On September 19th, the film "Only This Green," set to premiere during the National Day celebrations, held its global premiere event titled "'Only This Green Is Very Chinese': A Special Screening for a Thousand People" at the Qiu De Ba Sports Center of Peking University. Film director Zhou Liya, Han Zhen, leading actors Zhang Han, Meng Qingyang, Xie Suhao, and supporting cast members Liu Yang, Wang Jing, Dai Kewei, Wu Yuting, and Liu Peiran, along with numerous dancers and behind-the-scenes creators, made a collective appearance after the screening. The dancers expressed their heartfelt admiration to the audience with the film’s most representative dance movements and performed a curtain call for the theater.

Poster of "Only This Green"

“Unnamed and without a price, only this one scroll, green for a thousand years, vast mountains and rivers.” The film "Only This Green" is adapted from the dance poem drama of the same name, which features the "A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains." As a treasured piece housed in the Palace Museum, the famous Song Dynasty painting "A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains" has only been exhibited four times in a century. Since its debut at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing in 2021, the dance poem drama "Only This Green" has traveled over 70 cities and performed more than 550 shows in a span of over 1000 days, consistently selling out tickets. After the excerpts aired on the Spring Festival Gala, it reached over 8 billion viewers nationwide, igniting a "green wave."

Staying true to the original crew of the stage version, the film creates a visual feast. It revolves around a modern artifact researcher deeply studying the "A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains" just before its exhibition. The story transports viewers nearly a thousand years back, entering the heart of the Song Dynasty painter Xi Meng, witnessing his painstaking and selfless creation process and the collaboration with countless laborers to produce a timeless masterpiece. Using the primary color "green" as a visual clue, the film explores the making processes of materials and tools—seal cutting, silk, pigments, brushes, and ink—required for the artwork, deeply refining and showcasing various traditional Chinese intangible cultural heritage techniques. It vividly illustrates the lasting colors of "A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains," the creators' ingenuity, and the steadfast dedication of generations of cultural heritage protectors.

Xi Meng

Fu Ruoqing, the film's chief producer and executive producer, stated that "Only This Green" brings the grand landscape to life on the big screen with the charm of light and shadow. Building on a faithful rendition of the dance poem drama, advanced sound and light technology creates an immersive audiovisual experience. "We hope to spread the excellent traditional Chinese culture to the world through this cinematic adaptation." It is worth mentioning that the premiere was enhanced by the exclusive 4K 48 frames per second format from China Film CINITY, maximizing the restoration of the dancers' spirits and the beauty of green!

Directors Zhou Liya and Han Zhen could hardly contain their excitement at the premiere, stating, "This is a mutual journey of dancers and filmmakers. When we created the stage play 'Only This Green,' we expressed the hope that during times when 'A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains' could not be exhibited, we could allow more audiences to appreciate its beauty through the theater. However, while producing the film, we realized that due to the limitations of the theater, this beauty still could not reach a broader audience. But film has the ability to go to many places that theaters cannot reach, spanning the country and the world."

Green

At the event, many professors and scholars from Peking University attended the screening. Peng Feng, the dean of the School of Arts, stated during his speech, "The dance drama 'Only This Green' employs the rhythms and power of the body to fully express the essence of 'A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains.' Our predecessor, the aesthetician Zong Baihua, once said that the highest realm of Chinese art is 'dance,' which he regarded as the typical representation of 'the highest spiritual realm.' After watching the film tonight, I pondered whether the unspeakable 'words' from the dance drama could manifest in the film. Surprisingly, this 'wordless' film turned out to be extraordinarily good. If the characters spoke, it would have interfered with the very rhythm and essence of the dance."

Li Yang, the deputy dean of the School of Arts at Peking University, praised the film's presentation and promotion of excellent traditional Chinese culture using the three keywords: "graceful, exquisite, confident." "Grace does not equate to looseness; every performer’s movements in the film maintain an elegance that shows respect for that era and the story. From costumes and props to cinematography and sound effects, every aspect of the film's artistic design reflects the intricate nature of Chinese traditional culture. 'A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains' is a heavily colored landscape painting that showcases the aesthetic taste of Song Huizong, but the film narrates the arduous creative process of the artisans behind this painting, thereby translating the spirit of craftsmanship into contemporary terms, which is truly remarkable and reflects our cultural confidence."

“Especially in the finale, when all the characters appear in front of this painting, becoming the protagonists of the artwork, one cannot help but admire the creator's thoughtful intention behind this concept. Historically, there has indeed been a tradition in Chinese cinema of adapting operas and dance dramas into films, and 'Only This Green' undoubtedly marks a significant step forward. Furthermore, in the history of world cinema, creating a film in this manner is quite unique,” Li Yang remarked.

The film "Only This Green" explores the visual themes of "green" central to the painting, delving into the artistry of seal carving and the making of silk, pigments, brushes, and ink. It also invites several national intangible cultural heritage representatives as consultants to showcase these traditional skills in-depth. During the event, a short video paying tribute to these intangible heritage bearers and guardians of traditional crafts was presented. Mr. Zheng Xiaohua and Ms. Zheng Yifei, national-level representatives of the Dual Forest Silk and Silk Weaving Technique, also made an appearance at the premiere, earning applause from the audience.

Seal Carver

In Frame