https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5x3V2aBkrqs
Sejin Pak
[중국영화] Return to Dust (Chinese: 隐入尘烟; pinyin: Yǐn rù chényān) 흙먼지에 감추어지다 (2022년)
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- 이 영화는 내용보다 우선 유럽 영화제에서 호평을 받았는데, 중국정부가 인터넷에서 보거나 언급할 수 못하게 만들었다는 것으로 아려저있는데, 페친이 영어 자막이 붙어 유튜브에 나오는 링크라 알려주어 오늘 보았다. 나에게는 5/5점 짜리 영화였는데, 중국정부에게는 뭐가 문제였을까? 두가지 면을 동시에 짦게 설명해본다.
- 우선은 내용의 줄거리인데, 중국의 친족들이 가까이 모여사는 농촌이 배경이다. 영화는 결혼하기 힘든 두 사람을 친척들이 중매결혼 시키는 데부터 시작한다. 남자는 40대 정도로 보이고, 몇 남자 형제들 사이에서 막내인 것 같다. 정확하게 왜 이제까지 결혼을 못했는지는 모르겠으나, 형들은 비교적 잘 살고 있는데 이 막내 만 재산이 없고, 주로 이용당하고 살아왔다는 것 같다. 여자의 경우는 (오줌을 참지못해 싸는 등) 여러가지 건강문제가 있고, 역시 집안이 가난하고, 부모 형제로 부터 천대받고 살아와서, 결혼을 할 사정이 아닌데 친척들끼리 똥차를 치워버리는 식으로 주인공 남자와 결혼을 시키는 것으로 시작한다.
- 다행이도 주인공 남자는 몸이 부자유 스러운 아내를 잘 돌보면서 아내와 함께 열심히 일해서 농사일에 성공하며, 자기 집도 짔는다. 농사 일이나 집을 짔는 일이 너무나도 전통적이고 기본적인 방식이라서 몇백년 전의 방식과 다름없는 듯한데, 이런 과정이 영화에 차지하는 시간이 꽤난 길다. 남자 주인공의 땅과 삶에 대한 자세는 나에게는 도가적이라고도 보이는데 서양인 관객도 그런 면을 볼 것 같다.
- 이 두 사람은 상대방 (특히 주인공 부부같은 약자들)을 이용해가면서도 자기 이익을 추구하고 사는주변의 친인척들과는 대조적으로 다른 사람으로 나온다. 주변의 다른 사람들의 세계는 현대중국을 나타내주는 것이라고 보이는데, 중국 정부가 이 영화를 통제하는 이유가 영화에 나오는 중국사회에 대한 부정적인 이미지 때문인 것 같다. 영화로서는 중국사회 비평의 면 자체가 영화의 평점을 올리는 역할을 한다.
- 주인공 남자가 아내를 잘 돌보았다고 만 말했는데 둘 사의의 관계가 조금씩 발전해가며 둘 사이에 감정 표현이 나타나는 것도 이 영화에서는 눈에 뜨이는 아름다운 스토리가 된다.
- 영화의 마지막은 약간 수수께끼 같이도 보이는데, 아마도 정부에 의해 영화의 일부가 잘린 것이 아닌가도 생각된다. 아내가 아프기 시작하여 집에 누워있으라고 하고 남자 주인공은 일하러 갔다가 돌아오는데, 여자가 개천에 빠저 죽어있다. 몸이 약해 남편이 돌아오기를 마중나왔다가 잘 못해서 개천에 빠젔다고 하는데, 빠저 죽어 있은지 오래도는데도 아무도 시체를 꺼집어내려고도 하지 않았다고 한다. 남자 주인공은 물에서 아내의 시체를 건지고, 나중에 장례식도 혼자한다. 아무도 참석하지 않는다. 후에 앞으로는 더 이상 농사를 짓지 않을 것 처럼 곡식을 남기지 않고 전부팔아버리고 농사일에 필수가축이었던 당나귀까지 풀어준다. 영화의 끝에는 침대에 눕는 장면이 나오는데 일부가 끊끼었는지 자살을 나타내는 것인지 아닌지 확실하지가 않지만, 자살인 것같다. 주인공의 자살로 끈나는 영화의 끝 자체가 나에게는 강한 중국사회비판으로 보이며 중국정부가 보이고 싶지 않았을 부분일 것이라고 생각된다.
- 이 영화는 한편으로는 중국사회 비판, 또 한편으로는 이 부부, 특히 남자 주인공의 땅과 삶에 대한 자세, 그리고 몸이 부자유한 천대받는 여성에 대한 사랑의 이야기로서 성공적이라고 나에게 느껴진다.
