BISSFF2025 | Correspondence 通信计划049：Only the Green Stayed 唯绿犹存

BISFF Correspondence 通信计划

This program involves conducting brief email interviews with the directors of the international films featured in the festival, in lieu of the traditional Q&A session that follows the screenings. Through this program, we hope to provide a platform for filmmakers to discuss their work and share their insights with our audience in China.

为了跨越种种障碍，开辟更多交流空间，我们设置了“BISFF Correspondence 通信计划”，对部分国际单元的参展作者进行系列访谈，这些访谈将在作品放映后发布在联展各个媒体平台。

Only the Green Stayed｜唯绿犹存

Adam Zheng Yuan 袁铮

2025｜0:20:09｜China｜Chinese Mandarin, Cantonese｜World Premiere

Director: Adam Zheng Yuan

Interviewer: Yang Zoudi

Translator: Adam Zheng Yuan、Yang Zoudi

Coordinator & Editor: Suliko

导演：袁铮

采访：邹迪阳

翻译：袁铮、邹迪阳

统筹、编辑：苏丽珂

Q1:Your film takes “green” as its central motif. Beyond evoking the southern landscape and climate, does green also symbolize “childhood” or a sense of carefree innocence for you? Does this tie back to your own upbringing?

A1:The film, Only the Green Stayed, was shot in my hometown, Zhongshan, Guangdong, specifically in the residential compound where I grew up. I lived there from age six to twelve, throughout my elementary school years. For me, this compound was a playground, almost synonymous with my entire childhood. The greenery in the compound is exceptionally well-maintained and beautifully designed; it feels like a new scene unfolds with every step. I have many childhood memories here, like getting into mischief with friends who were a year or two older, and swimming in the pool with my father.

Therefore, when I decided to make a film about childhood, the first thing I settled on wasn't a specific storyline, but the compound as the setting itself. The plot was then designed based on the characteristics of this space and the possibilities presented by the medium of film.The work uses green as its central theme because visually, the characters are constantly surrounded by it. Especially when the protagonists wear red, yellow, and blue clothes, we can feel the greenness of the environment even more intensely. It seems the characters come and go, but this space always remains, aging slowly and almost imperceptibly on its own. So, for me, perhaps this feeling of green is very much like childhood—it drifts farther away, sometimes turning into a vague impression, yet it always exists deep in my heart.

Q2: The shot featuring the man's showing up is presented upside down. What inspired that choice? The contrast between the man and the child — and his floral shirt — recalls Kikujiro. How did such films influence your approach to character portrayal and humor?

A2: The design of that shot was an extension of the structure of the location itself. The large rock where Nunchaku (the boy) lies not only has vertical depth but also offers a view of the distant swimming pool, like a naturally formed observation deck. We decided to film in this spot. As for why the shot is reversed, I found that when a person is parallel to the ground rather than perpendicular, there's no definite "right side up." This creates an interesting effect: when the audience watches the first half of the shot, where Nunchaku interacts with the other boy, they don't explicitly feel that the space has been reversed. It is only at the moment 'The Man' appears and the camera starts moving towards him that the audience realizes the frame is upside down. I feel this "topsy-turvy" sensation aligns with Nunchaku 's feeling when he sees the man: an unexpected person suddenly appears in his world, creating an instantaneous, overwhelming rush of emotion inside.

The man’s attire certainly evokes thoughts of Kikujiro. However, we didn't specifically reference Takeshi Kitano's film when working on this project. Rather, aesthetically, we had to consider how the characters' clothing coordinated with the environment and how to make all three characters stand out from the surroundings. This led us to the idea of "The Man" wearing a red floral shirt.

In shaping the image of "The Man," I wanted him to look less mature and a bit unreliable, as my impression of my father sometimes was. Although he is usually quite mature and serious, when he played with me, he was more like a child. I find this kind of contrast very interesting. It seems many Asian films portray fathers as stern and taciturn figures, so I wanted to do the opposite and create a father figure who is a bit talkative, even childish, and doesn't immediately look like a father. In fact, viewers in the first half of the film won't immediately realize that "The Man" is the little boy's father. It is only in the latter half, as the adult perspective slowly emerges, that we become clear about their relationship and gain insight into the hidden thoughts and worries that both the man and Nunchaku carry during this shared moment in the compound.

Q3: The film features nostalgic emblems of 1990s childhood — green-tongue popsicles, smoke bombs, firecrackers, collecting stones — things now rare in big cities. Do these details express your longing for lost innocence, or a particular time in your life?

A3: Because this film is related to my childhood experiences in this compound, many of the props and games featured are things I used to play with when I was little. For me, this film is somewhat a look back at the past, so I wanted to use props with personal significance to maintain a sense of intimacy.

At the same time, I feel these props provide greater scope and possibility for the actors' performances and staging. Through play, the characters can freely move through different corners of the compound, leading the audience to feel the changes in space and emotion.

