The article highlights the significance of ghosts as an element in apartment horror films and explores the potential social issues represented by these films. What attracts me the most is the similarity between the living and ghosts when face with loneliness and isolation. Ghosts are usually only seen by a specific group of people and can only move within a certain range or through several media, which is the loneliness of ghosts. In addition, due to city redevelopment and modern transition, humans are controlled by the pressure multidimensionally and are forced to experience loneliness. When the building structure is isolated

Continue readingReading Response: Katarzyna Ancuta

The idea of  the use of ‘ghost’ image in films and culture realm is introduced and analysed by the article ‘Communal After-Living: Asian Ghosts and the City’ by Ancuta K. It is surprising to observe that common thought of ghost is often purely related to the feeling of horror and thriller is a plain idea contrasted to underlying meaningful identity of ghost applied in films story-telling. The birth of ghost comes from the material formation of the inner loneliness, fear, anxiety or other negative unstable emotions of the livings. For its use for films, it is a cultural product under

Continue reading[Reading Response: Ancuta, K]

When it comes to ghosts in movies, my stereotypes of them are often their appearance in horror genre or comedies, such as The Conjuring or The Ghostbusters. Little did I know that ghosts can indeed carry so many representations on them, and how specific they can relate to Hong Kong. The portrayal of the supernatural world not only work as an instrument of defamiliarization, but also served as a tool to render the sense of anxiety, uncertainty, lost, and loneliness. These atmospheres often reflect the people’s sentiments towards the social political situation during that era, namely the Handover and social

Continue reading[Reading Response: Ancuta, K. AND Cheung, E. M. K.]

Loneliness is a characteristic that almost all ghost films concentrate on. The film’s design through color, architecture and sound greatly enhances the horror of the ghost film. For example, in terms of color choices, both cold tones and bright, creepy colors can affect the atmosphere. There are also internal spaces, like public areas, private areas and semi-private areas, creating strong contrasts and allowing for unexpected occurrences that bring out the horror of the plot. I think one of the foundations of the ghost film is that it is actually built upon scenes and relationships that we are familiar with. These

Continue readingReading Response: Ancuta and Cheung