The four seasons become poems, the mountains and rivers become pictures, Song style aesthetics are only green. The dance-poetry drama " Only This Green " captivated audiences across the country with its glimpse at the Spring Festival Gala, and that was just a short clip of this popular dance-poetry drama.
In the 2024 National Day release, the film "Only Green" directed by directors Zhou Liya and Han Zhen will bring the complete dance poetry drama to the big screen, reproducing the panoramic view with a freer perspective, more brilliant light and shadow, and more gorgeous fantasy. The magnificent and beautiful Song-style aesthetics takes the audience to appreciate the elegance of Song Dynasty that has traveled through thousands of years.
"Only Green" originated from the famous and handed down painting "Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" created by Ximeng, a talented young man in the Northern Song Dynasty, when he was eighteen years old. This magnificent scroll, which has been passed down through the ages, is considered one of China's top ten famous paintings handed down from generation to generation due to its superb technique, together with masterpieces such as "Along the River During the Qingming Festival".
The paintings contain unique and lofty artistic conceptions, which are like springs of inspiration, helping creators of all ages burst out with countless inspirations. The movie "Only Green" also uses graceful dance to talk to the talented young people of the Northern Song Dynasty across a thousand years of time and space, showing the audience the charm of traditional Chinese culture with an audio-visual feast, "Only Green, this is very Chinese."
Recently, a reporter from Nandu Entertainment talked about the movie "Only Green" directors Zhou Liya and Han Zhen listened to them tell the story behind the film. How to use dance to interpret a painting? Why did you choose to present a dance-poetic drama on the big screen?
"Movies should be diverse. Since dance drama is the main body and the fulcrum, when it can be expressed clearly through drama, dance and the body, it already contains thousands of words. This is exactly what this movie is about. The film’s courage and determination,” said director Han Zhen.
"Unprecedented Challenge"
Nandu Entertainment: How did "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" and the story of Ximeng attract your creative enthusiasm? What are the difficulties and challenges in using dance to tell the story of a painting?
Han Zhen: The green and green colors of "Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" are extremely beautiful. As long as you have seen it, you will know that this creation must be inevitable in the lives of the two of us, and we will definitely create it. It's so beautiful that it's hard to ignore in your mind. The same goes for Ximeng. He is full of mystery and is a creator. He is only eighteen years old. At the age of eighteen, he can already complete such an epic scroll. This is so exciting. From the creator's point of view, it contains countless things that are conceivable but difficult to imagine.
uses dance to interpret a painting, which is what made us most excited at the beginning. As a creator, it may be different from what ordinary viewers see. The actors' bodies are used to depict the mountains. This is something worth being excited about in itself. All difficulties arise when you dig deeper. The understanding of traditional culture, the understanding of painting, and the understanding of Song Dynasty aesthetics. The whole structure must be dispersed in form but not in spirit. All these are difficulties. .
Nandu Entertainment: What do you think of the movie "Only Green"? How did you feel when you learned that "Only Green" is really going to be put on the big screen?
Zhou Lia: is both excited and nervous. The excitement comes from knowing that her stage play will be put on the big screen and more people can see it. The reason for the anxiety is that we are engaged in stage play creation after all, and we need to truly understand the creation of a movie again. It is still two dimensions from the creation of a stage play.
Han Zhen: Every art form has its advantages. We also hope that more people can see this work through the dissemination of the film, because the magnitude of its dissemination is definitely different. When I first received the filming plan for this movie, I had a lot of questions in my heart. Is "Only Green" going to be a new story and a feature film? Until they said they wanted to make the dance into a movie, we were quite surprised and admired their courage.
Nandu Entertainment: The Spring Festival Gala's "Only Green" is well known to the audience. What is its approximate proportion in the movie?
Zhou Lia: The length of is about 6 minutes, which is not a lot. I am very grateful for the Spring Festival Gala, which has allowed more people to fall in love with this paragraph in the dance poetry drama "Only This Green", and for this paragraph, they went to the theater to watch "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" and "Ximeng" story.