Only the Green Stayed, Adam Zheng Yuan, 2025

Q4: Many viewers may wonder why Xiong Da (the junior) suddenly disappears after the hide-and-seek scene, and about the sequence where the man and child play father and son. What was your intention behind that narrative turn? And what’s the meaning of the classic question — “If you could only choose one, me or your mom, who would you pick?” — in this context?

A4: When I was writing the script, I planned for the film to have two distinct parts with different focuses. The first half is more about playtime in the compound, and the latter half focuses more on "The Mysterious Man" and Nunchaku (the child). However, indeed, the disappearance of Xiongda (the boy) might momentarily confuse the audience. When we were filming, I felt it wasn't a big issue, as people constantly come and go in a residential compound; friends who play together in the morning might leave in the afternoon, which is very common. But looking back at this design a year later, I feel there might be a better way to make Xiongda's exit more natural.

"The Man" and Nunchaku are actually father and son; we just don't reveal their relationship in the first half of the film. The inspiration for this scene also comes from my childhood memories. I remember sometimes my father would be playing with me and then suddenly pretend to be dead. When I was worried, he would suddenly wake up and jokingly ask, "If you could only choose one of us, me or your mother, who would you choose?"

Although they didn't divorce, and their life is very harmonious and happy now, I think that perhaps the younger versions of them had an unpleasant experience. And I, as a young child, felt the potential rift between them, but strangely it was conveyed through my father's "game" and "role-playing." At the time, this caused a bit of shock to my young mind.

So, reflecting on it now, I find this scene quite interesting: an adult using a childish method, attempting to lightly convey a heavy message through play. I decided to incorporate this real-life moment into my script in a fictionalized way.

Q5: At the end, when the man is ready to walk away, the image turns blurry — almost like an impressionist filter — it feels as though the entire film might be a distant memory or a dream. Was that your intention? And why did you choose a hidden garden inside a residential compound as the story’s setting?

A5: The blurriness when "The Man" leaves was something we experimented with during post-production editing. We used a dissolve, layering the footage of the man with a clean shot of the environment. Because the two shots had extremely subtle differences in composition, it created a fuzzy texture when we dissolved them together. We felt this texture indeed resembled the feeling of memory, as if the man's appearance and departure were like a dream, with only the infinite greenery of the compound stayed.

As mentioned earlier, the residential compound was settled upon at the very beginning of the shoot, serving as both my inspiration and my starting point. For me personally, time and space are always very important presences in cinema. How the camera interacts with time, space, and the characters within them, to some extent, determines the film's atmosphere and the audience’s experience.

This film was the first time I developed a project with “space” as the core focus, and it was a very interesting experiment for me. I hope to have the opportunity to bring more new works to the audience of the Beijing International Short Film Festival in the future！

Only the Green Stayed, Adam Zheng Yuan, 2025

Q1: 你的作品以“绿色”为题眼，除了指代南方特有的地域、物候环境，是否在你看来，绿色本身也是“童年”或者说“无忧”的一种象征？这和你儿时的成长经历关系大吗？

A1:《唯绿犹存》这部影片拍摄于我的家乡广东中山，在我长大的小区里。从六岁到十二岁，整个小学期间，我都居住在这里。对我而言，这个小区是一个乐园，几乎就等同于我的童年一般。这个小区的绿化做得非常好，也很有设计感，有种一步一景的感觉。我在这里有许多童年的回忆，比如和比我稍微年长一两岁的小伙伴们干坏事，和我爸爸在泳池游泳……

因此当我决定拍摄一部和童年有关的影片时，其实首先确定下来的不是具体的故事情节，而是小区这个场域本身。故事情节也是依据这个空间的特点，结合影像的可能性去做具体的设计。作品之所以用绿色为题眼，也是考虑到视觉上人物总是被绿色所围绕着，尤其当主角们穿着红黄蓝的衣服时，我们其实更能感受到环境中的绿意。似乎角色们来来去去，只有这个空间一直存在，并独自地以一种难以察觉的方式慢慢地老去。所以对我而言，也许这种绿色的感觉就和童年很像，它离我越来越遥远，有时变成了一种模糊的印象，却又一直在心底存在着。

Q2: 影片中“男人”出场的那个镜头，是倒转过来的，为何会有这样的构思？关于“男人”和小朋友间呆萌的反差，还有“男人”身上的花衬衫，让人想到《菊次郎的夏天》，能谈谈这些作品在人物塑造、幽默感的处理上带给你的感受吗？

A2: 那个镜头的设计，也是依据这个场所本身的结构延伸出来的。两截棍（小朋友）躺着的那块大石头，不仅有上下方向的纵深，而且能看到远处的游泳池，就像一座天然形成的瞭望台。因此我们决定在这个地方进行拍摄。至于为什么会将镜头倒转过来，是因为我发现当人物和地面平行而非垂直时，其实并不存在所谓的正反之分。这就能创造一种有意思的效果：在镜头的前半部分两截棍和男孩互动时，观众其实并不会明确觉得这个空间被倒转过来了，直到男人出现的瞬间，镜头开始朝男人移动，观众才会意识到原来画面是倒转的。我觉得这种天旋地转的感觉，和两截棍看到男人的感受是一致的：一个没有想到会出现的人，突然出现在自己的世界里，内心一瞬间有一种天翻地覆的涌动。

