Return to Dust

Ruijun Li's touching Chinese drama about two lonely souls raised the ire of the government which has subsequently banned it. A political tract it is not.

Ma (Renlin Wu) is dismissed even by his own family as 'fourth brother'. Cao (Hai-Qing) is similarly the dark sheep of her family, challenged by health issues and quiet almost to the point of being a mute. Their families arrange a marriage - not necessarily for the benefit of the man and woman - as much as taking them off their hands. They are peasants. Subsistence farmers eeking out not so much a living, as survival.

Good fortune seems to strike the newlyweds when the rich land baron who owns their tracts calls upon Ma for a vital personal favor. Ma is so humble and honorable that he never demands any true reward for helping out the landlord, indeed he extracts nothing at all. He is the type of man who doesn't even ride his farm labor donkey - afraid his weight will burden the beast.

Ruijun Li (who also wrote) provides a gentle guiding hand. The small miracle that evolves with Ma and Cao truly becoming a married couple is accomplished with the smallest of touches. There is minimal music and few major incidents. Li adopts a neo-realist tone. It's et in the present day - which probably is what triggered the government's reaction to the appallingly poor and exploited condition of the farm workers. Other than the use of cell phones and modern vehicles, it could take place at any time.

RETURN TO DUST is simple, but not simplistic. Renlin Wu and Hai-Qing's unadorned but accomplished performances carry the movie over some occasionally slow patches. It's a lovely work that should be seen -- especially, in it's homeland.

This is the story of an unlikely love in a world on the brink of extinction.

In a capitalist China, where the economy is growing at an astounding pace, there is no longer a place for peasants, who live self-sufficiently from what they produce, in the adobe houses they build and which the government subsidizes the demolition. They need to be moved to social neighborhoods, where the houses have balconies and lots of light. But as the protagonist rightly says, where do I put the donkey and the chickens?

The portrait of a rural China on the verge of extinction and the unlikely love between a couple of peasants, rejected by their families, who build a simple but happy life in the house they built with their own hands, from tireless work in the fields.

A poem to old China, which quickly disappears, at the mercy of speculators who drive BMWs and suck the blood out of peasants.

A review of the translations of the title of the beautiful film by the Chinese director Ruijun Li can already be an indication of how the film was distributed and received in the various cinema markets. Using Google Translate I found out that the exact translation of the Chinese title would be 'Cloud of Dust'. In the English market and at film festivals it was distributed with the title with biblical resonance 'Return to Dust'. The French, however, chose the title 'Le retour des hirondelles', while the Italians distributed it as 'Terra e polvere'. Finally, in Israel, the title chosen for distribution in Hebrew is 'habait shelanu' ('our house'). In China the film enjoyed quite a lot of success until the authorities decided to stop distributing it in theaters and on streaming, probably considering that the image of the Chinese village, the radical transformations that the traditional society goes through and their impact on the common people is too bleak. The film thus joins a long collection of good films, some even masterpieces, which were and are made in countries where strict censorship operates, and which - without directly criticizing the political regime or the authorities - are too uncomfortable in their content to be distributed to their own audiences. We have seen such films in the Soviet Union or communist Czechoslovakia, in Iran and now it is China's turn. The consolation is that if historical precedent is anything to go by, years from now a film like this will have a chance to be rediscovered and appreciated for its worth, not only artistically but also as a document of the era portrayed on screen.

'Return to Dust' is first and foremost a love story, one of the most unusual, one that perhaps should never have happened. The story takes place in a Chinese village from which those who can leave do it to seek their fortune in the city, and those who remain struggle with the rapacity of the capitalists and the bureaucracy of the authorities. Guying is a woman past her prime, she once suffered an accident that left her crippled and unable to bear children. Youtie is the poorest man in the village, he has only a donkey and his hands to earn a living. The families decide to marry them off - something related to the traditional marriage order in the families. Man and woman find themselves together and begin to discover each other, share their past traumas and sufferings, work to survive and bring joy to each other. Hard work brings them, if not prosperity, at least the ability to withstand the blows of fate and the malice of those around them. Three times the houses in which they dwell, one built with their own hands, will turn to dust. The typology of the 'stupidly good' character to which they both belong is developed in the direction of the affection of one towards the other.

Ruijun Li also wrote the screenplay for this film, and the production team was local, recruited from among his villagers and family members, in the very places where the story takes place. Many of the actors are amateurs and play their own lives on screen. Amazing how this locally made film manages to bring up with delicacy and an aesthetic approach that is at the same time realistic and expressive some major themes, significant for the whole of China and even beyond its borders: the hardships faced by the peasant class in a rapidly industrializing society, the contrast between economic capitalism and the traditional way of life, the lack of any social safety net to protect the most disadvantaged, the place of women in the family and society. But it is the personal story that dominates Ruijun Li's film. Is love possible in a system where matrimonial relationships are imposed? The film is an elegy for a disappearing world, but - with all the combination of dark themes and all the tragic events that happen on the screen - it is unexpectedly tonic and optimistic, and this is primarily due to the bright, simple and beautiful characters of the two protagonists. I must mention the names of the actors: Renlin Wu and Hai-Qing. Beautifully filmed and well acted, 'Return to Dust' is one of the best Chinese films I've seen in years. It's also very different from all the others, a proof that Chinese cinema can successfully tackle genres other than heroic historical epics or martial arts action films.

Express various details and rural life scenes with the most tactile audio-visual, the slowest and slowest rhythm without driving force, and the gentle lens, depict the rustic rural characters, build the most stable and peaceful picture of rural life, and write the happy and beautiful love story of two people who met each other under the traditional "power" of the Chinese relative without any sex that only Chinese directors can do it. But in the end, they could not escape the heartbreaking elegy.

It can be used as the color scheduling of allusion psychology, but it is not in place. It is very realistic and too gentle. The artistic atmosphere is strong, but in the fast-paced society, it is too arrogant.

This is the most artistic art film in my heart, and it is also the epitome and portrayal of China's rural society today.

It is the farmers that give free blood to the city time and again. How ironic!

What retreats is the dust of love, and what returns is the dust and smoke of the city.

--2022.07.17.

A couple are matched together for their families' convenience - abused and sickly woman, and put upon, hard-working man. Together they find a measure of happiness and belonging that was missing in their lives.

The movie is beautifully shot, with picturesque landscapes and the images of the shifting seasons. It is a slow film - really a slice of life. The actors played their characters very well.

Beyond the story, the movie left me with a sense of the difficulties of life in rural areas.