In the age of CGI, veteran animated filmmaker Neco Lo Che-ying still holds out hope for local industry
Neco Lo Che-ying, veteran of the hand-drawn days, says Hong Kong's young animators have the talent to excel, writes Mathew Scott
As Neco Lo Che-ying starts talking about the past, the people filling the Mong Kok coffee shop tables around us are fixated on the right here and now.
Heads are buried in smartphones and tablets, and images flicker across screens in constant motion as Lo recounts the days when he first entered the animation industry.
"It seems hard to imagine now," the 53-year-old says, "but we really had no computers. We did it all by hand - and it took a very long time. New technology means you can make your own animation with just one PC or a Mac - and it allows more people to enter the industry."
If you like watching movies, you like comic books, you like music, dance, theatre, then animation can be all those things
Sadly, though, the animation market in Hong Kong has not kept pace with such advances. It's hard enough for any regular filmmaker to turn a buck, let alone those in the often-laborious process that might bring an animated world to the big screen. You can count local animated success stories on one hand, and maybe even have a few fingers to spare.
But Lo is keeping the faith. The filmmaking veteran says he remains inspired by the young animators our city keeps producing, many of whom have adapted quickly to market needs by giving up on their feature filmmaking dreams - for the moment at least - to work in the worlds of commercials and promotions.
It's a matter of survival, and Lo says the most positive aspect is that opportunities are presenting themselves. Support is still coming from the likes of the Hong Kong Animation Association, for which he acts as secretary general, and government-sponsored initiatives such as Comix Home Base.
"It's still not that easy here," says Lo. "If you look back on the history of animated feature films in Hong Kong, there are just a few productions even now. The market is so small, investors are worried. The first animated feature was Colour Old Master Q in 1981 - they made three of them. Then it was already the 1980s and then we had a gap to 1997 and A Chinese Ghost Story: The Tsui Hark Animation. So it has been tough, but we can't give up."
Lo was raised on the diet fed to most Hong Kong youngsters throughout the 1970s, when broadcasting hours were filled with mostly international programming from Japan and the United States. But it was animation that caught his eye then and the medium has held his attention ever since.