男人的衣着，确实会让人联想到《菊次郎的夏天》。但其实我们在做这个项目时，并没有特意去参考北野武的这部影片，而是因为在美学上要考虑到人物的穿着和环境的协调，怎么让三个角色都从环境中彰显出来，因此想到了让男人穿上红色的花衬衫。

男人的形象塑造上，我会希望他看着不这么成熟，不着调，因为有时我对我父亲的印象便是如此。虽然他在一般情况下比较成熟庄重，但和我玩的时候又比较像个小孩。我觉得这种反差会挺有意思。因为好像亚洲很多片子对父亲的刻画都是严厉而沉默寡言的形象，所以我想反其道而行之，塑造一个有点话痨甚至幼稚的，看着不像父亲的父亲形象。甚至观众在看镜头的前半部分时，不会立刻察觉到男人是小男孩的父亲。直到后半部分，当成人的视角慢慢浮现时，我们方才清楚两人的关系，以及洞察到在共享小区空间的这一刻，男人和小孩各自藏着的心事和烦恼。

Q3: 影片中出现了一些特定的、怀旧的童年符号，比如绿舌头冰棍、烟雾弹、摔炮、捡石头等等，这是否跟影片设置的年代背景有关？为什么会选择这些道具呢？

A3: 因为这部影片与我童年在这个小区里的经历有关，所以片中出现的很多道具都是我小时候会玩的一些物件和游戏。对我而言，这部影片有点像是我对过去时光的一种回望，因此会想到使用一些对我有私人意义的道具来让影片保留一种私人的氛围。

同时，我觉得有这些道具，会给演员的表演和调度提供更大的空间和可能性。游玩之间，人物可以自由地穿行在小区的不同角落，带领观众感受空间和情绪的变化。

Only the Green Stayed, Adam Zheng Yuan, 2025

Q4: 我想很多观众都会好奇，为什么熊大（少年）从捉迷藏开始，就突然“消失”了，还有“男人”和小朋友扮演父子的段落，背后的出发点是什么？那句经典的发问（“假如我和你妈只能选一个，你会选谁啊？”），在此出现有怎样的用意？

A4: 我在写剧本时，就想着影片分为前后两部分，分别有不同的侧重点。前半部分更多是小区里的玩乐时间，而后半部分更聚焦在神秘男人和两截棍之间。但确实，也许熊大的消失会让观众感到一瞬间迷惑。拍摄时我觉得好像也问题不大，因为小区里本来就人来人往，上午一起玩的朋友也许下午有事就离开了，这都很常见。但一年后现在再看这个设计，我会觉得也许有更好的方式，让熊大的离场更加自然。

男人和两截棍其实设定上就是父子，只是影片的前半部分我们没有揭示他们的关系。这场戏的灵感也是来我的童年回忆——我记得有时候我爸爸会和我玩着玩着，然后突然装死，在我担心的时候，却忽然醒过来，开玩笑地问我：“假如我和你妈只能选一个，你会选谁啊？”

尽管他们没有离婚，现在的生活也十分和谐美满，但我想当年年轻的他们，可能有过一段不愉快的经历。而年少的我感受到两人之间可能存在的裂痕，却又是通过父亲的“游戏”和“扮演”而来的。在当时，这给当年我年幼的心灵造成一点震撼。

所以现在想起来，我觉得这个场景还挺有意思的：大人用小孩方式，企图在玩乐之间轻松地去传递一个沉重的信息。我就决定把这个现实经历中的桥段以某种虚构的方式加入到我的剧本里。

Q5: 最后“男人”离场时，画面突然变得模糊，像是加了层印象派的滤镜，是否在暗示整个短片，其实是一场遥远的回忆/梦境？在拍摄的选择上，为什么会想到用藏在小区里的公园，作为故事展开的场所？

A5: 男人离场时的模糊，其实是后期剪辑的时候尝试出来的。我们是使用了一段叠化，把男人的素材和一段空镜叠化在了一起。因为两个镜头有极其细微的构图区别，所以会有一种模糊的质感。我们觉得这种质感确实和记忆的感觉有相似之处，就像男人的出现和离开都如同一场梦，只有小区里那无尽的绿意留存下来。

拍摄地的选择上，也像前面所述，这座小区是在拍摄的最开始就定下来的，也是我的灵感来源和起点。对我个人而言，时空在电影中总是非常重要的存在，摄影机如何与时空以及时空中的人物进行互动，某种意义上也决定了影片的气质和观众观影的体验。

这部影片是我第一次以空间为重心去开发的一个项目，对我来说是一次非常有意思的实验。也希望以后能有机会把更多新的作品，带给北京国际短片联展的观众！

▌more information: https://www.bisff.co/selection/only-the-green-stayed