Nandu Entertainment: What do you think is the biggest difference between movies and dance dramas?
Han Zhen: The difference between subjective and objective, virtual and real, one is to give you a fulcrum to expand your imagination, and the other is to implement the fulcrum and make your imagination concrete.
Zhou Lia: The space on the stage will be more dimensional, and movies will rely more on the help of the lens. The difference is that the performances on stage are sometimes a bit exaggerated because the audience is far away. But in the movie footage, you can see the actor's micro-performance, and you can clearly see the tears in his eyes. Watching the entire performance in the movie will be more nuanced.
Han Zhen: The stage is the beginning of imagination, and the movie is the result of imagination.
Nandu Entertainment: Do you still remember the feeling of entering the set for the first time? How did you feel when you saw the actual scenes of the movie?
Zhou Lia: feels like an unprecedented challenge. When we arrived at the shooting site, we discovered that, for example, the Hanlin Painting Academy did not have a single point on our stage, it was multi-angle. The biggest challenge is to break up some of the scenes and formations on the stage, including some rhythm processing, and put them into real space. When I entered the studio for the first time, I immediately had a creator's instinct in my mind. I was thinking about what my actors would look like standing up, and how the actors and scenes should be arranged... After imagining it in my mind, It will be different when you actually enter the lens, and you have to adjust it again.
Han Zhen: The first thing I saw when I entered the studio was the same as that of an audience who is familiar with dance dramas. The scenes in front of me were the same as I imagined, but also different. It was a space that was both familiar and unfamiliar.
needs to be broken down and restructured
Nandu Entertainment: What details did the two directors restore to the "Song style aesthetics" in terms of setting, art, and actor styling?
Han Zhen: The more specific embodiment of is to restore the makeup, hair, costumes, and styles in the dance drama. We have already completed these tasks during the dance drama. To present it in a movie, what we need is to present a state of classical aesthetics in the composition. Props and other details will be taken care of by specialized teachers and teachers who are professional in the film industry. We are more giving some tips, and some very specific extensions and work are still completed by these professional teachers.
Zhou Lia: Some of the creations of the stage play were used in the movie, such as three-white makeup, pearl makeup, and green grate fan.
Han Zhen: There are also hairpins for men in Hanlin Drawing Academy, which was also a very important aesthetic feature of that era.
Zhou Liya: includes the four elegant events in this section of the Hanlin Academy of Painting.
Han Zhen: is hard to see clearly on the stage. In fact, we all have performances, but the film’s characteristics are well utilized. When I feature these four elegances of the Song Dynasty, I think many points like this should be able to arouse many viewers to trace back and resonate with traditional culture, which is also quite interesting.
Nandu Entertainment: The colors in the movie "Only Green" are diverse and rich, but they also have a unified sense of oriental aesthetics. Can you talk about how established the color aesthetics in the movie?
Han Zhen: The basis of color aesthetics is very simple, derived from "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains". There is a concept of four seasons throughout the play itself, and the movie shots emphasize spring, summer, autumn, and winter.For example, the heavy snow for making ink, the spring for singing silk, the vibrant green surrounding the whole, including the rain in summer, etc., all contain some of our expressions of aesthetics in the four seasons.
is more accurate from the aesthetic distribution given to us by "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains". For example, the Silk Weavers, including the fishermen and boaters shown in the Silk Weavers fragment, are all derived from the white people in this painting, so the color of their clothes must match the white people in the painting. The green color comes from the green color in the rocks in this painting, including ocher, the ocher color on the stone-grinding figure, and the feeling of autumn it represents. To some extent, it is a collision between emotional color and realistic color.
Daxue’s ink-making part, ink and snow create a strong collision of colors. In addition, the heavy snow also includes Ximeng's most difficult process of painting, and the time when he worked so hard that he was truly most obsessed, most selfless, and most difficult, which was like the coldest moment before he truly saw the painting. So he has the color part of emotional description and the interpretation part of the painting. These two parts together form the aesthetic tone.
