Return to Dust (2022)

"You were used by others for most of your life, haven't you had enough?"

Return to Dust was a story about Fate bringing two unloved and unwanted middle-aged people together in a poor rural community. Resigned to their lonely and meager existence, an act born out of callousness opened up a new world they’d never dreamed of.

Ma You Tie aka Fourth Brother aka Iron Ma is coerced into marrying Cao Gui Ying. Both are past the normal age of marrying. Iron is largely an unpaid worker for his older brother. Gui Ying lives in a shed behind her brother’s house and is regularly beaten. She suffers from a physical disability, infertility, and incontinence which has taken her off the marriage market. The two quietly wed and move into an abandoned house. Together they farm the land and gently take care of each other. Tiny acts of kindness and generosity cause the newlyweds to slowly come out of their shells. They begin to lean on each other, surprised that they could experience companionship and contentment so late in life.

While Iron and Gui Ying showed compassion to people, animals, even plants, such was not the case for the people surrounding them. Their families were neglectful and cruel. The local businessman exploited the old peasants working the land refusing to pay them the money he owed, shorting them when their crops came in, always offering one excuse after another. When it turned out Iron shared the same rare “Panda” blood type of the capitalist patriarch, the farmer was called upon to give the wealthy man regular transfusions. As more villagers abandoned farming and moved to the cities it created vacant homes. The government implemented a new beautification policy offering money for the destruction of those houses. City dwellers returned to grab the cash regardless of who had set up housekeeping in the houses, be it people or swallows. The caring couple had to move ahead of the bulldozers twice, finally resolving to build their own mud brick home. Having spent a lifetime being taken advantage of and never having anything handed to them, Iron and Gui Ying simply took the slights in stride.

Oh, but Butterfly, what was the plot? None really. It was an exquisitely shot and scored slice of life about two outcasts diligently working the land and becoming utterly devoted to each other along the way. The villagers even commented on how Iron doted on his “peculiar” wife. It felt and looked very Zhang Yi Mou’ish. And just like ZYM, the director and film landed in trouble, too. *

Return to Dust was a tender, lowkey love story with two social outcasts that felt deeper and more authentic in comparison to grand passionate romances. Iron and Gui Ying may not have had children but they adored their bell wearing donkey (so did I!) and dutifully looked after their little chicks. No debt was left unpaid. For Iron, “The soil doesn’t despise us,” unfortunately, people weren’t always as reliable.

25 June 2026
Trigger warning: Suicide

*Those darned censors notes:
The film was yanked from being shown in China for reasons unknown. It was later released with an alternate ending. What was so offensive? The peasants were hard working, resourceful, and living a simple life without complaint. Perhaps it was the government’s house destruction policy that ended up harming the most vulnerable. Also, the most impoverished were offered low rent apartment housing. Iron wondered where he would keep his livestock. Illiterate and older, how was he supposed to support himself and eat without access to the land? I learned about the film being pulled when I went looking for answers regarding the ending. The last line of dialogue was contrary to the rest of the film and the previous scenes. Apparently, the original ending was replaced with a more acceptable ending to the censors even though it made no sense.

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