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

The whole article revolves around the coexistence of cities, people and ghosts in Asian films. The author mainly describes three typical Asian haunted films, “Living with Ghosts”, which is set in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan, and primarily describes the grave culture under the influence of traditional Chinese thought, “Loneliness and Isolation”, which is set in Japan and Korea, and “Ghost of a Dream”, which is set in Bangkok. “Living with Ghosts” mainly depicts the conflict between the traditional Chinese culture of graves and the limited space of reality; “Loneliness and Isolation” describes the coexistence of ghosts and humans caused by the loneliness of the fast-developing capitalist society; and “Ghost of a Dream” describes the role of economic crisis in haunted films.

One of the most resonant and questionable points for me was the second part about the loneliness and isolation caused by the urban order rebuilt by the fast-growing capitalism of the two giant economies of East Asia, Japan and South Korea. The authors likewise point out that it is the loneliness and the disregard or even ignorance of people that leads to the existence of the majority of vengeful ghostly images in hunted films. These characters are even more alive after being transformed from people into ghosts. I believe that not only is it the highly capitalised reconstruction that has led to loneliness, but it is also the reduction of a range of moral dimensions such as social responsibility between people, traditional family values and other constraints that have driven socio-economic development since the Industrial Revolution. Perhaps, in the process, people are gradually learning to be alone with themselves, even with ghosts.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.