How watching Back to the Future and seeing its time-travelling DeLorean car changed the life of Surreal HK photographic artist
- Back to the Future, starring Michael J Fox and Christopher Lloyd, follows the adventures of teenager Marty McFly and a time-travelling car
- Photographer and artist Tommy Fung’s artworks are inspired by the DeLorean sports car, which thrilled him when he saw the film aged 12 or 13
Science-fiction classic Back to the Future (1985), directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Michael J Fox and Christopher Lloyd, tells the story of teenager Marty McFly, who is sent back several decades in a time machine built by his friend Emmett “Doc” Brown in a DMC DeLorean sports car. He accidentally changes history and has to rectify things.
Tommy Fung, a Hong Kong-born and based, partly Venezuelan-raised photographer who makes surrealistic artworks under the name Surreal HK, tells Richard Lord how it changed his life.
The first time I watched Back to the Future was in 1992 or 1993, on the television when I was in Venezuela. I was 12 or 13.
It was the fact that the DeLorean is so amazing in that movie. I’m not really into cars; I just liked that car. It was very special: the colour of the metal is unique, and it was the only model at that point (the DeLorean company only made one model, and went bankrupt three years before the film was made, after company director John DeLorean was arrested on drug charges).
You couldn’t see that car in the street – not in Venezuela or anywhere. I wondered at the time if they sold it or if it was just made for the film.