Return to Dust (film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Official poster
Traditional 隱入塵煙
Simplified 隐入尘烟
Mandarin Yǐn rù chényān
Literally Hidden in the Smoke
Directed by Li Ruijun
Written by Li Ruijun
Produced by
Zhang Min
Li Yan
Starring
Wu Renlin
Hai Qing
Cinematography Wang Weihua
Edited by Li Ruijun
Music by Peyman Yazdanian
Production
company
Hucheng No.7 Films
Release dates
February 2022 (Berlinale)
July 8, 2022 (China)
Running time 133 minutes
Country China
Language Mandarin Chinese
Return to Dust (Chinese: 隐入尘烟; pinyin: Yǐn rù chényān) is a Chinese drama film written and directed by Li Ruijun. It had its world premiere at Berlinale 2022.[1] It is in Mandarin Chinese with a run time of 133 minutes.[2] It premiered in the United Kingdom at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in August 2022, and will go on general release in November.[3][4] 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. [5]
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.[6][7] It was later reported by the South China Morning Post that discussion about the film had not been prohibited on Chinese social media, however the reason for the film's removal from streaming services had not been made clear.[5] Other sources later reported that posts about the film were blocked on Weibo, suggesting that there was after all a ban on mentioning the film. Prior to its being pulled a version with an alternative ending was available. [8]
Contents
Synopsis[edit]
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, has been mistreated by her family, and is past the normal age by which women are normally expected to be married in rural China.[1] Their families arrange their marriage, and they develop a closeness and later fall in love. They lead a simple life farming with their donkey. There are multiple empty properties in their hometown and they move into one of them. A government incentive of a large cash payment to farmers who allow their poorly built and unoccupied houses to be demolished is lucrative for their owners who have migrated to China's cities in search of work. Each time the house they occupy is demolished, Youtie and Guiying move to another unoccupied property until they decide to build their own better and larger homestead. They use mud bricks which they make themselves, and old wooden posts salvaged from the demolitions. A local businessman has a health emergency and 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 respectfully declines because he thinks that they are too lavish.[9] The government for propaganda purposes allocates Youtie and Guiying a new apartment in a high-rise building in the town, 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 that day 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 had not helped her nor removed 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, which an earlier scene explains meant that he felt he could always find her. The implication is that he wants to join her in death. Youtie takes poison, and lies down, specially positioning his head at the side of the bed to be near to the smouldering charcoal which he has lit to give off carbon monoxide fumes. His body shakes uncontrollably. The camera pans to an ear of corn that he is holding, which gently bends this way and that. 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 while. The donkey is shown as having returned to the house by himself, but is ignored, unwanted by anyone.
Note about the ending[edit]
The film became a target for China's censors, and some changes were imposed upon the ending. When the locals tell Youtie that Guiying has drowned, it is not clear exactly how much earlier this had happened: the editing suggests that it had only just that moment happened, but Guiying is dead and has clearly been floating in the water for some while, and none of the locals had helped or removed her body, and are all sitting there calmly.
In his final scene, Youtie is not shown drinking the poison, but the bottle is shown on the altar that he has made for Guiying. In the next and final scene, when the house is being demolished, two lines of dialogue have been added, as if from one character to another in shot, stating that Youtie will now be moving to his new apartment in the city. This makes no sense in the context of the previous scene, and it's clear that the people on screen are not talking to each other: they are not even looking at each other, and in any case a voice would not be heard above the noise of the demolition machinery. 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. It says (in Chinese): "Ma Youtie moved to his new home in the winter of 2011 and started his new life with the help of the government and the warm-hearted villagers."
Cast and crew[edit]
Ma Youtie Wu Renlin
Cao Guiying Hai Qing
Written, directed and edited by Li Ruijun
Cinematography Wang Weihua
Music Peyman Yazdanian
Sound Wang Changrui
Production Design Li Ruijun, Han Dahai
Costumes Wu Jingyin
Make-Up Wu Jingyin
Assistant Director Li Daiqing
Production Manager Zhao Shuai
Casting Li RuiQi
Producers Zhang Min, Li Yan
Executive Producer Qin Hong
Co-Producers Sun Yang, Feng Qiong, Wang Tianye, Zhao Yiyan
Co-Production
Qizi Films, Beijing
Beijing J.Q. Spring Pictures, Beijing
Dream Media, Beijing
Aranya Pictures, Beijing
ShangHai Shigu Film, Shanghai
Han Zhou QinZiZai, Shanghai
Source:[1]
Production[edit]
In order to make the film cast and crew had to live in a remote town in the northwest of Gansu and 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.[10]
Accolades[edit]
YearAwardCategoryNominee(s)ResultRef.2022 72nd Berlin International Film Festival Golden Bear Return to Dust Nominated [11]
References[edit]
- ^ Jump up to:a b c "Yin Ru Chen Yan | Return to Dust". www.berlinale.de. Retrieved 2022-08-29.
- ^ "Return to Dust". www.fareastfilm.com (in Italian). Retrieved 2022-08-29.
- ^ Devine, Paul (2022-07-21). "Edinburgh Film Festival To Give Drama Return To Dust UK Premiere -". Retrieved 2022-08-29.
- ^ "Return to Dust (2022) Awards & Festivals". mubi.com. Retrieved 2022-08-29.
- ^ Jump up to:a b "A top-grossing film was pulled in China. No one knows why". South China Morning Post. 2022-09-30. Retrieved 2022-10-03.
- ^ Novak, Matt (27 September 2022). "What been When China Makes a Popular Homegrown Movie Disappear?". Gizmodo.
- ^ "Rural love story hit movie 'Return to Dust' banned in China ahead of party congress?". Radio Free Asia. 27 September 2022.
- ^ "Return to Dust, Chinese hit film about rural hardships, disappears from streaming platforms". the Guardian. 2022-09-28. Retrieved 2022-10-03.