Nandu Entertainment : What is the biggest difficulty encountered during film shooting, and how was it solved?
Zhou Lia: The biggest difficulty in is the thinking of stage space scheduling and the spreading of the picture, which needs to be broken and deconstructed again. You also have to communicate with the film major teachers, including the photography team, including the connection of the pictures, editing, etc. The biggest difficulty is to adapt to such a work rhythm, because all types of work are waiting, and we have to adjust the actor's condition, dance, and rhythm very quickly. All these need to be done as quickly as possible with the teachers of the film team. To blend in and cooperate.
Nandu Entertainment: To complete this dance in two different art forms, do dancers have to overcome new difficulties brought about by movies?
Zhou Lia: There are two aspects to , one is psychological and the other is physical. Psychology refers to the many aspects of performance that they need to master. They need to go through the lens of the movie over and over again and adjust slowly after watching the monitor. In terms of physical strength, because the movie is divided into literary drama and action drama, this movie is almost all action drama, but our dancers do not have stand-ins. Another reason is that they are not that experienced. In order to avoid the situation where the rhythm of a certain shot is particularly good, but the movements may not be done well, they must do it every time. For actors, their physical challenges are considerable, and different passages have different challenges.
Nandu Entertainment: has been adapted into film and television. Among the several chapters of the story, which plot impressed you the most and why?
Han Zhen: Hanlin Painting Academy left a deep impression on me, and it is also the place where they studied in my mind. The movie brought to life what was imagined on that part of the stage, and I could see each of their beaming faces, which I would have had to sit very close to see if I were on stage.
"What is being praised is actually a group portrait"
Nandu Entertainment: Can you share the meaning behind some classic moves?
Han Zhen: The green color starts from the green waist, then to the green waist of a small group, and then until the final entry into the painting, the audience should find that there is actually a foreshadowing ahead. When the painting was finally entered, everyone lowered their green waists, and what appeared was an image of majestic mountains. In terms of dance motivation, we have also completed the display, expansion, and development of this movement throughout the work. In the end, its symbol is the same, but the charm it expresses is different. In the movie, we can see that in addition to the green dance sequence, when more people show their green waists at the same time, the audience can feel the majesty of the mountains expressed.
Nandu Entertainment: What impressed the audience deeply was the movement of mountains made with hands. What is the meaning of this?
Han Zhen: In the expression of dance, the body cannot be avoided. We hoped at that time to have an action that could connect their spiritual worlds together. When Xi Meng was painting, he felt the rhythm of the ups and downs of the mountains, and the rhythm that the scroll painter captured from Xi Meng's imagination made them truly closely connected. This is just like our action of protecting the candlelight, which can be clearly seen in the movie. It also contains an image-like expression of our passing on the fire from generation to generation. If it represents two individuals, the spiritual connection between them, a kind of empathy and resonance that has traveled through thousands of years, protecting the candlelight expresses the determination of generations of people to pass on the traditional culture from generation to generation, and There is also a kind of protection in this movement, which is a kind of temperature.
Nandu Entertainment : Ximeng, Qinglu and Zhanjuan in the film impressed many viewers. What do you think the background of these three characters is? The film also tells the story of many craftsmen in various places. What do you want to convey to the audience through these characters?
Zhou Lia: The structure of our entire stage play in is a historical confrontation. At both ends of this confrontation, it must have two representatives. Ximeng is the creator of this painting, and the exhibitor is the guardian of this painting. In this way, the two time-space and historical confrontations are achieved. How to truly connect these two characters is the painting, so the green color represents the soul of the painting. Because of this painting, these two spaces and two historical figures are connected together. There is a very close relationship between the three of them, which ultimately forms a logical closed loop of the entire play.
