Category: 2020 Spring

Cat Links 2022 Blog, Lecture 7 Monsters, Materials & Skyscrapers

[Reading Response: William M. Tsutsui]

Posted on u3584029@connect.hku.hk

This article discusses a different perspective of disaster movies in Japan distant from other countries. Reimagining World War II (WWII) as an aim of these movies is possible. As there are events of WWII in the essay, for example, atomic bombs. There is a sad ending in WWII while there are happy endings in these disaster movies. It might be implied as a hope as for WWII, to forget the tragedy in WWII. It also demonstrates the relationship between the destruction and reconstruction of the city. As we all know, Japanese manners are important. It means the city is actually

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Cat Links Lecture 7 Monsters, Materials & Skyscrapers

[Reading Response: William M. Tsutsui]

Posted on lhlaaaam@connect.hku.hk

After learning about the reasons for the popularity of monster films in Japan, I could not help but reflect on what it is about a movie that attracts the audience’s attention. In the past, I would say that it is the admiration for trends, the artistic expression of beauty, and the empathy for the story. Now I still think so, but there is a unified standard above them – the spirit of the film. Monster films have endured in Japan, at first because their lives were greatly affected by the mushroom cloud, and later as an artistic communication of such

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Cat Links Lecture 7 Monsters, Materials & Skyscrapers

[Reading Response: William M. Tsutsui]

Posted on wong0914@connect.hku.hk

Before reading this, I regarded Japanese apocalyptic movie as merely gimmicky, “pathetic claptrap”. Yet now I am mesmerized by the myriad interpretations. Perhaps, for the past seventy years, that mushroom cloud has touched every Japanese’ hearts in unique and contradictory ways.   Japan was traumatized by two nuclear annihilations. Why, as suggested in the reading, Japanese at times felt nostalgic to the wartime devastation? “Once the new city is built, it will lose the strange vigor of the wasteland. The loss of a city creates a void. A void in which people move with a strange animation.” To some, apocalyptic

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Cat Links Lecture 6 Housing Stories

Reading Response: Joseph Rosa

Posted on u3585397@connect.hku.hk

The architecture in a given scene of a movie can illustrate the household or users’ power status, family status or characteristics more than any words or descriptions. The architecture of buildings has a great influence on people, in the other way people also have a great influence on the architecture of the building. In many movies or TV series, without the access of any further information. We can easily distinguish between the protagonist, the antagonist, and also their personalities . For instance, in the movie Joker, Joker’s home is located in a compacted urban area, inside it usually has a

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Cat Links 2022 Blog, Lecture 6 Housing Stories

[READING RESPONSE] PAMELA ROBERTSON WOJCIK

Posted on poying21@connect.hku.hk

  This article identifies various features of the apartment plot as well as taking up numerous case studies through the panoptic spectrum of the apartment plot as a critical tool for analysis, evaluating the significance of the apartment plot associated with the different genres.   The writer believes that the apartment plot is not just merely a setting, instead, it configures the narrative in certain ways. It inspires me to have a contemplative thought in accordance with the role of the apartment plot. Not only can narrative be expressed via dialogue and verbal communication, but it also can utilize the

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Cat Links Lecture 6 Housing Stories

Reading Response: Pamela Robertson Wojcik

Posted on Leo

The second reading of lecture 6 is actually an introduction of a book, it has mentioned the word genre really often during the chapter, which is the type of art that maybe used in the movie. In my opinion, it is able to give viewer a first sight of the movie, and can give some idea of what the director wants to present. A genre or architecture can somehow represent the film, characters, etc. For example, as the chapter mentioned, people living in penthouse are often strange, therefore sometimes the personality can be shown through the architecture, which is a

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Cat Links Lecture 6 Housing Stories

Reading Response: Pamela Robertson Wojcik

Posted on u3591808@connect.hku.hk

I’m largely impressed by an element of the apartment plots that the author discussed in the reading material, which refers to the temporality of the apartment. I do think that every single character’s action will lead the film to various outcomes. For example, there is a plot that audiences may be familiar with in several cop films set in Hong Kong. Usually, in the climax of the films, the mate of the protagonist will decide to move out, because she can no longer stand the protagonist’s precarious living conditions. This action always marks the turning point of the movie and

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Cat Links Lecture 5 Urban Infrastructure as Event

[FIELDWORK], DUMPLINGS, SHEK KIP MEI ESTATE

Posted on u3591819@connect.hku.hk

DUMPLINGS, FRUIT CHAN (2004) Shek Kip Mei Estate, Sham Shui Po District, Hong Kong Dumpling 2004 is a Hong Kong horror film. It is expanded from a short segment in the horror compilation, Three…Extremes, and first released in Germany [1].  In the film, Mrs. Li, a former actress who is losing her beauty yet still longing for old-days passion with her husband, seeks help from Aunt Mei, a local chef who makes special dumplings with fetus inside for rejuvenation. The story begins with Li first coming to Block 40 of Shek Kip Mei Estate, the apartment where Mei lives, and

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Cat Links Lecture 5 Urban Infrastructure as Event

[Reading Response: Michel de Certeau]

Posted on liyu0707@connect.hku.hk

This passage mainly discussed 2 parts, the definitions, relationships and differences of “space” and “places” (“tours” and maps”) and strategies that allow for “spatial” discussion of tales. For the first part, it is noted that a place is an instantaneous arrangement of locations that determines the order in which elements are dispersed in coexistence relationships. While space is a more practical place that requires 3 other actual elements in consideration. It also indicates that in everyday life, it is a means to check the opposition of “place” and “space” via the phrases “being-there” and “operations.” In conclusion, their connection is

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Cat Links Lecture 5 Urban Infrastructure as Event

Reading Response: De Certeau, M.

Posted on qty23@connect.hku.hk

It was not until I read ‘Spatial Stories’, that I realised space and place are actually two different things. While places usually have a static representation of the locations, spaces represent the movements of things around them. For example, in many Hong Kong movies, the view from the Peak of the Victoria Harbour is a ‘place’ which symbolises Hong Kong. ‘Place’ is like about the setting of the story. While filming the streets, how the people or things travel along, is the dynamic representation of the story, which contains more illustrative information, and curates the meaning of ‘time’ and ‘vector’.

Continue readingReading Response: De Certeau, M.