- ^ Kiang, Jessica (2022-02-14). "'Return to Dust' Review: A Compassionate but Cautious Chinese Drama of Rural Lives Ennobled by Sacrifice". Variety. Retrieved 2022-08-29.
- ^ Tone, Sixth (2022-07-08). "'Return to Dust': The Chinese Film Pushing Realism to New Extremes". SixthTone. Retrieved 2022-08-29.
- ^ Lodge, Guy (16 February 2022). "Spanish Drama 'Alcarràs' Wins Golden Bear at Berlin Film Festival". Variety.
Berlin Review: Li Ruijun’s ‘Return To Dust’
By Anna SmithFebruary 13, 2022 3:06am
m-appealA tender love story set in rural China, Li Ruijun’s Return to Dust is a wonderfully atmospheric entry to the Berlin Film Festival competition. It opens with the arrangement of a marriage between Ma Youtie (Wu Renlin) and Cao Guiying (Hai Qing) by two families who are patently keen to get rid of them both.
Ma is a quiet, unassuming man whose simple rural life is in contrast with that of his flashier relatives, who drive expensive cars and spend time in the city. Cao is a timid woman who is considered a burden on her family, partly because she is unable to control her bladder and is unable to have children.
She has been mistreated and abused, at one point revealing that she was treated worse than the donkey Ma is tending to when they first meet. Cao rarely speaks, silently joining Ma in his humble home. On their first night, she falls asleep fully clothed, leaning awkwardly on the bed he is in. It’s an inauspicious start to their enforced relationship, but when she begins to work on the land, the seed of a loving bond is planted.
There is great beauty in this story’s simplicity. Wang Weihua’s cinematography welcomes us into this couple’s home and their lives, observing their daily routines and their gradual connection. They are at their happiest when surrounded by nature, with the sound of birds and water, in contrast to watching TV in their cramped neighbors’ home.
Like the audience, Ma comes to understand and sympathize with Cao’s embarrassing condition, one that is rarely portrayed on screen. Most other people react cruelly when she wets herself, shooing her out of their homes. Meanwhile, Ma is exploited by his relatives and other locals who are keen to develop his land.
These are two outcasts who have been pushed together to serve the interests of others, yet their goodness overcomes the negative circumstances. They are perhaps the only characters with any principles in this story, and their connection to the earth and nature is portrayed with great respect.
Return to Dust isn’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.
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‘Return to Dust’ Review: A Compassionate but Cautious Chinese Drama of Rural Lives Ennobled by Sacrifice
In a decimated Chinese village, a downtrodden couple in an arranged marriage forge an unexpected bond as they eke a living from the land.
By Jessica Kiang
Plus Icon
A later-life love story of the gentlest kind, Li Ruijun’s “Return to Dust” is an absorbing, beautifully framed drama that makes a virtue — possibly too much a virtue — of simplicity. The story is straightforward: Two lonely middle-aged people, each barely tolerated by their more worldly family members, are pushed into an arranged marriage, which quietly blossoms into a companionable love match. The lead characters are simple, or are believed to be by their scornful neighbors, as they pursue a punishingly traditional farming lifestyle with only a long-suffering donkey to lighten the backbreaking load. Crops grow, seasons turn and anything too biting or topical or politically charged, the film simply avoids.
Li’s sixth feature unfolds in a small village in Gaotai (the director’s home region), which is being whittled away as its inhabitants move to the cities for work. The towering sand dunes nearby provide an evocatively dusty metaphor for what the future holds: Due to a government edict encouraging the demolition of uninhabited structures, dwellings are worth more to their absent owners as piles of rubble. This is a worry for Youtie Ma (Wu Renlin) and his new wife Guiying Cao (Hai Qing) as upon their marriage, briskly arranged by family members no longer willing to support them, they move into one of those empty houses only to have to relocate to another when the municipal bulldozers show up.
Middle-aged Ma is first shown sharing his meal with his donkey while his relatives discuss his upcoming nuptials. Cao, who suffers from incontinence and a painful limp and is more taciturn even than Ma, later confesses that seeing him treat the animal with kindness was when she realized that marriage to him might be preferable to her current misery. “That donkey had a better life than me,” she states, so evenly it doesn’t feel like self-pity.
Indeed this pair are possibly the least self-pitying people on earth. Yoked together without much say in the matter, they quickly get to work on their small patch of land. The almost procedural interest Li has in the farming process provides some of the film’s most oddly mesemerizing sequences: Cao, sitting on the plow so that the plowshare bites deeper under her weight; Ma laying out mud bricks in a spiral to dry, or hand-scything wheat at harvest time. These scenes are also elevated by DP Wang Weihua’s camerwork, which finds grace and dignity in hard work, without overly romancing it. Exteriors are wide, with the couple often dwarfed by the natural world, interiors are warm despite their shabbiness. When Ma fashions an incubator for chicks from a cardboard box, the speckled, mirrorball effect of the light spilling out is subtly magical, cues picked up in the lovely score from Peyman Yazdanian.
