Category: 2024 Blog

Cat Links 2024 Blog, Lecture 9: Global Space, Time & Architecture

[Reading Response][ Cinema, Cities and the Cinematic]

Posted on fathima

The chapter delves into the interconnectedness of cinema, cities, and the cinematic experience in the context of a digital age. The author examines the dynamic relationship between urban environments and cinematic representations, emphasizing the mutual influence and impact they have on each other. It investigates how cities function as both physical and conceptual environments for films, impacting the narrative, aesthetics, and cultural representations inside them. Abbas explains how filmmakers use urban settings, architecture, and cityscapes to create unique visual and narrative experiences that represent their attitudes about urban life, cultural identities, and societal challenges. Additionally, the chapter touches upon the

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Cat Links Lecture 8: Sci-Fi Technoscapes

[Reading Response 2] Imagining Urban Futures Ho Tsz Hei

Posted on u3619305

In the reading, author Carl Abbott mentioned world of science fiction, which idea of imagining urban futures that defy our current understanding of cities.The reading presents with James Blish’s “Cities in Flight” and Stephen Baxter’s “Flood”,which are unique and captivating portrayals of mobile cities, challenging the conventional notion of traditional stationary urban centers.   How do these cities function? What are the gains and losses associated with their mobility?I think these ideas are good that challenge our preconceived notions of urbanity by exploring the possibilities of mobile cities. By examining the dynamics of these moving communities, we are prompted to

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Cat Links Lecture 7: Monsters, Materials & Skyscrapers

[Reading Response 2] Oh No, There Goes Tokyo

Posted on horace19

In the chapter, the author humorously uses ‘Oh no, there goes Tokyo… but it will be back, and it may be even better than before.’ to conclude the never-ending optimism of the Japanese towards apocalypses. However, reflecting on the newer takes in the franchise, I believe the optimism is starting to be questioned, and a new perspective is introduced in this parallel of apocalyptic imagery and real-life disaster. One iconic example is Shin Godzilla (2016) directed by Hideaki Anno. In the postwar ‘golden age’, the monster in films is merely a plot device that introduces the apocalyptic backdrop and renders

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Cat Links Lecture 8: Sci-Fi Technoscapes, Uncategorized

[Reading Response 2] – The Imaginary Real World of Cyber-Cities

Posted on u3627804

“Lag-Time Places” capture the fundamental nature of urban environments that are frequently disregarded in accounts of urban progress. These entities symbolize not only spatial voids, but also temporal disruptions, in which the progression of time appears to halt. These neglected regions are akin to misplaced puzzle pieces, estranged from the overarching blueprint of the urban environment, and abandoned to rot in the dark.It brings to mind a specific alleyway in my birthplace when I consider this notion. Nestled amidst edificing structures, this area appears to be eerily isolated from the swift urbanization that encircles it. Idnocuous to developers and pedestrians

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Cat Links Lecture 7: Monsters, Materials & Skyscrapers, Uncategorized

[Reading Response 2] In Search of the Ghostly Context

Posted on polinesa

The author opens up the ghostly city of Chan’s films, shedding light on low-cost public housing estate issues and marginalized society living there. In Chan’s movies, lower-class housing is depicted as haunted and desolate, “evoking ghostliness, melancholy, loss, and nostalgia” in contrast to the promoted positive depiction. These hyper-dense estates with poverty, dysfunctional families, and crimes, remained home to many people, usually powerless with a strong feeling of homelessness. Chan uses the uncanny to convey this feeling in his films. Ghosts serve as reminders of past history that haunts places and people. Not all of his films directly address characters

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Cat Links 2024 Blog, Lecture 6: Housing Stories

[Reading Response 2] Communal After-Living: Asian Ghosts and the City

Posted on u3595192

The passage analyzed three types of Asian urban horror movies, which are associated with the social-culture contexts and economic background. The first type is mainly produced in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan, which has a complex relationship between the living and the dead, including ghosts fall in love with humans, revealing secrets, punish wrongdoers and so on. While the second type is about the loneliness and isolation of both ghosts and humans, mainly produced in Japan and South Korea. The reason behind it is the transformation and redevelopment towards neoliberal urban leads to the disconnection and isolation among people. The

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Cat Links 2024 Blog

[Reading Response 2]“Build It and They Will Come”: Transformation of Pudong into a Copy of the Global City

Posted on 李嗞啦

The Evolution of Old and New Shanghai Through Cinematic Metaphors As one of the first cities to open up in China, Shanghai has a history of architectural development spanning over a century. In this essay, I hope to briefly explore the stark contrast between the old and new architectural landscapes of Shanghai as depicted in films, and the thoughts these depictions provoke. In the contemporary perception of the new era, Shanghai mainly presents two faces: one is the image of “Old Shanghai” from the 1940s to the 1960s, captured in movies like The Bund and many other modern Chinese historical

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Cat Links 2024 Blog

[Reading Response 2] Katarzyna Ancuta’s Communal After-Living: Asian Ghosts and the City

Posted on mattsee

Ancuta presents in the passage the idea that ghosts in media are portrayed differently depending on the architectural backdrop. I am intrigued by this idea since it shows how different forms of housing setting can not only affect our daily lives, but more importantly, influence how we process the supernatural and extreme emotions like terror. I find it interesting that by altering the setting, the agency and motives of ghosts seemingly transform, the focus at times shifts to the architecture, its layout and features, rather than the story of the ghost itself. By analysing ghost movies that are set in

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Cat Links 2024 Blog, Lecture 6: Housing Stories

[Reading response 2] – Communal after living: Asian ghost and the city

Posted on answ530

Ghost stories mainly focus on the theme of non-human and supernatural, often create a sense of horror due to its nature of mystery and unknown. Using this particular feature, the article depicts the correlation between the ideology of ghost and the urban architectural environment in Asian cities, and addresses Asian culture and their attitude towards ghost cities, eventually brings out their impact on various social issues. First, it is a common phenomenon that the underlying animistic beliefs and pratices are rooted in people’s ideal mindset, which affects the perception of ghosts in Asian cultures. The cultural rituals are the products

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Cat Links Lecture 6: Housing Stories

[Reading Response 2]: In Search of the Ghostly In Context

Posted on karinhoo

The book focuses on how Fruit Chan’s film defamiliarizes the city of Hong Kong, challenging the dominating genres at that time. He used spectral elements as a means to explore the city’s omitted problems and historical events. Chan’s film depicts haunted spaces as symbolic representations of large historical issues or repressed memories associated with those spaces, becoming a metaphorical reflection of the deeper issue that fills up the collective memory of the city. Chan describes the city as a place where ghosts gather, representing the dense history that is in tension with the act of remembering and sorrow. In the

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