You are viewing the classic Japanese horror film, The Ring, when the long-haired Sadako climbs out of the screen and onto your lap – you can feel her damp body next to yours. While you are watching The Saw, suddenly you feel the sharp edge of a hacksaw on your own legs. You are enjoying Avatar when Neytin’s pigtails flick across your head.

This is the goal of 4-D, the next step from the now ubiquitous 3-D films. For this you need a lot more than a pair of spectacles – this experience requires a specially equipped theater like the one you can now find a newly opened 4-D animation experience center, located on 1718 Wenshui Road, Baoshan district, and has been initiated by the Animation & Comic Zone Shanghai, along with the Shanghai FiveM Animation Studio and the Shanghai Paradise Digital Technology Company Ltd.

The screening experience at the center at present is a film called Cretaceous Park where for 20 minutes, viewers find themselves among dinosaurs and creatures from that period, not only seeing them in 3-D but feeling their footsteps as they approach, and the lightning, wind and rain that the animals are enduring.

"The 4-D experience is based on 3-D, but we add extra experiences in this special theater,” Zhou Yong, CEO of the Animation & Comic Zone, said. “I believe that Shanghai has a large potential for 4-D movies because of the large entertainment market here.”

Zhou told the Global Times that his animation group has been working with the local 4-D technology companies to explore the potential in Shanghai, and they are planning to make two or three 4-D animated movies this year.

"Nowadays, because of the wide use of special effects in movies, audiences are no longer satisfied with 2-D, or even 3-D vision. They want more realism and interactive experiences,” said Zhou.

Last year the obvious example was at the Shanghai Expo. There were 4-D movies in the Oil Pavilion, and there was a 720-degree ball-shaped screen in the Taiwan Pavilion and an IMAX 3-D large screen in the Saudi Arabia Pavilion. 

The 4-D movie experience was first seen in Shanghai in 2005 when the Shanghai Science & Technology Museum opened a small theater and imported the first 4-D movie but it did not prove very popular. There were two other 4-D cinemas in the city, but one closed and the other seldom screens 4-D events these days – the cost of renting these movies is very high and there are few titles available.

Both Zhou and Ju Haisheng, the deputy manager of the Shanghai Paradise Digital Technology Company, are aware that creating a self-sufficient 4-D movie industry in Shanghai is a long-term project. Currently most of the 4-D movies available in Shanghai are tourist experiences with limited appeal.

Ju Haisheng told the Global Times his company could provide the equipment for a professional 4-D movie theater because it worked with the SimEx-Iwerks Entertainment, one of the world’s leading digital companies which specializes in 4-D movies.

"However, a major problem is the lack of original 4-D movies, especially in China, and the lack of talent in 4-D technology and artistic creativity,” Ju said.

He sees the future of 4-D films as very promising and talks about the potential of adapting major action films into the format.

Luo Jinfeng, CEO of the Shanghai FiveM Animation Studio, said his company was preparing three 4-D films. Two are animated films set in the Mesozoic and other periods, and the third film will feature pandas in an animated feature.

Luo said that there was, as in other aspects of the Chinese cinema industry, a gap between the technological achievements possible and the creativity needed to use the technology in original ways.