The poignancy of their burgeoning relationship is the film’s patiently ticking driving force. Cao waits for Ma to return from town on a freezing night, clutching a flask of hot tea for him, and returning several times to the house to reheat it when Ma is late. When he finally shows up, it is a subtle turning point in their relationship: Neither seems able to believe their luck at the gift they have found in the other. There is a broad supporting cast of siblings and uncles and a catty Greek chorus of villagers gossiping at a crossroads, but the film is really a two-hander, and both Wu Renlin and Hai Qing are completely at one with their heroically decent characters.
But it’s a heroism based on a discomfiting level of self-sacrifice, of turning the other cheek and accepting without complaint the meager scraps from someone else’s banquet. Ma has the same rare blood type as an ailing local landlord-boss, and regularly gives pints of blood to help him: He’s literally being bled dry by the big guy. Cao works her frail body to its limits, often electing to walk rather than ride the cart to avoid overloading the donkey. “You were used by others for most of your life, haven’t you had enough?” Ma asks the unbudging animal when he finally decides to remove its ever-tinkling bell and set it free. But he could be talking about the conditioning he and Cao have undergone to believe that this hard, thankless life is all they could ever deserve.
As a portrait of the dying end of a traditional way of life and the rapid decimation of China’s outlying rural communities, “Return to Dust” is potent, often poetic in its encroaching-dustbowl imagery. As a meditation on the rewards of later-life companionship, it is elegiac, blessed with two unusually sympathetic, restrained performances. But the movie’s warm heart distracts from the absence of fire in its belly: Where is the anger at the injustice of any society demanding so much from people who ask from it so little? At one point, as they tend to their first crop, Cao cradles a lone green shoot that has been uprooted and looks to Ma in distress. “Don’t worry,” Ma says, in sage mode, “If a seedling dies, it nourishes the soil, so other things can grow.” That is true, of course, but it is pretty cold comfort for the seedling.
Read More About:Berlin Film Festival,
‘Return to Dust’ Review: A Compassionate but Cautious Chinese Drama of Rural Lives Ennobled by Sacrifice
Reviewed in Berlin Film Festival (Competition), Feb. 12, 2022.
Running time: 133 MIN. (Original title: "Yin ru chen yan")Production: (China) A Hucheng no.7 Films production, in co-production with Qizi Films, Beijing J.Q. Spring Pictures, Dream Media, Aranya Pictures, ShangHai Shigu Film, Han Zhou QinZiZai. (World sales: M-Appeal, Berlin.) Producers: Zhang Min, Li Yan. Co-producers: Sun Yang, Feng Qiong, Wang Tianye, Zhao Yiyan. Executive producer: Qin Hong.
Crew: Director, writer: Li Ruijun. Camera: Wang Weihua. Editor: Li Ruijun. Music: Peyman Yazdanian.
With: Wu Renlin, Hai Qing. (Chinese dialogue)
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‘Return to Dust’ (‘Yin ru chen yan’): Film Review | Berlin 2022
Chinese writer-director Li Ruijun’s moving drama traces the evolving relationship of two outcasts who defy expectations, making the best of an arranged marriage.
BY DAVID ROONEYPlus Icon
FEBRUARY 13, 2022
Wu Renlin and Hai Qing in 'Return to Dust' COURTESY OF HUCHENG NO.7 FILMS LTD.
The uncontrolled urbanization of rural China and the displacement of agrarian communities form the melancholy socio-cultural backdrop of Return to Dust, an unhurried but hypnotic portrait of two discards thrown together to scratch out a life as they weather the seasons. A lyrical slice of Chinese neorealism set in writer-director Li Ruijun’s northern birthplace of Gaotai, bordering Inner Mongolia, this is an elegiac story, a humanistic metaphor for a vanishing world seen through the prism of a vulnerable couple cruelly written off by their families as worthless encumbrances.
While Li doesn’t address the phenomenon directly, the film evokes news reports from the past decade or so of “ghost cities” rising all over rural China, where accelerated growth has outpaced demand as developers clear farming areas to make way for modern townships that remain underpopulated. The largest of these places, with hundreds of thousands of empty homes, sprang up out of the desert in Ordos, an area similar to where the story takes place.
Venue: Berlin Film Festival (Competition)
Cast: Wu Renlin, Hai Qing
Director-screenwriter: Li Ruijun2 hours 13 minutes
Knowledge of that background is by no means essential to engage you in the simple, elemental storytelling of Return to Dust. But the humble lives portrayed here provide a stark contrast to the roaring Chinese economy that drove the construction boom.
From the opening scenes, it’s clear that Li and his DP Wang Weihua have a feel for the land and its rustic dwellings, conjuring a stirring sense of place in pleasing visual compositions that draw you in while the unprepossessing figures in what’s fundamentally a two-character drama are being established. The exquisite use of both natural light and discreet artificial enhancement throughout is beautiful.
Ma (Wu Renlin) is the last unmarried brother of his family, a hard worker exploited by his siblings, while Guiying (Hai Qing) is also well past the age of most brides in rural China, her fragile health affected by a pronounced limp and bladder-control issues. Her family have been reluctantly taking care of her but now want her out. When the two are forced into an arranged marriage, they comply in silence. But the future for them looks bleak, with Ma initially showing more concern for the troublesome donkey that hauls his farm cart. Their wedding photo is a portrait of joyless strangers with no communication between them.
