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]

Top director Dai Sijie's Night Peacock, seen as the finale of his 'female trilogy', is set to be premiered on Friday. Here the director speaks of the messages he wants to convey by using a beautiful moth. Xu Fan reports.

Unlike most top directors who prefer to give interviews in rooms surrounded by guards, Dai Sijie insists on moving to a bar.

Before he starts chatting with China Daily about his upcoming film Night Peacock, the Golden Globe-nominated director downs a bottle of beer.

An expatriate, who has lived in France for around 30 years, Dai is pretty easy-going.

And it works.

Speaking of the inspiration for Night Peacock, he says: "When I was studying art history in Paris, I was fascinated by a painting by Vincent van Gogh in his early years.

"It shows a night peacock," says the 62-year-old, who won a scholarship to study in France in 1984.

In the movie, the night peacock is a beautiful moth, which eats only the tender leaves of the Chinese toon.

Despite the Dutch post-impressionist painter's work being somewhat ambiguous, the "breathtakingly beautiful" creature impressed Dai.

The painting stayed in his head for decades, until two or three years ago when a particular scene came to mind.