[Fieldwork Podcast]: My Prince Edward

 

Synopsis and Introduction

JZ: Good morning everyone, welcome to our podcast for Architecture and Film. My name is Jasmine. 

JX: My name is Jingni. 

JZ: Today we will talk about the film My Prince Edward, which is also known as 金都 in Chinese. The protagonist Cheng Lei Fong works in one of the wedding dress rental shops in the Golden Plaza in Prince Edward. Her boyfriend Edward owns a wedding photography store and lives with Fong in a small room in Tong Lau. Fong must sort out the sham marriage that she was paid to take part in years ago before she can get married for real.

JX: During our field trip, we saw the film’s poster occurring both at the entrance and shops where several major scenes were filmed. In a low angle view, the poster indicates multiple architectural and infrastructural exterior features in the film that contribute to key plots. We will be analyzing how these exterior features contribute to the plot, then later moving on to interior features in the building that are hidden between the scenes.

Exterior Features: Neon Sign and Buses on Nathan Rd.

JZ: The neon sign of Golden Plaza is an important feature, though it was not as notable on the street in reality as its depiction in the movie which uses multiple aerial shots centering the sign and magnifying its existence. 

JX: These shots are intentional as the neon light serves more purposes than just identifying the location of the setting. It acts as a natural time and spatial transition. In the evenings, the neon lights turn on to light up the street when shop owners pull down their roller shutters as shops close. In the mornings, the roller shutters are up as shops open and neon off. 

One of the most meaningful scenes occurs when Fong has her first discussion with Edward on marriage in their bed with the lights off. They live together in a small flat above the Golden Plaza where Fong longed to escape from the bustling and dense population there in Prince Edward. Though there is no lighting, the room is filled with red light coming from behind the curtain, creating an erotic atmosphere. The atmosphere contrasts with their dialogue in which Edward makes a joke about Fong’s friend getting married and later proposes to Fong in a casual tongue. After that, there is a transition from interior to exterior in the color of red: a medium close-up from above picturing Fong and Edward in red light after the bedtime conversation transits to a close-up shot showing the neon sign characters Gam Dou next to their window. The contrasting transition occurs once again when Fong tries to tell Edward about her sham marriage, whereas Edward is asleep and snores loudly. According to director Norris Wong who lived in the building across Golden Plaza for many years, her bedroom usually will be lit up red by the reflective light of the neon sign and glass façade of the commercial building. The live-in experience inspired her to emphasize the poor living condition in Tong Lau from lighting design by setting Edward and Fong’s bedroom window next to the neon lights.

JZ: Another crucial external feature is the bus occurring in every shot in street view due to dense traffic on Nathan Rd. In the film, Fong travels to the mainland twice by bus. The first trip with Shuwei is to help him obtain HK citizenship, and the second trip by herself is to congratulate Shuwei’s marriage to his pregnant girlfriend who made him give up on citizenship and his desired “freedom”.

JX: Before the first trip, Edward meets Fong with Shuwei in front of the building’s entrance on the sidewalk. Knowing Fong has a sham marriage with him, Edward breaks into anger and conveys his over-protection and controlling sentiments towards Fong. The busy traffic, buses passing by on the road, and passengers walking by on the sidewalk become the stage and the setting for the three of them evoking the drastic plot to portray the characters’ personalities through their conflicts, and the handheld camera shot adds on to the authenticity and tension of the scene. 

In the second bus scene, Fong decides to visit Shuwei while Edward searches for Fong at the same time on the sidewalk. There are both interior and exterior shots of them respective of the bus to indicate their emotional distance. Fong’s view frames Edward in the window inside the bus, whereas Edward’s view, as he runs parallel to the bus, frames Fong in the bus window from the outside. Though they move in the same physical direction, their ideas on relationships and marriage diverge. The cinematography depicts their relationship metaphorically, in which the bus is a meaningful device to convey their segregation of minds.

