Director Tommy Ng Kai-chung hopes his latest fantasy epic, Another World, will help the world to recognise Hong Kong animations.
Over the summer, the film premiered at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. This is one of the world’s most famous events for animated movies.
Another World has also been nominated for three Golden Horse Awards.
“Being nominated for the Golden Horse Awards is something many animators dream of,” Ng said. “It feels like a dream come true, like stepping into a true hall of honour.”
Another World is both dark and emotional. Its main character is Gudo (voiced by Chung Suet-ying), a spirit guiding souls through reincarnation. Gudo’s world changes when he meets Yuri (Christy Choi Hiu-tung), a girl searching for her brother.
The story is based on Japanese author Naka Saijo’s book Sennenki: Thousand-Year Journey of an Oni. It is about the pain of unresolved feelings and how it twists human souls into angry monsters.
Ng found this story interesting because of Gudo’s thousand-year vow to protect Yuri.
“It literally gave me chills,” the director said.
It has been more than two decades since Hong Kong made a globally recognised animated movie. The last one was My Life as McDull (2001), which won many international awards. Ng said the emotions in this film continued to inspire him.
“There were many scenes in McDull that made me cry,” he said.
“I absorbed a lot from it ... while creating our own story.”
Ng hopes that Another World’s viewers will remember to be kind even in tough times.
He highlighted a line from the film: “You are a kind person. You just forgot.”
The director added, “The person you are today might be the result of a thousand years of effort from your past selves. You never know how much good you’ve already done.”
What it takes to make an animation
Up to 20 people worked on each second of Another World. Ng explained that for every second of the film, the team had to design 12 frames.
The director first sketched the storyboard before layout artists created the scenes. Other teams designed the characters and sets. Artists in the Philippines did the colouring and processing. Then, another team would add sound effects, and the voice actors would record the parts for their characters.
“For more complex scenes ... multiple animators often collaborate on the same shot. So yes, it’s really hard work,” Ng said.
The director said he liked how Gudo’s nature was shown in his character’s design.
“He looks spooky in oversized clothes, like a skeleton, but he’s just too adorable to fear. That contrast really moved me,” Ng said.
The most time-consuming characters to design were the “wraths”. In the film, these are the monsters created by people’s unresolved emotions. Each wrath’s design is based on details from their life.
Ng pointed to one wrath that symbolised hunger with his ribs sticking out. The director said they had to redo this character’s design “countless” times.
More support for Hong Kong animators
Ng believes more funding and collaboration can help Hong Kong’s animators thrive. He said more businesses should hire animators for TV shows, short films or commercials.
“Animation offers another powerful medium for storytelling, so why not use it?” he said.
For his fellow Hong Kong animators, Ng said that this path could feel “lonely”.
“You can’t expect comfort while creating something truly your own,” he said. “If you’re struggling, it probably means you’re halfway there already. Keep going.”
