All contents related to 2019 CCHU course are placed and archive here.

Category: 2019 Blog

Cat Links Housing Stories

[Reading Response: Cheung E.M.K.]

Posted on u3598391@connect.hku.hk

The reading passage examines how the usage of ghosts helps “Made in Hong Kong” understand the history of the locale. The use of ghosts in the movie alludes to the residents of Hong Kong’s memories and concerns for the city’s future. The “ghost town” setting serves as an example of how Hong Kong’s rapid development and change have driven people to relocate and erased some of the city’s past. The movie presents a new viewpoint on intricate social and historical topics by incorporating supernatural components, which inspires us to consider the difficulties facing modern civilization. The portrayal of the ghost

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Cat Links Filming the Modern Asian City

Filming the Modern Asian City

Posted on u3610652@connect.hku.hk

Using Love of Labour, an early comedy film, as a case study, Zhang Zhen focuses on the gradual replacement of the huge influence of traditional Chinese theatre on cinema by cinematic means of expression and plot treatment in the 1920s. I personally believe that any family ethical drama has a tendency to inwardly orientate its plot, such as psychological motivation, but this inward shift is better explained by class and gender perceptions of the time. At the same time, how did the early filmmakers change their narrative techniques in order to cope with the inward shift in the plot of

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Cat Links Architecture, Film + The Modern City, Lecture 2: Filming the Asian City

Reading Response: Zhang Zhen

Posted on u3594936@connect.hku.hk

By reading the resources, I start to have a clearer understanding of the start trend of cinema and film culture in China, specifically in the place Shanghai. According to the second passage, at that time period, with limited resources and ways to entertain, the teahouse is the ideal venue for large groups of people to congregate, people in China used to see the shadow play there. This is where “hybridity” was introduced when western film culture, devices, and technology were brought to Shanghai. From then, they began showing films in their teahouse that portrayed modernism in the development of Chinese

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Cat Links Architecture, Film + The Modern City, Lecture 1: Architecture, Film & The Modern City

Reading Response Barthes R. AND Benjamin W.

Posted on georgyvs@connect.hku.hk

Throughout different architectural style, we might perceive a different feeling or ambiance in a film. For example, we can feel more privacy in a house stairs, while exposed to public in school stairs. With people walking around the stairs, we can also feel the progressing or movement in time, which all of this is a matter of scale. From the first reading, cinematography hypnosis was introduced. It is stated that in a movie theatre, the audience can feel very attentive to the movie because of some important elements, such as, darkness, in which low light, silence, and undistracted environment create

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Cat Links Filming the Modern Asian City

Reading Response: Lee, Leo Ou Fan

Posted on u3593980@connect.hku.hk

Leo’s piece compared the traditions of Chinese and Western cinema, discussing whether there was really a “native” tradition to Chinese cinema. He initially posited that Chinese cinema was a “direct transposition of conventional spoken drama”, which he later found too simplistic. However, I argue that in the prewar era, the Chinese could hardly differentiate film and theatre as two segregated mediums. If we consider carefully the development of Chinese films, Leo held a legitimate argument. The very first Chinese film believed to be produced “Ding Jun Shan” was a recording of the performance of a Beijing opera group. In fact,

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Cat Links Architecture, Film + The Modern City, Lecture 1: Architecture, Film & The Modern City

Reading Response: Barthes

Posted on archlok@connect.hku.hk

In Barthes’s reading, he acclaimed the wonderful experience of being fully immersed in the movie world, away from reality ‘as if he had two bodies at the same time’, thanks to the irreplaceable and unique spatial factors found only in theatre. I found his stances particularly relatable, especially in the age of streaming platforms gaining immense popularity. Gone are the days that people had to visit cinemas to see movies, yet viewing in cinema is hard to replicate, from the technology and scale of the facilities like screen, speakers, to the ambiance like the darkness, serenity. These elements not only

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Cat Links Architecture, Film + The Modern City, Uncategorized

Reading Response: Roland Barthes AND Walter Benjamin

Posted on u3593980@connect.hku.hk

Although Roland and Walter tried to convey different messages in their essays, they are tied to a common theme: transformation. At the time of writing, Walter and his fellow art critics were experiencing a new series of shockwaves created by cameras: filmmaking. Like Man with a Movie Camera (1928), films fused the gap between reality, forcing artists to contemplate their roles: Should they depict reality? Express their imagination? Or accept the new art form? Under this historical background, Walter aimed to clarify the peripheries between art and technology. Roland also focused on roles but in particular those of filmmakers and

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Cat Links Everyday Spaces as Narrative

Reading Response: Michel De Certeau

Posted on u3579915@connect.hku.hk

The city is always changing. When we look at films in different period of time, people have changed their ways of living as the architectures were experiencing a modern movement. In the past, residents were not afraid to show part of their daily life to neighbours. In movie Rare Window (1954), neighbours could see each other’s activity through window. There was a shared courtyard that provides a collective space for human interaction. This reminds me of a traditional living style that could still be seen in Hong Kong. In Lai Chi Wo village, there is a common drainage set in front

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Cat Links Global Space, Time + The City

Reading Response: Ackbar Abbas

Posted on kmw9347

     In Ackbar Abbas’s article, the author discuss about “generic city”. Generic city is described as a city that has no characteristic and it comes from modernism. In the article, the author discuss about generic city using Hong Kong as an example. In the movies the author discussed, directors of the movies focus on showing skyscrapers and the geometric landscapes. In the movie Gozilla vs Kong, the director focused on skyscrapers and neon signs on each buildings in the fighting scenes. Same in other recent films, directors focus more on showing the city’s landmarks and skyscrapers rather than showing

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