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Hong Kong animated feature ‘Another World’ has been seven years in the making—and the meticulous attention to both storytelling and visuals confirms it was worth the wait.
Filmmaking is one of the toughest trades in the city, so much so that there is a saying among local filmgoers: “one must support a film as long as it is a Hong Kong production”. The lack of financial backing, scepticism about creative careers, and the wave of cinema closures often mean a movie never makes it past its first draft. Yet the team behind Another World persevered, producing a feature-length rarity for the market.
The film has already found recognition abroad, having been selected for the Midnight Specials category at the prestigious Annecy International Animation Film Festival in France, which is one of the biggest animation occasions in the world. Its sophisticated storytelling and finely crafted aesthetic should ensure it does not need to rely on its “made in Hong Kong” label when it launches at the Hong Kong Asian Film Festival next month.
Directed by Tommy Kai Chung Ng and written by Polly Yeung and Saijo Naka, the 111‑minute feature is adapted from the team’s 2019 short of the same name. Yeung’s screenplay draws inspiration from American psychiatrist and hypnotherapist Brian Leslie Weiss, known for his work on past life regression. In the animation, a spirit guide, tasked with leading souls along the path to reincarnation, encounters a young girl whose fury threatens to turn her into a monster. To redeem her, the guide must explore the cruelty, beauty and complex emotions of the human world.
Themes of reincarnation and the afterlife are well-trodden in animation—consider Pixar’s Soul (2020) or the Japanese anime Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation (2021)—yet Another World distinguishes itself with narrative complexity and a world deeply rooted in real human experience. In depicting betrayal, resentment and despair, it journeys across a thousand years of human history and culture: Japanese survivors of famine resort to cannibalism after an earthquake; a princess becomes ensnared in political manoeuvring after the assassination of her father; and an orphan endures child labour and bullying.
While not direct commentaries on history, these tableaux echo universal injustices, resonating with audiences across borders. The central figures—a young woman, a starving farmer, a child labourer—are each diminished by the cruelty of the world, but embody resilience through family bonds, friendship, love and hope. Without overt moralising, the film suggests that strength is not found in lofty positions, but in the everyday courage to endure.
Cleverly, Another World’s final act ties its disparate narratives together with revealing plot twists, while humour interspersed throughout balances its more tragic moments with lightness.
Visually, the decision to pursue hand‑drawn 2D animation, rather than 3D spectacle, was ambitious. At a September media preview, the animation team explained that executing a full‑length film in 2D presented one of their greatest challenges, with original 3D animators adapting their craft to produce the meticulous hand‑drawn effects Ng envisioned. The payoff is evident: the raw, textured quality of the drawings lends a mythic and poetic atmosphere digital animation could never replicate. The surreal imagery of the spirit world, terrifyingly grotesque monsters—including a distorted human skeleton bursting from the protagonist’s body—and dynamic fight sequences all immerse the viewer fully into this imagined realm.
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If there is one area requiring polish, it is the voice acting. Moments of anguish, such as the princess’s crying, occasionally sound overstated, and the guardian’s humorous lines sometimes lack natural delivery. Yet these are minor blemishes in an otherwise impressive achievement.
On balance, Another World is a triumph for Hong Kong animation: daring in its artistic choices, thoughtful in its storytelling, and emotionally resonant. Both locally and internationally, it deserves to be experienced on the big screen.
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Zabrina is the Senior Editor, Arts and Culture of Tatler Hong Kong. She specialises in performing arts, visual art and film. Her wanderlust was first fuelled by the Mighty Rovers Antarctica Expedition 2010. Over the years, she has interviewed A-list artists and filmmakers, including Oscar winners Chlóe Zhao and Tim Yip, Golden Horse winner Sylvia Chang, In the Mood for Love cinematographer Christopher Doyle, Pachinko author Min Jin Lee, and Coachella’s first Chinese solo singer Jackson Wang. She won gold at the WAN-IFRA Asian Media Awards for her 2021 feature on the waves of hate crimes targeting Asian Americans.
