The producers and distributors of Hong Kong animated feature Another World – directed by Tommy Ng and produced by Polly Yeung – discussed how the groundbreaking project came together and is breaking into international markets during Filmart, as part of the market’s focus on animation.
Seven years in the making, the 2D hand-drawn animated film premiered at Annecy International Animation Film Festival last year; won Best Animated Feature at Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards, and has been playing a string of other festivals, including Sitges, Pingyao and Zurich. Distributed locally by Edko Films, it was the highest-grossing local film in Hong Kong last year and the highest-grossing Hong Kong animated film of all time.
Gkids has acquired North American rights to the Cantonese-language film and is understood to be lining up a June theatrical release, while Goodfellas came on board for international sales after seeing the strong audience reaction to the film in Annecy. It has already sold to multiple territories, including the UK, where it was released by Central City Media, with several more in negotiation.
Adapted from a Japanese novel, the unusual story revolves around a spirit responsible for guiding transient souls to their next reincarnation, who embarks on a perilous mission with a young girl to prevent her being overwhelmed by her anger and transforming into a monster. Yeung co-wrote the script with Ng and produced through their Hong Kong-based Point Five Creations, with Chan Gin Kai of Singapore-based Silver Media Group, also on board as a producer.
Yeung explained that she was trying to write a script about “letting go of anger” when she came across Naka Saijo’s novel, Sennenki: Thousand-Year Journey Of An Oni, and decided to adapt it as an animated feature. “Animation audiences are more open to different genres and structures of storytelling,” said Yeung.
“With live-action films, audiences tend to focus more on the genre, and tend to put you in a box, but with animation you can really break the boundaries of genre and storytelling.”
She then approached Ng, who had already made several award-winning animated shorts, along with the opening and closing sequences of cult Hong Kong horror movie Zombiology: Enjoy Yourself Tonight, and they started to develop the project together. Realizing it would be difficult to raise finance for a Hong Kong animated feature, the duo started by making a 14-minute short film, funded by Hong Kong’s Creative and Cultural Industries Development Agency (CCIDA), to pitch financiers for a full-length feature.
“But during the process, we realized we needed much more than a short film – we needed a completed script and lots of concept art to make the financiers really understand what we were trying to achieve in a long feature,” said Yeung. “And so it took us seven years to finish the whole thing.”
In addition to Hong Kong government support, which initially came through an Animation Support Program under CCIDA’s CreateSmart Initiative, the financing puzzle involved investors in Hong Kong, China, Singapore and Japan, as well as the Animekey streaming platform in Saudi Arabia. Some funding came from the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) through its ICOF program and CCIDA stepped in with a second tranche of funding through its Film Development Fund (FDF).
The project was also a multi-territory collaboration on the creative front with animators in Hong Kong, France and Philippines, as well as artists working on the background scenes in Japan. “We were working 24/7 because so many time zones were involved,” said Yeung. The distinctive characters, including the spirit guide Gudu and young girl Yuri, were designed by Ng.
The Annecy invitation came one year after the project took part in the festival as a work-in-progress, which Yeung tipped as a useful strategy to get your project on the radar of major festivals. It was during an Annecy screening of the completed film that it came to the attention of Goodfellas’ Acquisitions and Head of Co-production, Eva Dottelonde.
“The film wasn’t really on our radar but we were walking past a theatre in Annecy and saw audiences coming out of a screening. They were obviously very emotional and having a strong reaction to the film. We immediately contacted Polly and asked for a screener,” said Dottelonde.
“As a sales agent, we look for films that create conversations, that are really different and stay in people’s minds over time – and we saw all of those things in this film. We knew it would be challenging, because of the topic, because it’s animation and there’s a few violent scenes that could affect the age rating, but we were excited to work on the film and help launch a new voice.”
Dottelonde said another issue was the fact that animated films from Asia are always compared to Japanese anime, which buyers and audiences are more familiar with, but that at the same time, anime has broken down barriers and there’s now growing acceptance of animation from other Asian countries.
“It’s a trend that’s starting, especially among Gen Z, because they’re more open to animation in general as well as different cultures and styles of story-telling. It’s still difficult for a film that is not Japanese to have worldwide success, but we can see from Another World that something is changing.”
Sophie Wong, managing director of UK distributor Central City Media, said she first became interested in the film due to the involvement of GKids and Annecy – then watched it on a screener and was also impressed by how different it was: “I didn’t watch the short purposely, because I wanted an element of surprise, and the first thing that struck me is that I could really visualize it as a theatrical release. It’s visually stunning, the characters are amazing, and the storytelling, although very complex, is also very heartwarming and meaningful.”
CCIDA Commissioner Drew Lai explained that it’s rare for Hong Kong projects to receive funding from both the Create Smart initiative and FDF, but she expects to see it happen more frequently as projects diversify their source materials and production methods through new technology. The government agency also supported the film by taking the team to markets and festivals to look for collaborators. Now the project is completed, CCIDA is also working with Point Five Creations, which owns the character IP rights, on a range of products including toys and clothing.
Lai said CCIDA is also hoping this could be the start of an animation renaissance in Hong Kong, which is known for the McDull franchise (Another World was the first Hong Kong animated feature to be selected for Annecy since My Life As McDull in 2003) and occasional films like Yon Fan’s No. 7 Cherry Lane, but does not have a big animation industry.
“Hong Kong can be an expensive place, so it could be quite costly to have a big studio here, but with the assistance of AI and other new technologies, we can expect that the size requirements of animation production would gradually get smaller,” said Lai. “Also it’s more common now for teams to work virtually across many different locations.”
Yeung also said she sees potential for Hong Kong animation, especially as there are so many talented creators coming through. “But if we really want to turn this into an industry, I think co-production is a way to do it; we need to cooperate with other countries, and bring animation artists together, even finance through different countries, because it’s not cheap to make an animation movie.”
And while AI can introduce some efficiencies, Yeung said there are other areas in which it will never be able to replace human talent. “Especially for 2D animation, the fact that it’s handcrafted is the most valuable part of the creation,” said Yeung. “If all movies are AI-generated, then the creation part is too easy, it’s not an achievement, so why would anybody watch it? I guess AI helps us accelerate part of the process, like concept art in pre-production, it’s easier to see how something will look before our artists really draw it out.
“But the part I’m really very hesitant about is using AI for storyboarding. I do believe you need to create that part by yourself. If you don’t know how to do storyboard, then you don’t really know how to tell a story.”
Yeung concluded by saying that Point Five Creations is currently working on a story for a sequel to Another World, but warned the audience to not expect a second film too soon: “The story comes first before everything else, so we’ll work hard on the story first, then we’ll be ready to announce a sequel.”
Filmart’s Another World case study was one of several panels that focused on Asia’s booming animation industries, also including sessions on exploiting animation IP and co-production of animation projects between Asia and Europe.
English (US) ·