Is film on robot’s existential quest enough to convince people to part with HK$8 million?
Directors hope to challenge audience to think about life and what it means to be free
Two local directors and a comic book artist hope their latest project, a Hong Kong-inspired science-fiction film, will challenge and inspire their audience in equal measure.
Dragon’s Delusion, an animated movie, will tackle themes of immortality, relationships between humans and machines, as well as the question of free will, in a similar way to sci-fi classics such as Blade Runner and Ghost in the Shell.
Planned for release in 2020, directors Lee Kwok-wai and Tsui Ka-hei are seeking to raise HK$8 million (US$1 million) to fund a project they hope will make a statement.
The pair are working on the unconventional film alongside comic book artist Kong Kee, who will be tasked with bringing the nostalgic looks of the old city, the weathered tenement buildings, boxy trams and vivid neon signs to life.
Kong said the story will follow Mr D, a robot that carries the memory of Qu Yuan, a Chinese poet who’s death is memorialised by the Dragon Boat festival.