Inspired by Van Gogh

A scene from the upcoming movie Night Peacock feature Chinese mainland actress Liu Yifei and Hong Kong singer-actor Leon Lai. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Describing the scene, he says: "A beautiful woman lies face down on a bed. A man tattoos a night peacock on her back. Meanwhile, the woman is describing a failed romance."

This scene is later developed into the script for Night Peacock, which took Dai two years to write.

He revised it more than 10 times.

Set in Chengdu and Paris, the 84-minute film is about a Chinese French flutist's feelings for three men－a silk expert, the former's son, and a tattooist (also the expert's brother).

The young woman travels to Chengdu as a foreign student to be a visiting musician for a local symphony orchestra.

Her somewhat May-December romance with the expert affects his son mentally, who himself has feelings for his father's lover.

Fleeing from this mess, the woman finds a new life after meeting the tattooist in Paris.

The female role is played by Liu Yifei, while the male characters are played by Hong Kong singer-actor Leon Lai and mainland actors Yu Shaoqun and Liu Ye.

The Sino-French production, also Dai's first feature to be released for general viewing in the Chinese mainland in career spanning 30 years, will be premiered on Friday.

For the art-house filmmaker, love is not the only theme in the movie.

Another parallel theme, which centers on the night peacock, explores the meaning of life and death.