Watch This: "Dragon's Delusion"

One of the most appealing aspects of animation is how it is able to tell stories through pure visual storytelling. At their best, these visual experiences capture key aspects of the human condition. From day to day life, to more extensive dilemmas such as the meaning of existence.

Dragon's Delusion, a Hong Kong original animated feature created by Penguin Lab that just finished a successful Kickstarter campaign, seeks to explore such questions in a sci-fi setting that as visually pleasing as it is unique.

The story is set in a world where ancient Chinese Emperor, Qin Shi Huang, succeeded in his search for the immortality. This was achieved through a secret project where man is merged with machines, creating immortal life forms that will never fade away. 300 years later, the Emperor still sits the ruler of his tyrannical empire, populated by humans, androids, and cyborgs.

One such android is Mr. D.

Mr. D is an android who lives a relatively simple and laid back life - why not live it up when your memory hardware is limited to a week? One day, his life changes when he starts having memories of the poet and priest “Qu Yuan”. To Mr. D, these memories felt real - almost like events from a past life. But can a robot have a past life? If he has a past life, does that mean that he has a soul too?

In the process of solving this mystery, he is drawn into the plans of an assassins’ league dedicated to the extermination of the Emperor.

On top of an intriguing sci-fi premise, which seems to be a melding of classic science fiction concepts of technology vs spirituality, the design of this alternative cyberpunk future makes this animation project stand out. A truly fascinating combination of Chinese culture and giving them a futuristic twist that has never been seen before. Largely inspired by the history of the city of Hong Kong and brought to life by Kongkee (writer and director) and animation directors Lee Kwok-wai and Tsui Ka-hei.

Though the Kickstarter was launched on March 29th of 2018, Dragon's Delusion has received a great deal of support. Successfully reaching their initial goal to fund and complete the animated film's preproduction. With more support, writer and director Kongkee hopes to hire more staff to refine the animation and produce all eight chapters of the story.

The approximate release date for this project will be Fall 2019.

If you wish to support/find out more about this project, please follow the links listed below.