In the early days of creation, we all know that the record of Ximeng is only in the inscription and postscript of this painting, which is: "Ximeng was eighteen years old...he dedicated several paintings, but not much work was done." In the process of browsing a lot of information, we , suddenly raised a question: Who wrote "Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains"? More than 900 years ago, "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" was written by the talented young man Xi Meng. But more than 900 years later, we can still see it. Whose hand did it come from? When this question is asked, many characters appear behind it.
First of all, the roll unfolder is the guardian and inheritor. We know that "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" is a silk painting. When we learned about these craftsmanship, we suddenly discovered that there are so many craftsmen behind this painting. It is because of them that this painting has been passed down for thousands of years. With Ximeng's creation and their craftsmanship, they and Ximeng completed this painting together. Like Ximeng, they are nameless and have no names. What we express and praise in "Only This Green" is actually a group portrait.
Nandu Entertainment: There is no line in the dance drama, and the movie also continues this method. Why does this story not need lines? Are you worried that moviegoers won’t understand it?
Han Zhen: I used to put myself in someone else's shoes and worry about the audience, but to be honest, I didn't have this worry after reading it, because it didn't affect me at all to understand the whole story and feel the emotional impact of all the characters. . Movies should be diverse. Since dance drama is used as the ontology and fulcrum, when drama, dance, and the body can be used to express clearly, I think it already contains thousands of words. This is precisely the courage and strength of this movie. determination.
"In my heart, Zhang Han is Ximeng!"
Nandu Entertainment: On the set, do the two actors (Zhang Han, Meng Qingyang, Xie Suhao, etc.) have any special working habits of their own? What unforgettable or interesting things have happened?
Han Zhen: Sometimes when shooting in the middle of the night, people will be in a state of exhaustion and excitement. We will collectively do push-ups and sit-ups, and then you will see a row of people, the director and dancers are there." 1234,5678". (laughing)
Zhou Lia: When the filming of was in the later stages, what we told Zhang Han every day was to eat! His physical exertion was too great. His body fat was relatively low to begin with, so his entire face became sunken very quickly. Before filming the movie, he gained a little weight in order to appear more youthful. But in the middle period, you will find that he is losing weight rapidly. He consumes a lot every day, cannot sleep well, and cannot eat when he is tired. Therefore, what we are most concerned about every day is: "What did Zhang Han eat today?" Well? "
also had a scene where he was dancing solo in the water. He was filming in the water for a whole day, and he was a little hypothermic at the end of the filming. He was shaking with cold, but he still kept filming. His eyes were infected at the time and became red and swollen the next day, but he was still filming normally, so he had to take medicine and go to the hospital every day for fear of eye inflammation. We can't afford to miss a day. The shooting time is very tight. It takes 16 to 18 hours every day. There can be no mistakes at all. For actors, it is still an unprecedented and quite new challenge.
Nandu Entertainment: Has Zhang Han played the 18-year-old boy painter Ximeng in your 心?
Han Zhen: In my heart, he is Ximeng!
Zhou Lia: We once said to him: "Zhang Han, you did not choose the role of Ximeng, Ximeng chose you."
Zhou Lia: I think everything is just right.
Han Zhen: is right, everything is just right.
Nandu Entertainment: Putting "Only Green" on the big screen for a wider range of people is a "breaking circle" between two industries and two waves of audiences. How does view this integration and innovation?
Zhou Lia: At least for me now, there is no way to jump out of this process to summarize the final results very objectively. We have all been quite nervous recently, just like we were before the premiere of the stage version of "Only Green". All your experiences must ultimately present a result to meet all audiences. To the creator, this outcome is unknown. Including the painting "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" when Xi Meng created it, he had no way of knowing that this painting would be loved by so many people a thousand years later. The charm of creation lies here, like an adventure, you don’t know the final result. I'm looking forward to what kind of feedback there will be when it really hits the big screen and is really seen by more audiences outside the dance circle.
