Hong Kong animation may be on the verge of a renaissance, and director Tommy Ng Kai-chung hopes his fantasy epic, Another World, will be part of that long-awaited breakthrough.
Seven years in the making, this ambitious home-grown production – which opened in cinemas last week – is already drawing global attention.
After premiering over the summer at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, one of the world’s most prestigious showcases for animation, Ng’s film has earned three nominations at this year’s 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.”
Both haunting and heartfelt, Another World follows Gudo (voiced by Chung Suet-ying), a stoic spirit guiding souls through reincarnation, as his world changes after meeting Yuri (Christy Choi Hiu-tung), a girl searching desperately for her brother.
Adapted from Japanese author Naka Saijo’s novel Sennenki: Thousand-Year Journey of an Oni, this 111-minute animation delves into the pain of unresolved resentment: how it can twist human souls into vengeful monsters and how compassion can endure lifetimes.
What drew Ng most to the story of Sennenki was Gudo’s thousand-year vow to protect Yuri.
“It literally gave me chills,” he said.
For Ng, Another World also marks a turning point for Hong Kong’s struggling animation scene.
Once home to major companies – such as Imagi Animation Studios, which was behind 2007’s hit Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film – Hong Kong has since seen the industry scale back. Yet, Ng remains hopeful.
“There are still so many talented small studios here,” he said. “I feel like we’re all waiting for a breakout moment – everyone’s preparing and building up. Once the soil and nutrients are ready, it’ll bloom naturally. So I’m optimistic.”
It has been more than two decades since Hong Kong produced a globally recognised animated film. The last was My Life as McDull (2001), which won awards at both Annecy and the Golden Horse Awards. Ng said McDull’s emotional depth continued to inspire him.
“There were many scenes in McDull that made me cry,” he said. “I absorbed a lot from it subconsciously while creating our own story.”
The scene where Mrs Mak and McDull have a picnic in front of a grave still resonates with him.
“In our film, Gudo was inspired by a Buddhist guardian deity called Sitolinju, a pair of dancing skeletons in a graveyard. Maybe it’s a coincidence, but that same bittersweet feeling still lives in me,” Ng noted.
But the director’s greatest inspiration is Makoto Shinkai, whose 2007 film, 5 Centimetres per Second, compelled Ng to pursue a career in animation.
“How can a story be so touching? ... All the characters are metaphors,” Ng said. “Animation is such a magical vessel. That’s why I wanted to be part of it.”
A labour of love
Every second of Another World represents the work of up to 20 people. Ng first sketched the storyboard before layout artists composed the shots. Separate teams designed the sets and characters. Once the animations were complete, a team in the Philippines did the colouring and processing. It then moved to other teams for sound design and voice acting.
“For more complex scenes ... multiple animators often collaborate on the same shot. So yes, it’s really hard work,” Ng said, noting that each second of the film required the team to design 12 frames.
The director especially appreciates how Gudo’s endearing and pure nature is emphasised by his character 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.
Designing the “wraths” – the film’s human-monster hybrids born of unresolved emotion – was the most time-consuming part of the character designs.
Each wrath embodies traits and flaws tied to their life.
“Brother Duan’s wrath symbolises hunger. He’s emaciated with ribs protruding. We redesigned the fangs countless times,” Ng said, adding that they planned to put out a book with wrath designs that were not in the film.
As the script was finalised, the team debated if it should be shorter or longer and compromised on 111 minutes.
“Film is an art of time. You need to let the story breathe long enough for audiences to truly feel it. The 111-minute version strikes the best balance,” Ng said.
For Polly Yeung Po-man, the film’s writer and producer, there was one scene she refused to remove in every revision. It is featured on the film’s poster: Yuri steps onto an icy lake, watching her memories slowly dissolve.
“Memory is such a heavy burden, and watching Yuri’s memories fade brings a kind of relief – a joy we rarely get in real life. I cry every time I see it,” Yeung said.
She was the first on the team to fall in love with Saijo’s novel. Initially, she considered making a live-action film but eventually decided that animation could better capture the story’s ethereal tone and approached Ng to direct it.
If there is one message that Ng hopes audiences take away, it is to choose kindness even in tough times. The director pointed to a line in the film: “You are a kind person. You just forgot.”
Ng 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.”
Looking ahead, Ng said his next project might also be related to reincarnation.
“Right now, Polly and I are drawn to stories about human accidents or unexpected encounters, things that explore the unpredictability of life,” Ng said. “I still want to reinterpret reincarnation, maybe even in a sci-fi direction.”
The future of the city’s animators
Ng believes more funding and collaboration are key to helping Hong Kong’s animation industry thrive.
He called for private businesses to collaborate more with animators through television series, independent shorts or animated commercials.
“Animation offers another powerful medium for storytelling, so why not use it?” he said.
For fellow Hong Kong animators toiling away, Ng acknowledged that this path could be “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. Even if no one’s watching, at least you’re living the life of a creator doing what you love, and that alone is something to be proud of.”