Despite the indifference shown by their families and the meager possessions given to them to bring to the marriage, Ma insists on burning offerings to honor their ancestors and bless the union — the first sign that this taciturn, illiterate man of the land has a spiritual side. Snow borders the desert in winter at the start of their lives together in the impoverished village, which is close to a town yet seems removed from civilization.
A local government scheme provides them with a field to work for a year and seeds to plant in order to grow corn that the state will then buy from them. And Ma finds himself in a position to help the community due to a rare blood type (amusingly identified as “special panda blood”) needed by an ailing town official for transfusions. Not that he sees much advantage from this.
With gentle brushstrokes and a gaze that becomes almost imperceptibly more intimate, Li observes Ma’s first acts of kindness toward Guiying, who seemingly has known only humiliation and loneliness. It’s at that point, too, that the first notes of Peyman Yazdanian’s lovely string score are introduced. Guiying slowly begins reciprocating her husband’s care, concern and trust as he works tirelessly, sharing his deep knowledge of farming. While staying temporarily in various abandoned houses, they haul water to make mud bricks to build their own home. Ma carefully removes and rehangs the red “double happiness” symbol for newlyweds each time they relocate.
As the seasons change, the elements are often against them, but companionship and a shared desire to carve out a life sustain them. The subtlety and nuance with which Li’s storytelling conveys their evolving relationship is disarming; even the hints of late-blooming romance are appealingly understated. And the two actors — Wu is a regular of the director’s rural dramas, Hai a more widely known veteran — are entirely captivating, their expressive faces communicating volumes with few words of dialect and minimal displays of emotion.
The vivid turquoise head scarf that Guiying begins wearing represents an uplifting note of color against the prevailing earth tones. It has a similar symbolic function to the hatching of chickens that the couple raise together, signaling new life.
Despite continuing to be exploited by his family as they favor his young nephews and exclude him from wedding ceremonies, Ma remains loyal to them and to the rest of the community. He takes advantage of the access afforded him by the periodic blood transfusions to advocate, without success, for better financial compensation for local farmers in advance of harvest time.
While the film could be read as an implicit critique of China for discarding the weak in its rush to modernize, what’s more striking is its contemplation of kindness. Ma is a gentle soul with a profound respect for nature, and that quality proves restorative for Guiying. Even so, the writer-director doesn’t make Ma a saint; in a rare display of anger, he loses his temper with his wife due to her clumsiness while loading hay, though he immediately shows remorse.
As various neighbors take buyouts from developers to demolish their properties and free up the land, Ma and Giuying seem to have found themselves some permanence. But with the same clear-eyed, unsentimental observation he brings to the couple’s good fortune, Li bears witness to the return of sorrow to their lives in a final act that’s all the more affecting for its restraint.
===
Crew: Director, writer: Li Ruijun. Camera: Wang Weihua. Editor: Li Ruijun. Music: Peyman Yazdanian.
With: Wu Renlin, Hai Qing. (Chinese dialogue)
===
‘Return to Dust’ (‘Yin ru chen yan’): Film Review | Berlin 2022
Chinese writer-director Li Ruijun’s moving drama traces the evolving relationship of two outcasts who defy expectations, making the best of an arranged marriage.
BY DAVID ROONEYPlus Icon
FEBRUARY 13, 2022
Wu Renlin and Hai Qing in 'Return to Dust' COURTESY OF HUCHENG NO.7 FILMS LTD.
The uncontrolled urbanization of rural China and the displacement of agrarian communities form the melancholy socio-cultural backdrop of Return to Dust, an unhurried but hypnotic portrait of two discards thrown together to scratch out a life as they weather the seasons. A lyrical slice of Chinese neorealism set in writer-director Li Ruijun’s northern birthplace of Gaotai, bordering Inner Mongolia, this is an elegiac story, a humanistic metaphor for a vanishing world seen through the prism of a vulnerable couple cruelly written off by their families as worthless encumbrances.
While Li doesn’t address the phenomenon directly, the film evokes news reports from the past decade or so of “ghost cities” rising all over rural China, where accelerated growth has outpaced demand as developers clear farming areas to make way for modern townships that remain underpopulated. The largest of these places, with hundreds of thousands of empty homes, sprang up out of the desert in Ordos, an area similar to where the story takes place.
Venue: Berlin Film Festival (Competition)
Cast: Wu Renlin, Hai Qing
Director-screenwriter: Li Ruijun2 hours 13 minutes
Knowledge of that background is by no means essential to engage you in the simple, elemental storytelling of Return to Dust. But the humble lives portrayed here provide a stark contrast to the roaring Chinese economy that drove the construction boom.
From the opening scenes, it’s clear that Li and his DP Wang Weihua have a feel for the land and its rustic dwellings, conjuring a stirring sense of place in pleasing visual compositions that draw you in while the unprepossessing figures in what’s fundamentally a two-character drama are being established. The exquisite use of both natural light and discreet artificial enhancement throughout is beautiful.