The four seasons become poems, the mountains and rivers become pictures, Song style aesthetics are only green. The dance-poetry drama " Only This Green " captivated audiences across the country with its glimpse at the Spring Festival Gala, and that was just a short clip of this popular dance-poetry drama.
In the 2024 National Day release, the film "Only Green" directed by directors Zhou Liya and Han Zhen will bring the complete dance poetry drama to the big screen, reproducing the panoramic view with a freer perspective, more brilliant light and shadow, and more gorgeous fantasy. The magnificent and beautiful Song-style aesthetics takes the audience to appreciate the elegance of Song Dynasty that has traveled through thousands of years.
"Only Green" originated from the famous and handed down painting "Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" created by Ximeng, a talented young man in the Northern Song Dynasty, when he was eighteen years old. This magnificent scroll, which has been passed down through the ages, is considered one of China's top ten famous paintings handed down from generation to generation due to its superb technique, together with masterpieces such as "Along the River During the Qingming Festival".
The paintings contain unique and lofty artistic conceptions, which are like springs of inspiration, helping creators of all ages burst out with countless inspirations. The movie "Only Green" also uses graceful dance to talk to the talented young people of the Northern Song Dynasty across a thousand years of time and space, showing the audience the charm of traditional Chinese culture with an audio-visual feast, "Only Green, this is very Chinese."
Recently, a reporter from Nandu Entertainment talked about the movie "Only Green" directors Zhou Liya and Han Zhen listened to them tell the story behind the film. How to use dance to interpret a painting? Why did you choose to present a dance-poetic drama on the big screen?
"Movies should be diverse. Since dance drama is the main body and the fulcrum, when it can be expressed clearly through drama, dance and the body, it already contains thousands of words. This is exactly what this movie is about. The film’s courage and determination,” said director Han Zhen.
"Unprecedented Challenge"
Nandu Entertainment: How did "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" and the story of Ximeng attract your creative enthusiasm? What are the difficulties and challenges in using dance to tell the story of a painting?
Han Zhen: The green and green colors of "Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" are extremely beautiful. As long as you have seen it, you will know that this creation must be inevitable in the lives of the two of us, and we will definitely create it. It's so beautiful that it's hard to ignore in your mind. The same goes for Ximeng. He is full of mystery and is a creator. He is only eighteen years old. At the age of eighteen, he can already complete such an epic scroll. This is so exciting. From the creator's point of view, it contains countless things that are conceivable but difficult to imagine.
uses dance to interpret a painting, which is what made us most excited at the beginning. As a creator, it may be different from what ordinary viewers see. The actors' bodies are used to depict the mountains. This is something worth being excited about in itself. All difficulties arise when you dig deeper. The understanding of traditional culture, the understanding of painting, and the understanding of Song Dynasty aesthetics. The whole structure must be dispersed in form but not in spirit. All these are difficulties. .
Nandu Entertainment: What do you think of the movie "Only Green"? How did you feel when you learned that "Only Green" is really going to be put on the big screen?
Zhou Lia: is both excited and nervous. The excitement comes from knowing that her stage play will be put on the big screen and more people can see it. The reason for the anxiety is that we are engaged in stage play creation after all, and we need to truly understand the creation of a movie again. It is still two dimensions from the creation of a stage play.
Han Zhen: Every art form has its advantages. We also hope that more people can see this work through the dissemination of the film, because the magnitude of its dissemination is definitely different. When I first received the filming plan for this movie, I had a lot of questions in my heart. Is "Only Green" going to be a new story and a feature film? Until they said they wanted to make the dance into a movie, we were quite surprised and admired their courage.
Nandu Entertainment: The Spring Festival Gala's "Only Green" is well known to the audience. What is its approximate proportion in the movie?
Zhou Lia: The length of is about 6 minutes, which is not a lot. I am very grateful for the Spring Festival Gala, which has allowed more people to fall in love with this paragraph in the dance poetry drama "Only This Green", and for this paragraph, they went to the theater to watch "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" and "Ximeng" story.
