The text of Abbas introduces two types of cities, the invisible city and the generic city. During the tutorial, we mainly discussed generic city. The generic city is a city that is free of context without history and identity consisted within the city, allowing people to create of themselves what they desire. It is built to avoid boredom and to find new identities and excitement.
In the text, Abbas mentions the film “Crouching Tiger” and during the tutorial, we were able to make connections between the film and the generic city. In the film “Crouching Tiger,” the protagonist, Zhang Ziyi, is desperate in finding excitement and constantly changes her identities in order to escape from the boredom of ordinary life. This relates to the concept of the generic city, where we intend to find excitement by avoiding boredom.
Moreover, from the video clip of “Crouching Tiger” that we’ve watched, two protagonists had a fight in the bamboo grove. The camera moves created the tension between the characters and it effectively showed the emotional conflicts between the two characters by closing up to their faces. Also, the big exaggerated movements and actions, which seems like it is done by using computer technologies, also relates to the observations on the generic city that says “the generic city is what is left after large sections of urban life crossed over to cyberspace.”
Seyoung Ho 3035741184
I appreciate your detailed observation of the camera and actions in the short clip that is shown during the tutorial, as well as your ability to relate it to the concept of Generic City. Which do you think is more boring, Crouching Tiger or In the Mood for Love? What does boredom mean to you and to Abbas?