After reading Leo’s “The Urban Milieu of Shanghai Cinema” and several reflection, I have gained few insights about Chinese film culture. Leo’s work explored different aspects about Chinese film culture including film audience, film culture and narrative conventions. Actually, the ideas in the film is really vogue and difficult to understand if we are not situating in that background. Although the reading is difficult to understand, I am thankful to the reading that it offered me a glimpse into the film culture of Shanghai in 1930s which is precious and hard to be seen in our daily life. According to

Continue readingReading Response: Leo Ou-Fan Lee

The reading of “The Urban Milieu of Shanghai Cinema” detailed explain the concept of filming industry development in China (Shanghai), how Hollywood and Chinese movie affect each other, and the link between the urban environment and filming. For example, many Hollywood movies’ titles use four Chinese characters to boost traditional Chinese culture. The writer also mentioned the relationship between filming and new-style writers writing in the 1930s, such as Lu Xun and Xu Chi. The writer suggested that the inheritance of Chinese cinema is a debatable point. After reading these readings, I understand more about cinema and filming, and also

Continue reading[Reading Response: Leo Ou-Fan Lee]

Alfred Hitchcock’s Bomb theory, an analogy for difference between surprise and suspense, comes to my mind while reading about the relevance of ‘real time’ vs ‘reel time’ in Andy Warhol’s ‘Empire’. Much like the ticking of a bomb, ‘empire’ builds suspense over the period of 8 hours however chooses not to surprise the audience as Warhol adapts a zero degree cinematic perspective. The transformation from daytime to night-time along with subtle changes in atmosphere show how the urban environment and architecture itself is the suspense of the rhythmic filmic experience. The mundane real and the fantastical cinema reflect onto each

Continue readingReading Response: Giuliano Bruno

The famous director Wang Xiaoshuai once said that film is the gaze at time. This reading discussed the relation between reel time and real time, as well as subjectivity and objectivity, where architecture means no more than a dwelling of temporality and an element of atmosphere. I am particularly interested in this topic as time is closely related to memory and dream in my opinion. George Lucas used to say that film is the art of constructing dreams. Indeed, idiosyncrasies of reel time, blunted as presenting characters’ whole life in 2 hours and sharp as focusing on slightest moments, are

Continue readingReading Response: Ackbar Abbas

After reading this article, I have a deeper understanding of the definition of film. In an era of productivity and efficiency, the films made for serving audiences are often cut to speed up. The purpose of films is nailed to the tag of entertainment. However, the awakening of post-modernism inspires us; It allows the audience to contemplate or think about the passage of time off-screen by using long lenses. It was best seen in the movie ‘Empire’. The motionless Empire State Building and the changing weather conspire to render the film. The building is also filled with flowing people at

Continue readingReading Response:Giuliano Bruno

After viewing the material by Abbas, which indicates the disappearance of Hong Kong building due to the more focus on market value while neglecting the building as a representative for the city by its cultural, historical, political background. Nowadays, in response to these phenomena, figuring out ways to preserve the iconic city is essential. Except for the multi-cultural characteristics of Hong Kong, I think the vintage building style is also a signal based on the significant audiences’ impression of HK TVB culture spreading. Specifically, the nostalgia also responds to the memory recall, as Abba mentioned, which can indicate through storyline

Continue readingReading Response: Ackbar Abbas