Category: 2022 Blog

Cat Links Lecture 7: Monsters, Materials & Skyscrapers

[Reading Response: Darrell William Davis]

Posted on u3595252@connect.hku.hk

This essay reflects on the themes of technology and Chinese ethnicity. Ethnicity, like gender, body, and space itself, is exchangeable, fundamentally refigured in new media forms. For the Asia-pacific figurations, the most typical image is Chinatown. Fictional Chinatown spaces can be used to simulate claustrophobic hyper-realities, and the shabby, narrow alleyways of Chinatown are a symbol of unfettered technological modernity. Also, some relevant texts would examine signage. For example, guanxi, feng shui, opium,various martial arts and so on constitute a vivid miniature of national display and expression in the film. In the film Ghost in the Shell, Director Oshii Mamoru choose the

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Cat Links Lecture 7: Monsters, Materials & Skyscrapers

[Reading Response: Darrell William Davis ]

Posted on u3594662@connect.hku.hk

This passage mainly demonstrates the phenomenon that annihilation fantasy shifting from New York to Tokyo.  In this reading response, I will discuss why the annihilation fantasy is so popular, and fictional apocalypses began to visit Japan frequently. The destruction fantasy can fulfill people’s spiritual world.  I entirely agree with the statement of Sontag in the passage. In summary, people usually fear two extremely opposite things: unremitting banality and inconceivable terror. However, annihilation fantasy movies, as a common way of fantasy in people’s daily lives, distract people from the tedious life and attract them to think more about unknown events.  Unlike

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Cat Links Fieldwork

Field work: Encounters on the road/Sycamore hotel

Posted on u3594584@connect.hku.hk

The place in my mind that occurs in the movie is the Dali Sycamore hotel in the movie 《Encounters on the road》The movie uses a two-line narrative. One is a series of interesting events that happened when the male protagonist, Geng went to Dali with his friend Hao after his divorce. The other one happened five years ago, Kang met Geng traveled to Dali, Yunnan after hearing Geng’s song “Go to Dali”, and eventually got married with Geng. At the beginning of the movie, Kang intends to divorce Geng. From the conversation with the lawyer, it can be known that

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Cat Links Fieldwork

[Field Report] Vampire Cleanup Department, Dump station in Wan Chai

Posted on u3579915@connect.hku.hk

Selected Film: Vampire Cleanup Department (2017) by Anthony Yan Site: Tai Wo Street, Wan Chai, Hong Kong         This film tells a story about imaginary zombie events happens in urban city. The scene was set in Hong Kong in 21st century in Wan Chai, when zombie activities were secretly monitored and controlled by a group of special operation organization. This group of people disguised themselves as cleaners in the city. In this story, the male lead is a new member to join the team, and later he fell in love with a female zombie. This kind of

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Cat Links 2022 Blog, Lecture 6: Housing Stories

[READING RESPONSE] Joseph Rosa

Posted on u3593788@connect.hku.hk

One of the points that impressed me the most in the article is how the architecture in the movie shows the social situation. For example, in the 1930s and 1940s, the United States faced a severe Great Depression, many people faced unemployment and bankruptcy due to the economic depression, which made it difficult for them to gain a sense of security in modern cities. Therefore, movies of that era (such as “The Enchanted Cottage”) can often separate people from modern cities, combine traditional happiness with traditional architecture, so it can reflect the problems brought about by fast economic development and

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Cat Links 2022 Blog, Lecture 6: Housing Stories

Reading Response: Joseph Rosa

Posted on u3584431@connect.hku.hk

This article talks about the connection between modern architecture and cinema. Like movies, architectural space constructs detailed motion images, dynamic trajectories of living space and life narrative. As the meaning of modern architecture, it is inseparable from the lives of modern people. At the same time, movies come from life. Through modern architecture, movies can better narrate some more realistic and sharp topics about power, status, crime and so on. While some traditional buildings will appear in the movie, which can make people more immersive, let people watch some more empathetic experiences or events, and more in line with real

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Cat Links Lecture 6: Housing Stories

[Reading Response: Joseph Rosa AND Pamela Robertson Wojcik]

Posted on Xiyuan

In the first article, the article discusses the concerns caused by modernity in the United States about the modernity embodied in modern buildings, apartments. The villains in the film began to live in modern buildings, reflecting the American resistance to traditionalism and modernity. And in the second article, the article discusses the apartment plot in detail, illustrating the development of the apartment plot. At the same time, it proposes that, for the apartment narrative, in different time backgrounds and spatial backgrounds (different countries, regions, communities), its influence on the narrative is completely different. For example, in the United States, the

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Cat Links 2022 Blog, Lecture 6: Housing Stories

[READING RESPONSE] Joseph Rosa

Posted on u3594809@connect.hku.hk

The article mainly discusses the relationship between modern domestic architecture and film, that how modern architecture implies different characters’ personalities and actions. In the 20th century, there’s an interesting phenomenon that modernist buildings are usually connected to danger, transgression, or even crime. In contrast, the conventional accommodations usually represent traditional love and happiness. For example, in James Bond series, most criminals site their accommodations in remote, modern hide-aways. This stereotype has provided the audience an inertial way of thinking to connect modern buildings with evil plans and encouraged filmmakers to focus more on modern architecture design in films. — Li

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Cat Links Lecture 6: Housing Stories

Reading Response: Joseph Rosa

Posted on zuozh21@connect.hku.hk

Rosa discussed the relationship between film and modern domestic architecture from the article. It is a common thought that modern architecture is always related to negative characters. Maybe that’s because Americans never fully accept the modern house as their home, but rather as a workplace. The apartment-dweller are usually young and naive, while the penthouse is generally for single wealthy people who only care about social status. However, when the rich fall in love and get married, it is a typical development that they reallocate to a traditional house. However, traditional architecture is often associated with happiness in film. In

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