Wong Kar-wai’s Chungking Express explores the confinement and loneliness felt living within Hong Kong’s urban space, but coincidentally shows how the confined space between characters can offer affection amidst the isolation. While the film can be seen as a romance film, distinctively none of the main characters get together romantically. Despite characters constantly being in close proximity to each other, they still yearn for a romance amongst their loneliness within this urban landscape. Taking place within the Chungking Mansions in Tsim Sha Tsui, the film also highlights the racial diversity within Chungking Mansions and its cosmopolitan nature.  Wong throughout the

Continue readingField Report: Chung King Express, Chung King Mansions

[FIELDWORK] GHOST IN THE SHELL Mamoru Oshii 1995 Streets of Kowloon, Hong Kong Mamoru Oshii portrays a futuristic city in the 1995 action cyberpunk film – Ghost in the Shell: merging elements of 1990s Hong Kong and Japan. In 2029, technology advanced to a point that allows for cybernetic enhancement and augmentation. The titular character – Major Motoko Kusanagi is a cyborg employed by the security department Section 9. Kusanagi explores her existential reality of being a cyborg and contemplates on how she transcended her own humanity. Section 9 is portrayed amongst multiple high-rise buildings and skyscrapers inspired by Tokyo

Continue reading[FIELDWORK] GHOST IN THE SHELL, Streets of Kowloon

MAD WORLD, DIR. WONG CHUN (2016) Stairs Inside Tong Lau, Cheung Sha Wan, Hong Kong Dong’s father is climbing up the stairs and that hurts his back. Scene from Mad World, 2016, directed by Wong Chun. Released in September 2016, Mad World reveals the actual living condition of those underprivileged in Hong Kong and shows the lack of support for them, including the patients with emotional illnesses and low-income groups. The storyline focuses on the life of a bipolar victim, Dong, who has chosen to live with his father in a subdivided flat in a traditional Tong Lau after being

Continue reading[Field Report] MAD WORLD, STAIRS INSIDE TONG LAU

Word count: 500 Introduction The mall fight in Police Story is the scene people think of whenever this movie is brought up, and was arguably one of the most realistic and stunningly made action set-pieces ever. The featured location was Kowloon’s Wing On Plaza, a medium-sized shopping mall. I physically studied the mall just a few days ago. Though I took dozens of photos, due to the limit, only one of them is put within the essay (a selected few are put in the Appendix section). Our protagonists enter into this shot, establishing the arena for their final showdown with

Continue reading[FIELD REPORT] POLICE STORY (1985), WING ON PLAZA

LET THE BULLETS FLY,  DIR. WEN JIANG (2010) Kaiping Diaolou, Jiangmen City, Guangdong Province The Kaiping Diaolou is a building complex of watchtowers, renowned for its distinctive vernacular structure characterized by a multi-story tower design. It incorporates Western and Chinese art, as well as defense and habitation. A majority of watchtowers were built in the early twentieth century, about 100 years ago. The movie Let the Bullets Fly was exactly filmed in the village where the building complex located. It depicts a dramatizing conflict between a county magistrate, who is impersonated by a bandit, Zhang,  and the local wealthy gentry with

Continue reading[FIELDWORK] LET THE BULLETS FLY, KAIPING DIAOLOU