Ancuta’s intriguing essay focuses on ghost stories within Asian cinema culture and how it relates to the urban context of rapidly advancing societies. She believes that ghosts are much more than being phantomic apparitions who scare people; they are residues of the past. Within modern societies, they are representations of a failed dream of economic success. These spirits tend to haunt buildings designed to house lots of people. Despite the crowded setting, the main emotions which these apparitions evoke in the viewers are that of alienation and solitude, which are two major characteristics of modern urban lifestyles. Within this context, the rural traditional community ties are dissolved in the reorganization of cities, thus leading to more solitary spatial and social relations.
In Chinese movies, most of these horror stories are set in Hong Kong as it reveals a dark side to financial prosperity and “cut-throat capitalism”. The housing situation here (crowded housing estates with poor living conditions and no prospect of improvement) fits the overall theme and it furthermore helps highlight the Asian clashes of class and social division.
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You have demonstrated a good understanding on the metaphor of ghosts and have illustrated how it is linked with the housing issue and societal struggle with capitalism. I appreciate your reflection on these connections, giving some examples of the state of housing in Hong Kong will help further support your arguement.