Impression Dahongpao, the fifth of director Zhang Yimou's open-air Impression shows, premiered in Wuyi Mountains, Fujian province, on March 29.

While the audience waited with bated breath for Zhang's new live show to unfold, the press, including reporters from Taiwan - which Zhang has hinted may be the location of an Impression show in future - gathered to ask about the backstage stories.

The buzz was that Wang Chaoge and Fan Yue, the other two members of the so-called "golden-triangle directing team", sent Zhang a video of the show so he could do some homework before answering questions about the show's inspiration, presentation and techniques.

Zhang was seeing the show for the first time that night. Despite carrying his name, he has had little to do with the show, apart from visiting the site when the local government of Wuyi Mountains commissioned his team last year and, maybe, a couple of discussions with Wang and Fan about the approach the show should take.

Zhang admitted as much before the premiere: "We (three had an understanding) from the first Impression show that we (would) discuss the key ideas and difficult technical problems together, but they would work on the sites and allow me to be away to direct my movies."

The breakthrough innovation of Impression Dahongpao is that the 2,000-seat auditorium can revolve. In 70 minutes, the auditorium makes four rounds, letting the audience get a 360-degree view of the 16 different scenes on stage.

"The mountains, rivers, trees, everything in the natural environment is what inspires us to do such live shows. From the Lijiang River and Yulong Snow Mountain, to the West Lake and Hainan's seashore, whenever we settle on a site, we hope to make full use of its scenic landscape. But every time we have to decide on one fixed stage," Wang says.

But this was not an easy decision to make after the team visited the Wuyi Mountains, Dawang peak, Jiuqu brook and some ancient buildings. All of them made equally good settings.

"In theater, we can have a revolving stage, but here, we cannot move the mountains and rivers. In Impression Lijiang, we let the performers dance around the auditorium to make audience members turn around sometimes to see what was going on.

"This time, we decided to move the audience," Wang adds.

Another highlight of Impression Dahongpao is its open-air cinema feel, created through the use of 15 screens scattered along a 2-km forest, beside a river running in front of the stage.

"We live in a time of visual art. Avatar has shown how magical visual techniques can be. Wang and Fan follow the trend and cleverly blend the movies into the live show. They make use of the foggy forest night and hi-tech to create a dreamy fairy tale," Zhang says.

Every Impression show celebrates the local culture. Impression Dahongpao is named after a treasured tea that has been grown for centuries on the Wuyi Mountains, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

"For the Chinese, tea is not simply a drink, but a lifestyle. In Wuyi, this is especially evident in people's attitude toward life. They are not rich but are happy and really enjoy their simple lives. They entertain friends and visitors with tea. They have their discussions over the tea table," says Fan Yue who is responsible for the setting and technical details.

Watching the show, you will be amazed not only by the natural scenes highlighted by the LED lights, but also by the passion of the performers. More than 85 percent of the 270 performers are local villagers. They have neither silver tongues, not do they speak standard Putonghua; some even look very new to the stage but they more than make up for all this with their natural acting abilities. Since it is their lives that are being portrayed, they are excited to share them with the audience.

Although the Impression shows have aroused much controversy, with doubts being raised over whether scenic tourist destinations need such live shows, and critics claiming destruction of the natural environment and some even slamming Zhang's aesthetic conception, the three directors have made it clear they will not stop.

Wang's ambition is to promote Chinese culture through the Impression label. "We now have invitations from the United States, Canada and South Korea, which means one day Impression shows will become a world-renowned culture and entertainment label, like Disney or Cirque du Soleil," she says.

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