This post is a remaster of a very old blog entry from around 2006, revisiting one of the first projects that really shaped a long journey as a music video director across Asia. “Life Goes On” was shot in Hong Kong for Manhand, a popular group from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and looking back at it in 2026 feels like opening a diary from those early years on the road.
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→ View ProjectsThe song itself is a love song, and the concept was to mix real‑life fragments from a short, intense trip to Hong Kong with stylized animated segments. The result is a hybrid piece where documentary‑style footage, 2D animation and 3D elements all blend to tell a simple story about distance, memory and how life keeps moving forward even when people are apart.
Early days as music video director abroad
In the early‑2000s, these were some of the first years flying back and forth between Malaysia, China and other parts of the region. For this project, the shoot became a two‑day run‑and‑gun trip to Hong Kong with a friend who helped capture the city’s energy and small, intimate moments that would later become the backbone of the video.
There was no big crew and no giant setup—just a camera, a tiny team and a lot of improvisation in the streets, on the MTR and around familiar and unfamiliar corners of the city. That rawness is still visible today and, even if the image feels dated compared to 2026 standards, it carries the genuine vibe of a music video director learning to work quickly, intuitively and far from home.
For a director abroad, projects like this are where the craft is built: figuring out how to react to the city, how to work without heavy infrastructure and how to translate a band’s emotion into images in a place that is not your usual base. “Life Goes On” was one of those early tests.
Mixing 2D/3D animation with real footage
From the beginning, the idea was not to create a “pure” live‑action music video. Instead, “Life Goes On” became a playground to mix traditional 2D animation, early 3D elements and live‑action plates in one piece.
The animation was created and composited with the tools of that era—Flash for the 2D work, basic 3D elements, and compositing and finishing in software like After Effects and non‑linear editors available at the time. By layering animated fragments over the Hong Kong footage, the video tried to visualize feelings that do not literally appear on screen: memories, fantasies, inner monologues and the way love stories replay in your head while you move through a city.
Today, in 2026, this kind of hybrid approach is almost standard, especially with AI tools in the mix. Back then, for a young music video director, it felt experimental and a bit risky, especially under the constraints of time, budget and a small travelling setup.
A small chapter in a longer journey
Rewatching “Life Goes On” now, it is clear that the image quality, aspect ratio and some stylistic choices are very much from the mid‑2000s. Yet that is exactly what makes it an important part of the story: it captures a moment of transition, experimentation and constant travel between Malaysia, Hong Kong and China.
For Manhand, this song was a love song with a grounded emotional core. For the music video director behind the camera, it became a chance to learn how to blend cultures, techniques and locations into one project and how to build relationships with artists from another country very early in a career.
Even if “Life Goes On” looks a bit aged today, it still carries the sincerity of those first years and the desire to push formats with the tools that were available at the time. That is why this article is being remastered in 2026: not to pretend it is new, but to acknowledge it as a small but meaningful chapter in a much bigger creative journey as a music video director abroad.
2026 update – remastering the blog stills with Topaz AI
When this post first went online, the stills were exported for tiny blog layouts and slow connections, which means a lot of the atmosphere and detail from the “Life Goes On” shoot was lost in compression. For this 2026 update, only the stills used in this article were taken back into the workflow and remastered using Topaz AI, while the original director’s cut of the music video remains exactly the same.
The idea is simple: keep the edit and timing untouched, but make the images on this page closer to what was seen in the editing room back in the mid‑2000s. With higher‑definition stills, the Hong Kong textures, neon signs, characters and 2D/3D overlays are easier to appreciate on today’s screens, and the work of the music video director and collaborators becomes more readable.
All the source frames were originally exported in low resolution for a 2012 blog template. Running them through Topaz AI allowed the stills to be cleaned, sharpened and upscaled specifically for this article: noise and blocky compression artifacts were reduced, edges became clearer, and the frames now hold up on retina and 4K displays where most people will see them in 2026.
Q&A – life as music video director abroad
Q: What made “Life Goes On” special in your early career?
A: It was one of the first times directing a music video overseas, shooting in Hong Kong for Manhand from Kuala Lumpur, at a moment when travelling between Malaysia, Hong Kong and China was becoming part of everyday life as a director for music videos.
Q: What is the most challenging part of being a music video director abroad?
A: You constantly adapt to new crews, languages and production habits while still protecting the visual identity of the band and the emotional core of the song, often with limited time and resources.
Q: How did Hong Kong influence the way you directed this music video?
A: The density of the streets, the neon lights and the mix of intimacy and chaos shaped the framing and pacing, and pushed the project to embrace a hybrid style that felt true to the city as well as to the song.
Q: What did you learn from collaborating with artists from another culture?
A: Projects like this teach how to listen, how to translate emotions across languages and how to respect a band’s identity while still experimenting visually as a music video director.
Q: Why remaster the stills of this article in 2026?
A: Updating the stills with Topaz AI is a way to respect the original director’s cut while giving this chapter of the journey as a director abroad a clearer, more readable presentation for today’s viewers.
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