

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, rowspan = "2" align = "center" , 2022 , , 72nd Berlin International Film Festival , , Golden Bear, , ''Return to Dust'' , , , ,
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, 67th Valladolid International Film Festival , , colspan = "2" , Golden Spike , , , ,

References

External links

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{{Li Ruijun

2022 films
2022 drama films
Chinese drama films
2020s Mandarin-language films
Films directed by Li Ruijun
Films set in Gansu
Films shot in Gansu