Nandu Entertainment: What do you think is the biggest difference between movies and dance dramas?
Han Zhen: The difference between subjective and objective, virtual and real, one is to give you a fulcrum to expand your imagination, and the other is to implement the fulcrum and make your imagination concrete.
Zhou Lia: The space on the stage will be more dimensional, and movies will rely more on the help of the lens. The difference is that the performances on stage are sometimes a bit exaggerated because the audience is far away. But in the movie footage, you can see the actor's micro-performance, and you can clearly see the tears in his eyes. Watching the entire performance in the movie will be more nuanced.
Han Zhen: The stage is the beginning of imagination, and the movie is the result of imagination.
Nandu Entertainment: Do you still remember the feeling of entering the set for the first time? How did you feel when you saw the actual scenes of the movie?
Zhou Lia: feels like an unprecedented challenge. When we arrived at the shooting site, we discovered that, for example, the Hanlin Painting Academy did not have a single point on our stage, it was multi-angle. The biggest challenge is to break up some of the scenes and formations on the stage, including some rhythm processing, and put them into real space. When I entered the studio for the first time, I immediately had a creator's instinct in my mind. I was thinking about what my actors would look like standing up, and how the actors and scenes should be arranged... After imagining it in my mind, It will be different when you actually enter the lens, and you have to adjust it again.
Han Zhen: The first thing I saw when I entered the studio was the same as that of an audience who is familiar with dance dramas. The scenes in front of me were the same as I imagined, but also different. It was a space that was both familiar and unfamiliar.
needs to be broken down and restructured
Nandu Entertainment: What details did the two directors restore to the "Song style aesthetics" in terms of setting, art, and actor styling?
Han Zhen: The more specific embodiment of is to restore the makeup, hair, costumes, and styles in the dance drama. We have already completed these tasks during the dance drama. To present it in a movie, what we need is to present a state of classical aesthetics in the composition. Props and other details will be taken care of by specialized teachers and teachers who are professional in the film industry. We are more giving some tips, and some very specific extensions and work are still completed by these professional teachers.
Zhou Lia: Some of the creations of the stage play were used in the movie, such as three-white makeup, pearl makeup, and green grate fan.
Han Zhen: There are also hairpins for men in Hanlin Drawing Academy, which was also a very important aesthetic feature of that era.
Zhou Liya: includes the four elegant events in this section of the Hanlin Academy of Painting.
Han Zhen: is hard to see clearly on the stage. In fact, we all have performances, but the film’s characteristics are well utilized. When I feature these four elegances of the Song Dynasty, I think many points like this should be able to arouse many viewers to trace back and resonate with traditional culture, which is also quite interesting.
Nandu Entertainment: The colors in the movie "Only Green" are diverse and rich, but they also have a unified sense of oriental aesthetics. Can you talk about how established the color aesthetics in the movie?
Han Zhen: The basis of color aesthetics is very simple, derived from "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains". There is a concept of four seasons throughout the play itself, and the movie shots emphasize spring, summer, autumn, and winter.For example, the heavy snow for making ink, the spring for singing silk, the vibrant green surrounding the whole, including the rain in summer, etc., all contain some of our expressions of aesthetics in the four seasons.
is more accurate from the aesthetic distribution given to us by "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains". For example, the Silk Weavers, including the fishermen and boaters shown in the Silk Weavers fragment, are all derived from the white people in this painting, so the color of their clothes must match the white people in the painting. The green color comes from the green color in the rocks in this painting, including ocher, the ocher color on the stone-grinding figure, and the feeling of autumn it represents. To some extent, it is a collision between emotional color and realistic color.
Daxue’s ink-making part, ink and snow create a strong collision of colors. In addition, the heavy snow also includes Ximeng's most difficult process of painting, and the time when he worked so hard that he was truly most obsessed, most selfless, and most difficult, which was like the coldest moment before he truly saw the painting. So he has the color part of emotional description and the interpretation part of the painting. These two parts together form the aesthetic tone.
