The forest is made of scissors, and it moves.

That’s the first thing you see in the Chinese dance-theater production “Under Siege.” Hundreds of shears hang ominously over the stage on poles that can descend and rise but also bend like bird wings and even seem to breathe. The sight — based on an installation by Beili Liu — sets up an expectation of a visually ravishing spectacle, maybe something along the lines of the film “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” which was designed by the same artist: Tim Yip.

What follows does not disappoint. But the less conspicuous achievement of “Under Siege,” which had its United States premiere at the David H. Koch Theater on Thursday as part of the Mostly Mozart Festival, is how its director and choreographer, Yang Liping, finds a balance between the traditional and the contemporary, turning an old and oft-told tale into theatrically vivid entertainment.

That tale is about the Chu-Han Contention, the series of battles around 200 B.C. that established the Han dynasty. It’s the story told in the classic Beijing opera “Farewell My Concubine” (and appears in the 1993 film with that title). We enter the action just before the final battle, and the narrator immediately announces the outcome.

This is not, in other words, a suspenseful, plot-driven production. Each character gets an introductory scene, and the rest is equally formal, at a philosophical remove, in the manner of Beijing Opera. The narrator (the amazing Tong Mingguang) is right out of Beijing Opera, his voice rocketing and swooping like an untied balloon.