Netflix’s Love, Death & Robots in Hong Kong: director of The Witness on his theme and inspiration
- Alberto Mielgo’s vision of an alternate future Hong Kong came from how the city crams eras on top of one another, precariously bolting the future to the past
- He says the nudity and sex portrayed in his episode were part of a deeper theme about the nature of relationships and his own religious upbringing
Netflix surprised audiences back in March when it released Love, Death & Robots, an animated series heavily drenched in science fiction and aimed squarely at adults. While the streaming giant already had plenty of cartoons on its roster for older viewers, here was a show that laid out a vision much darker and more disturbing than anything Netflix had yet released.
Adding to the sense that this would definitely be weird were the names behind the project: director David Fincher from Fight Club and Se7en, and Tim Miller, a visual effects artist who made his feature debut behind the camera with the genre-busting superhero movie Deadpool.
The premise essentially asked: if Fincher and Miller ran Pixar, how twisted could it get?
One of the most visually startling episodes in the anthology, each created by a different artist, was the third instalment, The Witness, which takes place in a future Hong Kong. The story is based on a straightforward chase – a woman hears gunshots from the window of her flat in the early dawn and flees through the city streets pursued by the apparent killer – but comes with a twist.