Nandu Entertainment : What is the biggest difficulty encountered during film shooting, and how was it solved?
Zhou Lia: The biggest difficulty in is the thinking of stage space scheduling and the spreading of the picture, which needs to be broken and deconstructed again. You also have to communicate with the film major teachers, including the photography team, including the connection of the pictures, editing, etc. The biggest difficulty is to adapt to such a work rhythm, because all types of work are waiting, and we have to adjust the actor's condition, dance, and rhythm very quickly. All these need to be done as quickly as possible with the teachers of the film team. To blend in and cooperate.
Nandu Entertainment: To complete this dance in two different art forms, do dancers have to overcome new difficulties brought about by movies?
Zhou Lia: There are two aspects to , one is psychological and the other is physical. Psychology refers to the many aspects of performance that they need to master. They need to go through the lens of the movie over and over again and adjust slowly after watching the monitor. In terms of physical strength, because the movie is divided into literary drama and action drama, this movie is almost all action drama, but our dancers do not have stand-ins. Another reason is that they are not that experienced. In order to avoid the situation where the rhythm of a certain shot is particularly good, but the movements may not be done well, they must do it every time. For actors, their physical challenges are considerable, and different passages have different challenges.
Nandu Entertainment: has been adapted into film and television. Among the several chapters of the story, which plot impressed you the most and why?
Han Zhen: Hanlin Painting Academy left a deep impression on me, and it is also the place where they studied in my mind. The movie brought to life what was imagined on that part of the stage, and I could see each of their beaming faces, which I would have had to sit very close to see if I were on stage.
"What is being praised is actually a group portrait"
Nandu Entertainment: Can you share the meaning behind some classic moves?
Han Zhen: The green color starts from the green waist, then to the green waist of a small group, and then until the final entry into the painting, the audience should find that there is actually a foreshadowing ahead. When the painting was finally entered, everyone lowered their green waists, and what appeared was an image of majestic mountains. In terms of dance motivation, we have also completed the display, expansion, and development of this movement throughout the work. In the end, its symbol is the same, but the charm it expresses is different. In the movie, we can see that in addition to the green dance sequence, when more people show their green waists at the same time, the audience can feel the majesty of the mountains expressed.
Nandu Entertainment: What impressed the audience deeply was the movement of mountains made with hands. What is the meaning of this?
Han Zhen: In the expression of dance, the body cannot be avoided. We hoped at that time to have an action that could connect their spiritual worlds together. When Xi Meng was painting, he felt the rhythm of the ups and downs of the mountains, and the rhythm that the scroll painter captured from Xi Meng's imagination made them truly closely connected. This is just like our action of protecting the candlelight, which can be clearly seen in the movie. It also contains an image-like expression of our passing on the fire from generation to generation. If it represents two individuals, the spiritual connection between them, a kind of empathy and resonance that has traveled through thousands of years, protecting the candlelight expresses the determination of generations of people to pass on the traditional culture from generation to generation, and There is also a kind of protection in this movement, which is a kind of temperature.
Nandu Entertainment : Ximeng, Qinglu and Zhanjuan in the film impressed many viewers. What do you think the background of these three characters is? The film also tells the story of many craftsmen in various places. What do you want to convey to the audience through these characters?
Zhou Lia: The structure of our entire stage play in is a historical confrontation. At both ends of this confrontation, it must have two representatives. Ximeng is the creator of this painting, and the exhibitor is the guardian of this painting. In this way, the two time-space and historical confrontations are achieved. How to truly connect these two characters is the painting, so the green color represents the soul of the painting. Because of this painting, these two spaces and two historical figures are connected together. There is a very close relationship between the three of them, which ultimately forms a logical closed loop of the entire play.
