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Box Office Hit âReturn to Dustâ Disappears From Chinese Theatres and Streaming Services
A popular Chinese love-story movie was removed from all Chinese theatres and streaming services only weeks after its release.The arthouse movie âReturn to Dust,â with a budget of 2 million yuan (about $280,000), tells the story of a couple in an arranged marriage who live in a rural area of Chinaâs northwestern Gansu Province. Against the odds, they gradually fall in love amid hardship and poverty. As their lives are gradually improving, the wife accidentally falls in a ditch and drowns. The movie ending hints that the husband later commits suicide.
The movie premiered at the Berlina International Film Festival in February this year and has been well received by critics internationally.
The China Film Administration issued a permit to screen the movie, which opened on July 8. It nabbed the top spot at the box office on Sept. 7, grossing over 100 million yuan (about $14 million).
However, the movie suddenly disappeared from Chinese theaters and streaming services on Sept. 26.
China experts believe the movie was banned because it depicts the true situation of rural life in China, and is considered a sensitive topic to show prior to the Chinese Communist Partyâs 20th national congress. The censors will not allow any film that has content the Party objects to.
Poverty Revealed
Written and directed by Chinese director Li Ruijun, the movie is set in a village in one of the poorest regions in the country.
The storyline is simple and realistic, and the characters are played by local farmers, except for actress Hai Qing who plays the female lead.
Ma Youtie, played by a local farmer and untrained actor Wu Renlin, is a poor farmer who has only an old donkey. He is hardworking and good at doing various jobs on the farm.
Maâs harvest consists of 2,010 pounds of wheat and 8,811 pounds of corn, which he sells for 3974 yuan (about $557). He had to spend 1570 yuan (about $220) for chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and seeds. Thus, the familyâs net income for the year is 2400 yuan (about $337).
Farmer Liu Qingyou at his residence in Baojing County, in central Chinaâs Hunan Province on Jan. 12, 2021. (Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images)
Controversy
The movie was sold to several European distributors and was well received abroad.
Deadline Hollywood praised Li Ruijun, the playwright and director of the movie, as âa significant cinematic talent.â
Jessica Kiangâs  Variety review says the movie is âabsorbingâ and âbeautifully framed.â
At home, Chinaâs online streaming platform Douban rated the movie 8.5 out of 10, the highest rating in 2022, according to Radio Free Asia in September. Comments about the movie posted on Doubanâs website were largely positive.
One user wrote: âWe need more films like this⦠This is one of the few outstanding films about farmers or people at the bottom of society in mainland China in recent years.â
Another user posted: âIn the movie, nearly 11,000 pounds of grain can only be sold for more than three thousand yuan. After deducting the expenses, Ma earns only 2000 yuan for a year. This is not just a movie, but the real state of the countryside. For decades, the state owes the farmers the most.â
One person wrote: âThere are 800 million people in China, who they [the communist authorities] called âcomradesâ in the early years, âfellow villagersâ later, and âmigrant workersâ recently. These people are in so low a profile that they only appear in the public once a yearâas characters in sketches, poor fellows whose wages are paidâon the central television channel on Chinese New Yearâs Eve. â
One user wrote ironically that Chinese farmers should âhide themselves in the dustâ as they are not inconspicuous enough, because âpoverty in China has been eliminated.â
However, Party supporters publicly attacked the movie.
Zheng Yanshi, a researcher at a China thinktank Kunlunce, criticized the movie for smearing the âgreat achievements of poverty alleviation under the leadership of the [Chinese Communist] Party.ââ
He asked the production team: âWho are you speaking for, and is your ass already sitting on the side of imperialism?â
Zheng then condemns the Chinese Communist Partyâs (CCP) watchdog of movies and TV programs: âThose who are responsible for the censorship and gatekeeping, how did you assess such a bad and filthy movie?â
The Chinese regime has mandated that all computers sold in China must come with pre-installed censorship software. (Liu Jin/AFP/Getty Images)
In China, all movies and TV series must be submitted to the State Film Administration for its approval. It issues a permit for screening after it makes a judgment that the assessed work meet all its propaganda requirements.
A social media influencer by the username âAlfa World Observationâ says in his post that the movie depicts the poverty and backwardness in Chinaâs rural areas to âbring extremely bad negative influence to overseas Chinese all over the worldâ and to âextremely smear Chinaâs image.â He labels movies of this kind