I Lost Myself Most of the Time
Dir. Kong Kee
Commissioned by Eaton Workshop for Tomorrow Maybe (Eaton HK's very own gallery space).
The following is a transcribed introduction by Chantal Wong from the ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE film festival screening.
I'm really excited to present the next filmmaker Kong Kee, who is a very close friend of Eaton. He did an exhibition with us this year called, "Moon in the Water", inside of our gallery Tomorrow, Maybe in Eaton HK. The exhibition featured three videos, which we'll see now.
Kong Kee is a very well respected comic artist and animation artist in Hong Kong, he has produced different strands of comic, including one that's a humorous penguin that reflects in a lighthearted way about the city. But what he's probably most known for at this point is a full length animation feature called "Dragon's Delusion" that he's been working on for four or five years now.
While he's only produced a full 20 minutes of the film, it's an ongoing project that could take anywhere from five to ten years, and he's completely dedicated to creating this project. A bit of a summary on the project, "Dragon's Delusion" looks back at a really important historical, almost mythological figure Qu Yuan, who is told in ancient Chinese stories about a…he's a maybe controversial or questionable figure or there are many interpretations on this figure…
Because he's known as a Patriot and at the end of his life, he throws himself into a river. He's also remembered because there is a festivity that honors his death every single year. In Kong Kee’s film, he is revived because it's a world where there are cyborgs. The story is that he comes back to life and we're trying, he's trying to look for his own past purpose or why he threw himself into this river.
The exhibition "Moon in the Water" (with all three films inside of Eaton) took place this year during a difficult time in Hong Kong. And in a very simple way, it removes itself from the content of this animation, this heavy animation that he's created, and really just tries to get back to pure emotions.
So if you were to step into the exhibition, what you feel are emotions and what you're most likely to feel is immense sadness. So while you watch this, I invite you just to step into a space and be immersed in a space where you can feel authentic emotions and potentially a heavy sadness, as things are quite difficult in the world right now.
I Lost Myself Most of the Time by legendary cyberpunk Hong Kong animator Kong Kee (the creator of Dragon’s Delusion) was produced for his 2020 ‘Moon in the Water’ exhibition at Eaton HK's Tomorrow Maybe gallery. This animated short film captures the sentiments of displacement, isolation, and longing.
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Kong Kee is a wry comics writer who cannot tell comedy from tragedy. Creating animations and comics in Hong Kong, Kong has published Imperfect Shoes, Ricegas, Hi-Jacking (collaborated with Chihoi), Pandaman, Ding Ding Penguin, Jin Dor Man, Our Sai Yee Street, and other works. In 2015, he published Travel to Hong Kong in collaboration with internationally-known band BLUR. In 2009, Kong founded Penguin Lab together with Law Man-lok for multimedia development and product making. His short animated film Howl the Mobile Fatty received Hong Kong ICT Awards and the Silver Award for Best Digital Entertainment in Animation in 2013. Kong's latest animation, Saveur Térébenthine, was selected for the 20th Incubator for Films & Visual Media in Asia, and it was presented the 16th Japanese digicon6 Awards.
View the corresponding conversation between Kong Kee and Chantal Wong here.