A Hit Movie Just Got Banned And No One Knows Why
The arthouse hit Return to Dust has been abruptly pulled from theaters in China, with no one having much of an explanation as to why.
While the latest news in United States based film censoring may come from the move to cut out the smoking of cigarettes in classic features, China has just dropped a swift censorship on a new arthouse flick that was soaring high at the box office. Perhaps taking control back into their own hands following Hollywood’s decision to no longer censor films heading to China and prove that they’ll continue to monitor productions coming from their own country, the powers that be have pulled Li Ruijun’s feature, Return To Dust, from their theaters.
The decision came without rhyme or reason, leaving many folks–both who call the country home and those abroad–to question what grounds the choice was made on.
Return To Dust transported viewers to the Gansu province, a rural area where its leading middle-aged couple calls home. The pair were thrown together by their families who saw their marriage as overdue for each party with the story depicting the love that begins to blossom between them as they face the challenges life presents. As wholesome and moving as the description sounds, something in the piece must have riled up those holding the power as China moved forward with the censorship after the film had already proved itself to be an unexpected hit.
Dropping into theaters on July 8, the feature would eventually come to gross over $15 million (RMB100m) during its time both in theaters and on streaming platforms. As for the timeline, the movie was available for at home viewing over the weekend of September 3, where it added $5.3 million (RMB36.2m) to its theatrical earnings. And then, at some point over the next three weeks, those behind China’s censorship program decided that the feature was no longer suitable and pulled it from the lineup on September 26.
While there wasn’t (and most likely won’t be) a reason behind China’s censorship of Return To Dust, there are a few working theories. On the lighter side, it’s possible that with a long running slate of upcoming productions set to be released in the approaching days, the film was simply taking up both screen space and ticket money, although that wouldn’t fully explain its removal from streaming services. On the heavier side, it may have been that the somber yet hopeful story was considered to be just too much to have screening during the National Day holidays – celebrations that honor the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
Whatever the case may be, the film’s removal was made even worse for the stars, many of whom were non-professionals, save for the female lead Hai Qing. While in the United States we deal with our own censoring dramas, they’re definitely on a different scale compared to China’s.
This summer alone, there were shakeups in the Hollywood industry with anticipated family friendly features including Lightyear and Thor: Love and Thunder tackling critics that would push to have parts of their storylines removed or altered. Despite all the domestic drama, we can count our lucky stars that unlike China’s censorship decisions, ours end up on the leading headlines and receive feedback from viewers who both agree and disagree.