JZ: On our actual visit to the surroundings, there are many bus travel services near the back corner on the other side of the building. Instead of putting Edward at the point where the travel bus leaves, Wong sets the scenes on the narrow sidewalk near the busy traffic on Nathan Rd to intensify the quarrel on the street at climax and to dramatize the chasing scene near the end of movie.

Interior Features: Operating Shops and Escalators Between the Floors

JZ: On the other hand, the interior features also played an important role in this movie. Golden Plaza is a mall in Prince Edward, mainly around the wedding theme since the 1980s. There are three floors above the ground and another underground. Residential floors are above the third floor, and many small companies are also there, such as detective agencies and Chinese medicine clinics. The wedding services there are not expensive, so many Hong Kong couples will go there when they are getting married.

The following scene is a series of montages combining many wedding dress stores and wedding photography stores, pointing out the internal situation and the function of this building. It serves as a “wedding center”, no matter in the story or in reality.

We can have a scrutiny of these shops, part of the internal structure of the Golden Plaza. This reminds us of the urban everyday spaces as narrative. The existence of these places are implying the social notion of marriage. In the film we can see the inside of Golden Plaza is very busy, and the camera shuttling back and forth among these shops gives the audience a sense of oppression, which is very subtle. This is also the test for our Lei Fong on whether she should marry her boyfriend or think carefully about the essence of marriage. But in reality, our field trip to Golden Plaza shows that the building is actually a bit deserted, and not many customers are there. Also, compared to the busy situation in the film, many shops are closed in reality. 

JX: According to the research done by HK01, the percentage of single women in HK has been raised from 6% in 1999 to 20% in 2021. The social opinion towards marriage is evolving over time. Many Hong Kong people start to reconsider the necessity of marriage versus their other life pursuits, which has such an implication in a decreasing marriage rate.

JZ: Another very important element in this film is the escalator. Every plot twist is accompanied with the appear of escalator. For example, when Edward walks down the escalator to propose, Fong meets with Shuwei (the mainlander), and when Edward finds out that Fong had married to another man etc. As one of the most common public facilities in a shopping mall, the escalator also plays a role of symbolizing the marriage of the protagonists. Even from the outside the escalator looks parallel, but people are running and chasing up and down through the escalator, implying the instability of relationships under the context of marriage.

In one of these escalator scenes, there is one when Fong and both Edward and his mom go down through the escalator. The camera indicates the relationships between these three people; it’s like a simplistic form of numerous families, also implying the unimportant position of Fong in this family, even though she is going to be the wife of Edward. 

Conclusion on Spatial Narrative in the film

JX: To conclude, Norris Wong uses spaces around and inside the building of Golden Plaza as a narrating device in My Prince Edward. First, narrative space is directly involved in shaping characters, showing their relationships, and portraying rich and full characters through the presentation of spatial relationships. 

JZ: In the narrow space of Golden Plaza, the narrative amplifies the characters’ identity and adheres to the topic of marriage. The montage of shops and neon sign of Golden Plaza at the beginning of the movie is an intriguing intro of main characters for the audience, also a perfect example of this function.

JX: Second, narrative space drives the development of the plot and creates interesting plot twists for the audience to follow. 

JZ: Wong uses the characteristics of the perspective, arrangement of space, and cinematography techniques to set driving factors in the development of the story, such as the buses on Nathan Rd and the escalators in the building. 

JX: Third, space and its spatial elements are used to express symbolic metaphors. 

JZ: Golden Plaza symbolizes marriage, with the prosperous imageries in operating shops reflecting positive expectations while the abandoned underground floor representing sham marriage. 

JX: Similar symbolism also occurs when Fong buys a pet turtle from the nearby shop in Goldfish St. The space of Tong Lau scales down to the size of a water tank which represents Hong Kong people having no life pursuits but longing for better living conditions while the water tank symbolizes Hong Kong housing issues.

 

Ziqi Zhang, Jasmine (3035983756) and Jingni Xie (3036104307)