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Cat Links 2024 Blog

[Reading Response] – Communal After-Living: Asian Ghosts and the City by Katarzyna Ancuta

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In this article, Ancuta explores the relationships between ghosts and humans in Asian cities, as well as the three major themes in Asian ‘apartment horror’ films. These themes include the coexistence of ghosts and the living in a contiguous community, the alienation and fear of loneliness in modern urban lifestyles, and the representation of ghosts as symbols of failed economic dreams that drive rural populations to migrate to cities. I want to focus on the loneliness in modern urban lifestyles because it is more relevant to Hong Kong now. Ancuta mentions that the loneliness that the ghosts feel in movies

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Cat Links 2024 Blog, Lecture 7: Monsters, Materials & Skyscrapers, Uncategorized

[Reading Response] William M. Tsutsui

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Oh No, There Goes Tokyo looks into the Japanese obsession with the fictional destruction of their own cities in various mediums such as films, anime or manga. According to the author, a lot of this stems from post-war anxiety of an imminent bombing. The events in Hiroshima and Nagasaki towards the end of the war have had such an impact on Japan’s subconscious, leading many creatives to infuse personal trauma into their work. Thus, the art produced could be interpreted as both a reminder for the old and an optimistic view towards the future for the young. The theme of

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Cat Links 2024 Blog, Lecture 6: Housing Stories

[Reading Response 2] Esther M. K. Cheung: In Search of the Ghostly in Context — Ye Tsz Yu

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As Cheung addresses the depiction of the ghostly city and the demonstration of defamiliarization, I will respond to how the close relationship between them is shown in films. Avery Gordon defines a ghostly city as a location where ghosts gather. I believe that “ghosts” refer to Hong Kong residents who lack authority over the city and are uncertain about the future due to historical reasons. Fruit Chan’s film attempted to investigate Hong Kong via discussions of social issues, rather than focusing on its positive aspects as an international city with amazing views. Since public housing estates are essentially the physical

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Cat Links 2024 Blog, Lecture 8: Sci-Fi Technoscapes

[Reading Response 2] Imagining Urban Futures —-Shao Boning

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This article mainly offers intriguing insights on the correlation between cyberspace and physical space. The analogies between cyberspace and the urban dystopias in this chapter reveal the anxieties about the potential condition of postmodern world. One thought-provoking concept is “Lag-time”. It refers to the temporal breaks often seen in the metropolis. The technology seems to covers the physical architectures and over-connect them with each other, establishing an intensive networks in the whole city, which tears time and space apart. This concept prompts a critical examination of the intricate relationship between technology, architecture, and the lived experience of urban environments. Another

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Cat Links 2024 Blog, Lecture 6: Housing Stories

[Reading Response 2] In Search of the Ghostly in Context – Chiu Yin Ching

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‘Fruit Chan’s Made in Hong Kong’ by Esther M. K. Cheung, specifically the chapter ‘In Search of the Ghostly in Context’, begins by discussing the themes of defamiliarization, realism and surrealism in Fruit Chan’s films. The reading also delves into the history of Hong Kong’s public housing, exploring the relationship between low-cost housing and the sense of homelessness seen in lower-middle class people.   I was most interested in how the reading discussed the link between how public housing is portrayed in Fruit Chan’s films. The author states that Chan’s films portray public housing estates ‘like ghost towns’, and that

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Cat Links 2024 Blog, Lecture 6: Housing Stories

[Reading Response 2] In Search of the Ghostly in context — Cui Yuxiang

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In Fruit Chan’s film, defamiliarization is achieved by the cinematic representation of well-known urban spaces in Hong Kong, such as low-cost public housing estates and old neighborhoods. By utilizing light, warped space, shadows, twisty images…… Chan renders these familiar spaces mysterious and ghostly. Thereby challenging the audience’s perception of the city. From my perspective, there are two reasons: 1. Ghosts represent the feeling of anxiety, disorientation, and uncertainty when Hong Kong was handed over from the British in 1997. For example, the young girl Susan(Fig.1) in <Made in Hong Kong> or the dying grandmother(Fig.2) in 《Little Cheung》,  they are actually

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Cat Links 2024 Blog, Lecture 6: Housing Stories

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

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Review of Communal After-Living: Asian Ghosts and the City-Katarzyna Ancuta Urban cities have been equated with the development and progress of a person which leads people in rural areas to migrate into big cities. The rapid growth of the cities highlighted the themes of loneliness and alienation for the newly migrated people, offering fertile grounds for horror movie makers to use stories merging with ghosts. The horror movies made in the Asian regions including Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, and China mostly rely on the use of a contiguous community where humans and ghosts co-habitat. Additionally, isolation and loneliness themes act

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Cat Links 2024 Blog, Lecture 6: Housing Stories

[READING RESPONSE 2] KATARZYNA ANCUTA

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This article is about the relationship between Asian ghosts and urban cities, especially how it’s portrayed in modern films. It dives into how the loneliness of ghosts actually reflects the inhabitants in apartments. Having lived in only apartments my whole life I agree with Ancuta. I never had talked to any of my neighbors. The bustling business of the city makes me want to reduce my interactions to a minimum so that I can keep my social battery to work. The architecture of apartments, just like the article mentions, such as small windows, encourage this isolation of human bonds. There

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Cat Links Lecture 7: Monsters, Materials & Skyscrapers

[READING RESPONSE] WILLIAM M. TSUTSUI: Oh No, There Goes Tokyo

Posted on zcos1211

In Oh No, There Goes Tokyo, the author mainly analyzes the relationship between Japanese culture transition and Japan history, logic behind the appearance of Godzilla and its post influence on city landscape. What attracts me most is the rigorous analysis on strong correlation between Japanese culture and history. Start with the history before WWII, Japanese culture was constantly influenced by natural disaster, nuclear explosion and economic crisis. Elements of devastation and annihilation was subliminally added in creations, leading to a disastrous style of culture. It stimulates my thoughts of Chinese movie culture under certain historical background. Similarly, Chinese movie culture

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Cat Links 2024 Blog

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

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This article focuses on Asian ghosts lingering in apartments in cities and explains them in three themes, including how they exist in contiguous community, how they relate to loneliness and isolation, and how they act as a representation of failure of macro goals. The author uses typical examples from different regions. The saying ‘we are the ghosts’ constantly occurs in the article. Besides talking about ghosts themselves, we, the human beings, are also the ‘living ghosts’, living in the ‘coffin-like’ apartments isolatedly and undertaking the burden due to some macro reasons like financial issues. I feel the same for what

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