Ma (Wu Renlin) is the last unmarried brother of his family, a hard worker exploited by his siblings, while Guiying (Hai Qing) is also well past the age of most brides in rural China, her fragile health affected by a pronounced limp and bladder-control issues. Her family have been reluctantly taking care of her but now want her out. When the two are forced into an arranged marriage, they comply in silence. But the future for them looks bleak, with Ma initially showing more concern for the troublesome donkey that hauls his farm cart. Their wedding photo is a portrait of joyless strangers with no communication between them.
Despite the indifference shown by their families and the meager possessions given to them to bring to the marriage, Ma insists on burning offerings to honor their ancestors and bless the union — the first sign that this taciturn, illiterate man of the land has a spiritual side. Snow borders the desert in winter at the start of their lives together in the impoverished village, which is close to a town yet seems removed from civilization.
A local government scheme provides them with a field to work for a year and seeds to plant in order to grow corn that the state will then buy from them. And Ma finds himself in a position to help the community due to a rare blood type (amusingly identified as “special panda blood”) needed by an ailing town official for transfusions. Not that he sees much advantage from this.
With gentle brushstrokes and a gaze that becomes almost imperceptibly more intimate, Li observes Ma’s first acts of kindness toward Guiying, who seemingly has known only humiliation and loneliness. It’s at that point, too, that the first notes of Peyman Yazdanian’s lovely string score are introduced. Guiying slowly begins reciprocating her husband’s care, concern and trust as he works tirelessly, sharing his deep knowledge of farming. While staying temporarily in various abandoned houses, they haul water to make mud bricks to build their own home. Ma carefully removes and rehangs the red “double happiness” symbol for newlyweds each time they relocate.
As the seasons change, the elements are often against them, but companionship and a shared desire to carve out a life sustain them. The subtlety and nuance with which Li’s storytelling conveys their evolving relationship is disarming; even the hints of late-blooming romance are appealingly understated. And the two actors — Wu is a regular of the director’s rural dramas, Hai a more widely known veteran — are entirely captivating, their expressive faces communicating volumes with few words of dialect and minimal displays of emotion.
The vivid turquoise head scarf that Guiying begins wearing represents an uplifting note of color against the prevailing earth tones. It has a similar symbolic function to the hatching of chickens that the couple raise together, signaling new life.
Despite continuing to be exploited by his family as they favor his young nephews and exclude him from wedding ceremonies, Ma remains loyal to them and to the rest of the community. He takes advantage of the access afforded him by the periodic blood transfusions to advocate, without success, for better financial compensation for local farmers in advance of harvest time.
While the film could be read as an implicit critique of China for discarding the weak in its rush to modernize, what’s more striking is its contemplation of kindness. Ma is a gentle soul with a profound respect for nature, and that quality proves restorative for Guiying. Even so, the writer-director doesn’t make Ma a saint; in a rare display of anger, he loses his temper with his wife due to her clumsiness while loading hay, though he immediately shows remorse.
As various neighbors take buyouts from developers to demolish their properties and free up the land, Ma and Giuying seem to have found themselves some permanence. But with the same clear-eyed, unsentimental observation he brings to the couple’s good fortune, Li bears witness to the return of sorrow to their lives in a final act that’s all the more affecting for its restraint.
===
====
먼지로 돌아가기 2022 HD 1080P 만다린 중국어 문자(Wu Renlin Renlin Wu)(Qing Hai)
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이 영화는 중국 영화사에 고전이 될 것입니다! 마음의 작품에서 주인공은 연기하는 것이 아니라 살아 있는 것이다.
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매우 강렬하고 감성적인 영화. 감독님 감사합니다. 이 영화는 칸 영화제에 있어야 합니다.
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한국어,일본어 버전도 추후에 나오면 좋겠네요
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4주 전
중국 정부는 2022년 9월 이 영화를 중단했습니다. 모든 스트리밍 플랫폼에서 Return to Dust를 제거하고 Weibo 소셜 미디어 플랫폼에서 댓글을 삭제했으며 영화의 해시태그를 불법화했습니다. 가능한 이유: * 주인공은 지역 착취 사업가를 구하기 위해 희귀 유형의 피를 바칠 수밖에 없습니다. 주인공은 저항하지 않지만 아내는 하지 말라고 한다. * 주인공 부부는 주택 개발업자들이 집을 철거하여 개간된 땅에서 돈을 벌기 위해 연이어 집에서 쫓겨난다.
* In a supposedly socialist country, nearly all relatives and villagers treat the protagonist - a man content to be a farmer - and his wife - a woman with medical problems leaving her unable to have a child - with contempt. This is socialist morality and culture? However, we foreign viewers do not know whether this depiction is accurate for rural China as a whole.
In short, Return to Dust shows how much capitalist scramble for riches there is in China today, despite the mouthings of the "Communist" Party of China. The protagonist couple are collateral damage as far as the government is concerned.
리턴 투 더스트는 휴머니즘 영화입니다. 억눌린 부부의 운명을 보는 이의 마음에 깃든다는 점이 강점이다. 부분적으로 이것은 영화가 농장 노동의 리듬에 당신을 몰입시킬 때 발생합니다. 도구는 원시적이며 수고는 힘들고 계절의 순환은 영원합니다. 약점은 묘사된 유일한 사회적 변화가 자본주의 착취의 맹공격이라는 점입니다. 실제로 농민들은 지주 착취와 외국, 특히 일본의 억압으로부터의 해방을 위해 싸운 공산당을 지지했습니다. 농민들은 1950년대 초부터 1970년대 중반까지 협동적이고 평등하며 현대화하는 방법으로 농업을 개선하려는 공산주의 계획을 진심으로 지지했습니다. 이 실제 역사를 염두에 두고 영화를 본다면 비극이 깊어집니다.
