"Return to Dust": Local Poetic Flavour and Contemporary Ideal Significance of the Love Between Poet and Maiden

Abstract

With the core of "poetry", the art film"Return to Dust" evokes the spiritual resonance between film and individuals.This paper investigates the motive of the encounter between Lao Si and Gui Ying, proposes the multiple possibilities behind the film's multiple narratives, and experiences the director's creation intention of shaping the "specimen" of countryside under the premise of recognizing the poetic reality. By analyzing the detailed and true depictions in the film, we can extract that the character archetypes of Lao Si and Gui Ying are poets and maiden, which shows the rich meaning in their love beyond universal love. By analyzing the huge gap between the hopeful direction of the story and the desperate ending, and to understand the significance of the director's "local" practice of recording history based on his native land and his pastoral ideal in the current era.