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Poster for Return to Dust

Return to Dust

2022 · 133 min

A quiet, unhurried immersion into hard rural lives, where small gestures of care accumulate into profound tenderness and heartbreak.

Tagline
An unlikely love story.
Overview
Humble, unassuming Ma and timid Cao have been cast off by their families and forced into an arranged marriage. They have to combine their strength and build a home to survive. In the face of much adversity, an unexpected bond begins to blossom, as both Ma and Cao, uniting with Earth's cycles, create a haven for themselves in which they can thrive.

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Free in the UK
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How it feels

Written by AI. It can be wrong.

Tone
  • melancholicstrength 3 of 3
  • earneststrength 3 of 3
  • warmstrength 2 of 3
  • bleakstrength 2 of 3
Pacing
slow-burn, 1 of 4, from slow-burn to relentless
Attention
demanding, 4 of 4, from background-friendly to demanding
Themes
  • isolation
  • love
  • survival
  • class
  • grief
Places
  • countryside
  • small town
Era
contemporary
Audience
adult
Form
  • nonlinear
Content intensity
  • Gore none
  • Language none
  • Violence mild
  • Sex none
All scales, 0 to 10
Scales, 0 to 10
ScaleValue0 to 10
Action1
Horror0
Humour1
Realism9
Romance6
Tension3
Darkness7
Complexity6
Emotional weight9

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Where to watch in the UK

Free
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Buy
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Streaming data from JustWatch.All options on TMDB

Details

Genres
drama, romance
Directed by
Li Ruijun
Written by
Li Ruijun
Starring
Wu Renlin, Hai Qing, Yang Guangrui, Dengfeng Zhao, Cailan Wang, Jiangui Zeng, Wu Yunzhi, Zhanhong Ma
Cinematography
Wang Weihua
Runtime
133 min
Country
China
Languages
Mandarin

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