In the early days of creation, we all know that the record of Ximeng is only in the inscription and postscript of this painting, which is: "Ximeng was eighteen years old...he dedicated several paintings, but not much work was done." In the process of browsing a lot of information, we , suddenly raised a question: Who wrote "Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains"? More than 900 years ago, "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" was written by the talented young man Xi Meng. But more than 900 years later, we can still see it. Whose hand did it come from? When this question is asked, many characters appear behind it.
First of all, the roll unfolder is the guardian and inheritor. We know that "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" is a silk painting. When we learned about these craftsmanship, we suddenly discovered that there are so many craftsmen behind this painting. It is because of them that this painting has been passed down for thousands of years. With Ximeng's creation and their craftsmanship, they and Ximeng completed this painting together. Like Ximeng, they are nameless and have no names. What we express and praise in "Only This Green" is actually a group portrait.
Nandu Entertainment: There is no line in the dance drama, and the movie also continues this method. Why does this story not need lines? Are you worried that moviegoers won’t understand it?
Han Zhen: I used to put myself in someone else's shoes and worry about the audience, but to be honest, I didn't have this worry after reading it, because it didn't affect me at all to understand the whole story and feel the emotional impact of all the characters. . Movies should be diverse. Since dance drama is used as the ontology and fulcrum, when drama, dance, and the body can be used to express clearly, I think it already contains thousands of words. This is precisely the courage and strength of this movie. determination.
"In my heart, Zhang Han is Ximeng!"
Nandu Entertainment: On the set, do the two actors (Zhang Han, Meng Qingyang, Xie Suhao, etc.) have any special working habits of their own? What unforgettable or interesting things have happened?
Han Zhen: Sometimes when shooting in the middle of the night, people will be in a state of exhaustion and excitement. We will collectively do push-ups and sit-ups, and then you will see a row of people, the director and dancers are there." 1234,5678". (laughing)
Zhou Lia: When the filming of was in the later stages, what we told Zhang Han every day was to eat! His physical exertion was too great. His body fat was relatively low to begin with, so his entire face became sunken very quickly. Before filming the movie, he gained a little weight in order to appear more youthful. But in the middle period, you will find that he is losing weight rapidly. He consumes a lot every day, cannot sleep well, and cannot eat when he is tired. Therefore, what we are most concerned about every day is: "What did Zhang Han eat today?" Well? "
also had a scene where he was dancing solo in the water. He was filming in the water for a whole day, and he was a little hypothermic at the end of the filming. He was shaking with cold, but he still kept filming. His eyes were infected at the time and became red and swollen the next day, but he was still filming normally, so he had to take medicine and go to the hospital every day for fear of eye inflammation. We can't afford to miss a day. The shooting time is very tight. It takes 16 to 18 hours every day. There can be no mistakes at all. For actors, it is still an unprecedented and quite new challenge.
Nandu Entertainment: Has Zhang Han played the 18-year-old boy painter Ximeng in your 心?
Han Zhen: In my heart, he is Ximeng!
Zhou Lia: We once said to him: "Zhang Han, you did not choose the role of Ximeng, Ximeng chose you."
Zhou Lia: I think everything is just right.
Han Zhen: is right, everything is just right.
Nandu Entertainment: Putting "Only Green" on the big screen for a wider range of people is a "breaking circle" between two industries and two waves of audiences. How does view this integration and innovation?
Zhou Lia: At least for me now, there is no way to jump out of this process to summarize the final results very objectively. We have all been quite nervous recently, just like we were before the premiere of the stage version of "Only Green". All your experiences must ultimately present a result to meet all audiences. To the creator, this outcome is unknown. Including the painting "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" when Xi Meng created it, he had no way of knowing that this painting would be loved by so many people a thousand years later. The charm of creation lies here, like an adventure, you don’t know the final result. I'm looking forward to what kind of feedback there will be when it really hits the big screen and is really seen by more audiences outside the dance circle.
Writing: Nandu reporter Lin Jingwu Wang Qingchen
Pictures: provided by the respondent
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