Back to the Future film showed mixologist Antonio Lai that the world has no limits
- Lai discovered anything was possible when he watched the 1985 time-travelling sci-fi flick as a child
- The third film in the franchise introduced him to cultural fusion, which is now evident in the drinks he creates
In the classic sci-fi comedy Back to the Future (1985), a teenager travels back to the 1950s and meets his own parents. Directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Michael J. Fox, the film took half a decade to make and was rejected by every major studio before finally becoming one of the biggest box office and critical hits of the 80s. Local mixologist Antonio Lai Chun-nam, of Tastings Group, which operates Quinary, Origin and VEA, among others, explains how the film changed his life.
My parents took me to see Back to the Future at UA Shatin when it first came out. I was seven and curious about the world and the future, and this film seemed to touch on both of those interests.
The cinema was near where we lived and it displayed posters of upcoming films, so I was captivated by Back to the Future for weeks before the film opened. After watching it, I fell in love with the sci-fi genre, including my other touchstone: the Star Wars series.
Back to the Future blew my mind by showing the power of imagination – how the impossible could became possible. I was fascinated by how science and technology were the brainchild of imagination and invention. Life at school was dull but this film inspired me to start tinkering with my own inventions.
For the first time, I felt like the world had no limits and that anything was possible if you were prepared to challenge convention and think differently. It freed my mind from conventional thought, and encouraged me not to think “Why?” but “Why not?”
I have a fascination with new technology and equipment when it comes to creating drinks and flavours. I own several rotary evaporators, vacuum distillation machines that are more commonly found in laboratories, a centrifuge to make coloured and cloudy liquids clear, a freeze-drying machine and hi-tech tools that allow me to manipulate ultrasonic waves, all in the name of flavour, aroma, taste, touch and smell.