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4개의 답변
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이성적인 관객이라면 그냥 보면 안 되는데, 비합리적인 주인공은 예상치 못한 삶의 사고를 겪는다. 그러나 우리 눈에 더 많은 빛이 있어야 합니까? 1. 다정함: 주인공과 여주인공이 부자가 아니면 그 기간 동안 구타, 야단, 혐오가 있어도 가족이 돌봐준다. 그러나 결국 그들은 스스로 설 수 없을 때 그들을 버리지 않았습니다. 2. 철거의 본래 의도는 이미 더 나은 주거환경과 다른 곳에서 더 나은 삶을 살고 있는 사람들이 살지 않는 주택을 철거하는 것이며, 철거는 소유자의 허가를 받아 보조금을 지급합니다. 그들이 살고 있는 부동산이 그들의 소유가 아니라 우정의 소유였기 때문에 그들은 차례로 철거되었다. 동시에 쓸모없는 건물의 철거는 경작지의 면적을 더욱 늘리고 부동산이 포함되지 않은 농촌 환경을 아름답게 할 것입니다. 눈으로 더 많이 보아야 합니다. 3. 사회주의, 완전히 덮을 수 있는 영화나 현상이 아니다 이른바 자본이 무자비한 것처럼 자본주의 국가도 무자비한 사회라고 할 수 없다. 중국 건국 이후 현재에 이르기까지 중국이 얼마나 큰 변화를 겪었는지 살펴봐야 할 것 같은데, 이 시기에 잘 관리되지 않은 곳이나 햇빛에 노출되지 않는 구석이 있을지도 모릅니다. 그러나 구름이 당신의 푸른 하늘을 덮도록 두지 마십시오. 4. 헌혈, 당신이 보는 것은 착취이고, 내가 보는 것은 이타적인 헌신입니다. 그것은 생명에 대한 존중이며 마을 사람들이 돈을 돌려받는 일반적인 승진입니다(비록 방법이 반드시 옳지는 않지만 주인공은 이러한 친절을 유지합니다). 따라서 항상 다른 관점에서 다른 것을 볼 수 있습니다. 여러 각도에서 볼 수 있습니다. 영화에 깊이를 더해줄 수 있겠죠? 구체적인 금지 이유는 모르겠으나 편광판에 의해 왜곡될 우려가 있는 데는 이유가 있을 것으로 생각된다.
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회신하다
알렉스 왕
알렉스 왕
3 주 전
@천윤 당신은 여전히 인간입니까? 그런 실화는 당신을 반성하게 할 수 없습니까? 당신은 인간과 같은 행성에 살지 않는 것이 좋습니다.
회신하다
망고1973 망고
망고1973 망고
1 일 전
정말 사실입니다.전 세계의 농촌 사람들은 더 나은 급여를 받기 위해 탈출하기 위해 도시로 모여듭니다.그들의 삶이 더 나아질 것이라고 생각하는 자석처럼,,,,중국뿐만 아니라,지구상의 모든 국가가 어떤 형태로든 이 영화와 관련이 있습니다. 진행은 많은 사람들을 육지로 돌려보내고, 도시에서의 투쟁뿐만 아니라 시골 시골에서의 투쟁..
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샘
샘
1 개월 전
좋은 영화 공유 감사합니다.
삼
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에드워드 H
에드워드 H
4주 전
진짜 잔인함은 질식한다!
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회신하다
투레이 Y
투레이 Y
3 주 전
며칠 전 부동산 빅 V 아래에 메시지를 남겼습니다. 사람들은 모든 면에서 부자이지만 많은 사람들은 누군가가 한 달에 200위안만 벌 수 있다는 것을 확실히 상상할 수 없습니다. 이 영화는 고의로 고통을 미화하지도, 칭찬도, 비판도 하지 않지만, 친족들이 이렇구나 하는 것이 너무도 사실이다. 신농촌정책이라고 하는데, 많은 사람들이 전혀 쓸모가 없다. 아직도 집이 없다. 살기 위해, 밖에서 일을 해서 살 수 없는 아이들 몇 달러, 아이들은 모두 커서 심리적 압박감을 안고 사회에 들어간다. 연기 속에 숨을 필요는 전혀 없어 우리가 연기니까
4
회신하다
답장 1개
우 랴오
우 랴오
2주 전
당신이 잘 알고 있는 주변 사건의 비디오를 공유하십시오.
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다이
다이
1 개월 전
진짜 괴로움은 보이지 않는 추한 상태가 되어
10
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돈 우
돈 우
10시간 전
슬프게도 이 버전은 결말이 전혀 의미가 없는 검열 버전입니다(berlinae 상영은 온라인에 연결할 수 없는 유일한 무수정 버전임). 영화가 무수정 해외 정식 개봉을 하게 된다면 좋겠습니다.
