August is the month for comics and animation. Not only is the Comics Festival drawing crowds this weekend, there's also Japanese Anime Week, which kicks off today.
The event will be the second monthly mini-festival presented by the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society (HKIFF) since it broke away from the Arts Development Council in April.
Peter Tsi Ka-kei, director of HKIFF, says that the society had long wanted to dedicate a festival solely to Japanese animation.
'Animation has always been one of the standard programmes for every year's HKIFF, and the tickets sell out quickly,' he says.
'But because it is a film festival, we can't accommodate that many animated films and we have been missing out on some really good ones. Thus an animation festival is almost a must on our agenda.'
While many countries produce first-class animation, the sheer number of anime features sourced by HKIFF meant it made sense to focus on films from Japan.