[FIELDWORK] Hot Summer Day,Shenzhen Concert Hall
Hot Summer Day
DIR.Tony Chan,Wing Shya
(2010)
Shenzhen Concert Hall,Futian District, Shenzhen
Exterior of Shenzhen Concert Hall.
Hot Summer Days is a romantic comedy film featuring 6 different love stories under the heat wave.In the story about driver Wah(Jacky Cheung) and Li Yan(Rene Liu), Li was a piano player, but she had to give up her dream and to be a masseuse.In the film , she attended an audition for pianist in the Shenzhen Concert Hall which she waited for long time. On the audition day, she was a bit late, so she was rushing through the Concert Hall, ran down the staircase.The iconic golden supporting columns and the glass ceiling as the background of that scene.
Li Yan ran down the staircases for the audition. Scene from Hot Summer Day 2010, directed by Tony Chan,Wing Shya.
Li Yan ran through the hall.Scene from Hot Summer Day 2010, directed by Tony Chan,Wing Shya.
On the next scene, she continued running, the camera focused on her. To show how ambitious she was ready to climb up the stairs to audition.
Li Yan left the audition.Scene from Hot Summer Day 2010, directed by Tony Chan,Wing Shya.
Unfortunately, The audition was not very good due to her lack of practice . After being interrupted , she walked back downhearted.In that scene, the gridding steel structure of the glass wall reflected on the white marble floor also the stairs on the outside appeared either , all the elements were maximizing the spatial awareness and emphasized the loneliness and the blueness of character by comparing the size of herself to the hall.
Golden Tree Hall of Shenzhen Concert Hall.
The Shenzhen Concert Hall cost 1.7 billion yuan to build. Its shining outer shell cost an amount of money[2].The transparent design of Shenzhen Concert Hall made the building less solemnity but more down to earth. Make it more touchable for civic daily. In the film, Li Yan was a representative of the lower class in the city , but still she could pursue her dream since the hall is open to everyone to appreciate the music[3]. The golden supporting columns are metaphors of trees, which give the name of the hall, The Golden Trees Hall. It shares the same podium with Shenzhen Library, two buildings are mirror images of each other and group as the Culture Center of the city. As the cultural atmosphere of the area attracts many journalists and reporters, they stop passing by and ask questions about new regulations or social issues.
Note:
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The Shenzhen Concert Hall was designed by Arita Isozaki and opened in 2007.
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Cong Sun, Charlie Q.L. Xue,Shennan Road and the modernization of Shenzhen architecture,Frontiers of Architectural Research,Volume 9, Issue 2,2020,Pages 437-449,ISSN 2095-2635
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There were free concerts by different musicians held weekly.
The building’s structure has indeed provided a dramatic effect, especially with the lights and shadow. As you pointed out, it emphasised the mood of the scenes. That could be a good entry point to expand on what you meant by “spatial awareness” and if had it been utilised to build up the narrative of the film, so that you can reflect better on, for example, how modern & contemporary architecture is utilised as film set or the contrast between the sophisticated building structure and the simplicity of the film characters and so on. Consider using one of the key ideas we have discussed in the class to read through the site and build your argument. As for the images, recreating a scene shot would be one of the ways to situate your fieldwork photos. This way you can compare how space is portrayed and appropriated in film and in real life. Also, remember to cite any others’ works you referred properly. This would include, but not limited to, texts, images and/or videos.