[FIELDWORK] RAISE THE RED LANTERN, QIAO FAMILY COURTYARD

Raise The Red Lantern tells a story of an educated 19-year-old woman Songlian married to the rich Chen family as the fourth concubine, faced a series of entanglements with other people in the family and finally went mad under the feudalistic family traditions. According to the rules of Chen family, the house which the master decides to sleep at night would be decorated with big red lanterns and the concubine of the house would enjoy the most prestige. The film is based on a novel called Wives and Concubines by Su Tong and the director of the film is Zhang

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[Field Report] HELLO! MR. TREE, SPACE OF TREE

HELLO! MR TREE, DIR. HAN JIE (2011)   Space of Tree, Liaoyuan City, Jilin Province, Northeast China “Hello! Mr Tree” was directed by director Han Jie and supervised by Jia Zhangke and was released in mainland China on November 4, 2011. As a rare Chinese magical realism work, “Hello! “Mr Tree” is based on a man in rural Northeast China who wanders between the absurd and reality. The main character in this film is named Shu. In Chinese, Shu means “tree”. The tree that started as space becomes the core and remarkable symbol of the whole film: Shu’s spiritual world symbolises

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[Field Report] IFC: The Building BATMAN JUMPED off of is JUST Another ‘Junkspace’ to the Most of Us

The first characteristic that comes to mind when one mentions IFC is undoubtedly its height. After all, it was Hong Kong’s tallest building for over half a decade, establishing itself as one of the city’s most iconic and recognisable skyscrapers. Standing at 415 meters in height, it is has become an international symbol of Hong Kong, much like the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, and Taipei 101 in well…Taipei. It seems that skyscrapers are always the ‘go to’ association when it comes to first mentioning a city’s architecture, as their outstanding height and presence in

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[FIELDWORK] ACES GO PLACES, OCEAN CENTRE

ACES GO PLACES, DIR. ERIC TSANG (1982)            Ocean Centre, Yau Tsim Mong District, Hong Kong Aces Go Places was the first film in its series. The comedy and action film accomplished remarkable achievements and gained wide popularity in Hong Kong. The plot of the movie was about King Kong (the thief), Albert Au (detector) and Nancy Ho (Policewoman) cooperated to find missed diamonds. In the process, they faced obstacles from local gangsters and foreign mafia (white gloves). The humorous elements of the movie was mainly brought by non-sense/ mo lei tau dialogues between Kong and Au. This

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[Field Report] Cyber Dream: From Ghost in the Shell to Hong Kong Architecture

On December 10, 2020, when I sat in front of the computer and opened Cyberpunk 2077, I could not restrain the restlessness and excitement in my heart. When my cyber body traveled through the three-dimensional and complex Night City, I never imagined that I would come to Wan Chai District on Hong Kong Island half a year later and find a bridge and ground structure similar to the Night City. Coming to Hong Kong, as the holy land of cyberpunk subculture, it folds and unfolds its body that is difficult to contain growth in a narrow space. Above its body,

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[FIELDWORK]SPARROW, POTTINGER STREET

SPARROW  Dir. Johnnie To(2008) Pottinger Street, Central,Hong Kong The protagonists of the film are four idle pickpockets. They are Aqi, Zhenbo, Xisu, Ma Zai, of which Aqi is the eldest among them.They stole from pedestrians,mostly for fun.One day, they suddenly met Jenny, who seduced four “Wenques” one by one, and brought disaster to them, under questioning. It turns out that Jenny wants to get rid of the control of the rich Mr. Fu, so they need them to steal her passport for her. After a battle of wits, Jenny got her passport as she wished.By contrast, the thief’s leader, Aqi,

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Field Report

Selected Film: Vampire Cleanup Department (2017) by Anthony Yan Site: Tai Wo Street, Wan Chai, Hong Kong         This film tells a story about imaginary zombie events happens in urban city. The scene was set in Hong Kong in 21st century in Wan Chai, when zombie activities were secretly monitored and controlled by a group of special operation organization. This group of people disguised themselves as cleaners in the city. In this story, the male lead is a new member to join the team, and later he fell in love with a female zombie. This kind of

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[Field Report] Henan building

The film that I have selected which is set in Hong Kong for the field trip is ‘Love Undercover’ (2002) by director Joe Ma. The film is about a young police trainee who works as an undercover to get close to a gangster’s son to detect whether he was doing illegal business, but finally falling in love with him with a happy end. (IMDb, 2022) My choice of the building site which is also a critical element in the film is the Henan building located in at 90 Jaffe Road,Wan Chai District. (Prime property, 2022) This building appeared in the

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[FIELDWORK] COUNTERING LIGHTS, JIANGNAN SHIPYARD

COUNTERING LIGHTS, DIR. YINAN DING (1982) Jiangnan Shipyard, Shanghai, China The film ‘Countering Light’ is released in 1982, tells the story of the male protagonist breaking through the obstacles of secular thinking and class solidification, and finally falling in love with the female protagonist in the background of China’s reform and opening-up policy. In this era of rapid development of modern civilization, many traditional architectures still exist, such as the poor shantytowns (1842) (demolished in 2020) in Shanghai. While the Jiangnan Shipyard stands out as the only modern industrial building featured throughout the film.   Left: The manager of Jiangnan

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[FIELDWORK] KUNG FU HUSTLE, LONG CHANG APARTMENT

KUNG FU HUSTLE, DIR. STEPHEN CHOW (2004) Long Chang Apartment, Shang Hai, China Stephen Chow released ‘Kung Fu Hustle’ in December 2004. The film describes a wannabe gangster defending the notorious “Axe Gang” using extraordinary Kung Fu support with residents who hold excellent power from a poor housing called “Pig Sty Alley.” Therefore, this report will analyze the interrelationship between the building application of “Pig Sty Alley’’housing and film creation. The “Pig Sty Alley” building is the central architecture set in the film intercuts in the variable storyline. The first sight of the housing in the movie represents the poor

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