회신하다
망고1973 망고
망고1973 망고
1 일 전
중국은 EXCELLENT 영화를 만듭니다,,,, 이것은 매우 가슴 아픈 영화입니다..
1
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닉 가지고
닉 가지고
11일 전
왜 이렇게 좋은 영화가 막혔을까?
1
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자크 웨이
자크 웨이
4주 전
Haiqing의 얼굴 특징은 정교하고 시골 이미지를 충분히 표현할 수 없습니다. . .
4
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메모리 칩 수리 복구
메모리 칩 수리 복구
3 주 전
시골의 현상은 시골의 현실입니다. 밭을 갈고 밀을 베는 사람, 손바닥과 손가락에 굳은살이 자라는 사람은 이해할 것입니다.
2
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게이고
게이고
2주 전
실제 상황은 더 어렵다
삼
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자오 자오 샤오커나이
자오 자오 샤오커나이
1 개월 전
Xiaozhi 감사합니다. 중국에서 금지되었습니다. 다행히 여기에서 볼 수 있습니다.❤❤
8
회신하다
답장 1개
하늘의달
하늘의달
2일 전
한글 자막이 필요합니다
회신하다
세실리아 선
세실리아 선
2주 전
갑자기 하이칭인줄알고 바로 극에 나왔는데 연기를 잘해서가 아니라 그런 역할을 하는건 처음 봤는데 그 이미지들이 다 등장했다. 내 마음.😂😂
1
회신하다
답장 1개
사라
사라
2주 전
새로운 얼굴을 가졌으면 더 좋았을텐데
회신하다
에이
에이
4주 전
계속 울고, 아무것도 할 수 없었어
5
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읽는 사람
읽는 사람
1 개월 전
1년전 영상입니다.
회신하다
포르프라파 파나차리야쿨
포르프라파 파나차리야쿨
1 개월 전
그러나 그것은 중국의 선반에서 완전히 제거되었습니다.
4
회신하다
답장 1개
김해헤
김해헤
2주 전
남자 주인공은 마지막에 자살한건가요😢??
회신하다
답장 1개
뱀부 루 플레이즈
뱀부 루 플레이즈
1 개월 전
중국에서 이 필름이 선반에서 제거되었다고 들었습니다.
8
회신하다
답장 20개
기사 기사
기사 기사
1 개월 전
중국은 그런 일을 할 자격이 없습니다.
삼
회신하다
천운
천운
3 주 전
@기사기사 이게 인간이야?
1
회신하다
씨비 유
씨비 유
3 주 전
@천윤 사실이 아닙니까? 아직도 중국에서 볼 수 있나요?
1
회신하다
문디
문디
3 주 전
@기사기사 당신은 인간입니까
1
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웬다 자오
웬다 자오
3 주 전
이 영상을 볼 자격이 없는 나라를 꾸짖는다
1
회신하다
이싱고
이싱고
3 주 전
@씨비유 소문 퍼뜨리지 마세요. 중국의 많은 영화관이 아직 상영 중인데, 메이투안이 있지 않습니까? 티켓을 예약하고 직접 확인하세요
회신하다
이싱고
이싱고
3 주 전
알고보니 너에 대한 헛소문이고 루머였는데 역시나 외국인 2인의 이름이었고 시간은 10일정도 였지. 영화는 제목을 이용합니까?
회신하다
씨비 유
씨비 유
3 주 전
@이신고 예약이 안되네요~
1
회신하다
이싱고
이싱고
3 주 전
@씨비유 베이징에서 마지막 출시일은 9월 30일인데 일주일 밖에 안됐는데 소문이 10일 넘게 나왔어요
회신하다
이싱고
이싱고
3 주 전
@씨비유 유투브에 CCTV6 영화채널 공식계정이 있어도 이 영화에 대한 소개와 영상이 아직 있으니 가보세요. 그걸 막으려면 정치도 문제 없고 배우 문제도 없고 줄거리도 리얼하고 단순하고 소재가 오지 농부들의 삶에 가깝고 핵심 내용이 심오한데 왜 굳이 일부러 없애?
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웬다 자오
웬다 자오
2주 전
iQIYI Tencent Video에서 그를 볼 예정입니다. 볼 수 있습니까?
회신하다
웬다 자오
웬다 자오
2주 전
@이신고 이 영화가 먼지 속으로 사라지는 현상이 사라졌죠?
1
회신하다
이싱고
이싱고
2주 전
@웬다 자오 영화 개봉후 디지털 판권 정리중인데 판권협상되면 아이치이한테 가자고 하는건데 어떻게 하라고? 비즈니스에 관한 모든 것
회신하다
Singo Lee
이싱고
2주 전
@웬다 자오 반년도 안 돼서 확실히 볼 수 있다 개봉 전에 온라인으로 볼 수 있는 신작은 없다 다른 사람들의 영화관은 어땠을까? 거리를 꾸짖지 않으려면? 나는 그것을 보여주기 위해 빌어 먹을 돈을 쓰고 있습니다. 여러분은 온라인으로 그것을 보았고 아무도 영화관에 오지 않았습니다. 누구에게 가야합니까?
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우마보틀
우마보틀
20시간 전
@이신고 창피
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Singo Lee
이싱고
9시간 전
@우마보틀 얼굴을 부끄럽게 하는 친구
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