THE LEFT BEHIND

假期留校的两名少年在暴力中被迫沉默，而一场因理发而起的亲密接触，悄然撕裂了他们之间隐秘而克制的情感。

Two boys who stay behind at school during the holidays are forced into silence by violence. Amid this oppressive quiet, a moment of intimacy sparked by a simple haircut quietly tears open the hidden and restrained emotions between them.

导演：门天阔
类型：剧情短片
时长：13分钟
完成时间：2024年
对白语言：汉语普通话
地区：中国 美国
制片公司：Obluda Films

Director: Tiankuo Men
Genre: Narrative Short Film
Length: 13 min
Year: 2024
Dialogue: Mandarin Chinese
Region: China, US
Production Company: Obluda Films

门天阔，青年导演，现就读于美国哥伦比亚大学影视制作MFA，主修导演与编剧，本科毕业于中央戏剧学院戏剧文学系。他的创作多聚焦于青少年群体与边缘身份，善于以冷峻写实的影像语言揭示压抑环境下的情感裂隙。作为编剧兼制片人的短片《常州北》曾入围多项华语青年影展；担任联合编剧的作品《远方延误》则入围釜山国际电影节亚洲短片竞赛单元。

Tiankuo Men is a filmmaker currently pursuing an MFA in Film at Columbia University, specializing in directing and screenwriting. He received his BA in Dramatic Literature from the Central Academy of Drama in Beijing. His work often centers on youth and marginalized identities, employing a stark realist style to reveal emotional fractures within oppressive environments. As writer and producer, his short film The Gone Buddha was selected by several emerging Chinese film festivals. As co-writer, his work Delay was nominated in the Asian Short Film Competition at the Busan International Film Festival.

我始终对“孤独”这个主题深有共鸣。高中时期，我经常独自在假期留校，空旷的校园、无人问津的走廊，以及被时间拉长的沉默，让我逐渐理解了什么是只能在体内消化的情绪。那是一种无法说出口的压抑，一种“所有话都咽下去”的青春状态。

这部短片源于那段记忆，也试图延伸它。我将故事置于一个封闭、巨大、被迅速清空的校园中——它是制度的隐喻，也是情感的囚笼。两个被家庭与体制同时忽略的少年在其中游荡、靠近，却也因为亲密关系的不可言说而遭遇暴力的撕裂。

我试图用一个具体的动作——理发——去承载这份不能说出的情感。在那场静默的剪发中，小宇得以短暂地触碰那个无法拥有的人。这不是表白，也不是告别，而是一场被现实挤压出的、微小到几乎无法察觉的亲密行为。我相信真正的情感往往不是通过语言表达的，而是在动作中、在迟疑中、在靠近又不能更近的时刻中被传递。我想拍一部关于“爱而不得”的片子，也想拍出一种被系统性孤立的青春状态。而我选择通过空间与身体的方式来表达它：空旷的教学楼，漫长的走廊，反复响起的铃声，以及少年在理发时低下的头，都是我试图留给观众的情绪痕迹——这不是关于答案，而是关于一个少年的瞬间体温——以及他必须独自承受的空白。

Loneliness is a theme to which I’ve always felt a deep resonance. During high school, I frequently found myself stranded on campus over the holidays. The empty school grounds, the ignored corridors, the silence elongated by time—gradually, I came to understand what it meant to have feelings that could only be digested internally. It was an inexpressible weight, a youthful condition of “swallowing every word.”

This short film is born from that memory and attempts to expand upon it. I place the story within a closed, expansive, and hastily vacated campus—a metaphor for the institution and a prison of emotion. Two boys, neglected by both family and system, drift through this space. They draw close, only to be violently torn apart by the taboo surrounding their intimacy.

I aimed to channel these unutterable emotions through one concrete gesture—the act of cutting hair. In that quiet haircut, Xiaoyu briefly touches the person he can never have. It is not a confession, nor is it a goodbye; rather, it is a tiny, barely detectable intimacy, forced into existence by reality’s constraints. I believe genuine emotion is often not expressed in words, but in actions, in hesitations, in the tension of being near yet unable to grow closer. I set out to create a film about frustrated love, and about a youth defined by systemic isolation. I chose to articulate this through space and physicality: the deserted school building, the endless hallway, the persistently ringing bell, the boy’s lowered head during the haircut—these are the emotional imprints I strive to leave. This is not a search for answers, but an imprint of a boy’s transient body warmth in a single moment—and the emptiness he must endure, alone.