If you had watched the 7th of the Fast&Furious, you must Remember the scene that Don drove a sportcar flew though three skyscrapers. Maybe you have forgot where those buildings were, but you can tell that is an Arabian county. Why? In a particular area, like Europe. If you leave out of all the landmark but only focus on the street, you could recognize one or two cities. As Sue mentioned “The topographical distinctiveness” of the city, every city has it unique culture and history. However,in the conspiracy thriller, landmark building was an unmissable element. Every landmark was the outcome

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Today talking about the technology used in a film, we seldom think of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Admittedly, either elegant or swift movements of the characters are achieved with the help of special effects. I took those for granted when watching the film around six years ago. Jiang Hu, or the martial world, is a kind of romance embedded in the DNA of Chinese people. In our subconscious, it’s natural that people with a high level of Kung Fu can fly over a vast lake or fight in the air. Every time I watch a Kung Fu action movie, I

Continue reading[Reading Response] Ackbar Abbas

The main point I’ve learned from Abbas’s text is the relationship between film and the metropolis and the effect on the audience. Every city has its own unique tangible and intangible heritage that can evoke specific imageries but may not be immediately noticeable through a still image and rather better shown through direct experience. And Abbas claimed one way to form this experience is through a cinematic image. My initial reaction to the text was “Wouldn’t a city’s specific imagery instead limit a director’s creativity when utilising the space?”. After some thinking, I came to an obvious that although one

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Ackbar’s work draws upon Peter Hall and Rem Koolhaas’ work refer to the fact that many examples of “generic cities” tend to actually be Asian. A notable example of this is Asian city’s tendency to build “memorable landmarks” that end up becoming lost and invisible due to oversaturation. However, I disagree with this Eurocentric sentiment which imposes their own views towards what makes a city generic or not through their own lenses. Their stance emphasizes the importance of a city’s culture and history (perhaps due to Europe’s extensive preservation efforts) but this fails to consider the Asian perspective. Landmarks that

Continue reading[Reading Response] Ackbar Abbas

The way Abbas explores the “image of a city” here is very fascinating, especially how he explores how the concept of the “image of the city” can affect how people see the city, and how this “image” could backfire and erase the city’s impression on viewers. Then he moves on to the concept of a “generic city”,  where I strongly agree and resonate, since this is especially true for cities like Hong Kong. Much of the “unexpectedness” of the city were sacrificed for efficiency and uniformity, all just to conform into the “globalized city” of skyscrapers and towers. This definitely

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The idea of Generic City gives me a new perspective to look at the cities shown and depicted in different movies. Understanding generic city as a city without history, Hong Kong is an great example of it. Due to the short but complex history of Hong Kong, there are both Chinese and Western culture here, which reflects the idea of generic city. In the film In the Mood for Love, the clothes that the actors wore shows this characteristic. Women wear cheongsam, which is more in a Chinese culture, while men wear suits, which is from western countries. The idea

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