Fiction and Reality: domestic spaces represented in cinema

Written by. Anqi Liu University College of London, Bartlett School of Architecture, Master of Architecture Historic & Urban Environments Tutors: Sarah Milne, Aileen Reid Word Count. 10658

Fiction and reality: the domestic spaces presented in the films Tokyo Story (1953), In the Mood for Love (2000) and Parasite (2019)

Content

Abstract

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Introduction

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Main body

Tokyo Story: a classic by Yashujiro Ozu, 1953

film analysis

In the Mood for Love: Wong Kar Wai, 2000

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Parasite: Bong Joon Ho, 2019

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Discussion domesticity & the current pandemic

Conclusion

Figures Bibliography

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Acknowledgements

I would like to express my special thanks to both of my tutors Milne Sarah and Aileen Reid for generously taking the time to discuss with me the ideas and topics in this final year major dissertation project. Thanks for their valuable advices specially during this difficult time of lockdown.

I would also like to thank tutors in the MAHUE programme, for their advices and assistances along the way, it has been a challenging year for all of us.

Anqi Liu 13 Sept 2020

Fiction and reality: cinema and architecture

Abstract Prompted by the current quarantine situation, I think it is important to think about what urban living has been like, in order to consider how domestic space might be redefined in future after the crisis. In the recent past, film has observed and depicted experiential scenes of everyday life situations in city environments in such a way as to foreground notions of home, culture and traditions. All highly relevant themes in the present times.

It can be argued, that film space and architectural space collide, and reform one another. Architecture is a spatial construction which involves time and cinema is a temporal construction which involves space. But both of them speak about lived spaces through different ways, where film spaces construct fiction and architectural spaces construct reality. Therefore, this dissertation aims to explore ideas of urban domesticity through analysis of a number of fictional houses represented in three eastern films made between 1953 and 2019. It assumes that temporal and imagined spaces of the home constructed through cinema are a useful tool in the analysis of the atmosphere and meaning of ‘real’ architectural spaces, with the potential to inform speculations on the future.

The central body of this dissertation is a reading on three films: Tokyo Story (1953), In the Mood for Love (2000) and Parasite (2019). The films were set in three different time periods which acts as a backdrop to investigate the changing concepts of tradition and modernity of domestic spaces. I am going to investigate the domestic spaces presented in each of the films by examining the directors’ intentions, the cinematography and Mise-en-scene of the films through an architectural perspective. Dramas, such as the ones selected, can illustrate domesticity and human relations in cinema. They also enable us to understand the cultural production of an urban context and the social and political changes in different cities namely, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Seoul. More importantly for this dissertation, in their own ways, each of the films tells us something about the reality of urban domestic space in three different periods of time, the immediate post-war period (Tokyo Story), the 1960s (In the Mood for Love), and the twenty-first century, pre-Covid, (Parasite). Considering these films, I will discuss how the house is more than just a 'domus', it acts as a self-governed microcosm, a place where people are brought together and separated, it is a place where a hierarchy can be protected and restored.

Tokyo Story is a film principally about family relationships and the transience of time.

And yet, the director, Yasujiro Ozu, was an innovator when it came to the depiction of urban domesticity, he constructed cinematographic spaces by using a fixed camera position at floor level, allowing him to treat a film space architecturally. Tokyo Story can be considered as the most minimalist film in Japan because of its storylines and camera movements, and Ozu uses these to tell a very particular story of the home, depicting the collapse of a family system during postwar Japan. In doing so, he represented the culture of Japanese traditional domesticity. The film In the Mood for love is viewed as a fashionable romance melodrama with the style of ‘orientalism’. Similar to Ozu, the director Wong Kar Wai focus on filming fragmented spaces as a way of illustrating the narrative.

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It is also a film where shots of the interrelationship of people composed majority of the movie, and was filmed on-site. Parasite is a film that critiqued on the reality, considered as melodrama it is a modern masterpiece that portrayed class antagonism and hierarchy within bourgeois domesticity. The setting of two types of houses in the movie clearly separated the class difference of rich and poor. The same as Tokyo Story the houses were created as fictional sets, which helps characters and camera positions to establish their spatial relationships. In the movie the blurring boundaries of private spaces in the house begins to speak when the interpersonal relations begin to develop within the setting of the household. Parasite is a film as director Bong Joon Ho says "I want audiences to feel like they have seen an honest portrayal of the times that we currently live in."

Having analysed the fictional houses and the structured social relations within them in detail, and contextualised them within ‘real’ city spaces, finally, this dissertation ends by analysing to what extent has three of the films created a fiction and comment on the current reality? And speculating on how cinematic and architectural narratives might help to transform modern ‘pandemic’ and post-pandemic domesticity. This dissertation is one of such attempts which seeks to incorporate the coexistence of cinema and architectural spaces.

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Fiction and reality: cinema and architecture

Introduction

Under the light of the current pandemic people are forced to the confines of their homes, our interpersonal connections and patterns of life therefore become the crucial topics to deliberate. Domestic environments can be more than a 'domus', it is the microcosm of separation and gather, joys and sorrows, comfort and fear. The house can be a place where you feel comfortable, secure and peaceful, while on the other hand it is an tense and emotional environment where hierarchy can collapse and freedom is constrained. In the home the intricate and intimate relations between architecture, gender and domesticity become more apparent and domesticity interconnects these terms.

Before examining on the films, it would be worth to briefly talking about were Japan’s cinema came to differ from the other East Asia nations. Over the decades Japanese cinema can be really different depending on the historical moment in focus, the paths of development were rare, unique and diverge, as on one side cinema was creating nostalgic declaration of traditional values while on the other side it was being deeply influenced by Western’s modern sense of values. From the middle of the nineteenth century, cinema wasn’t the highest form of culture compare to literature and fine art, however it was focusing at Western-style of modernisation, only until the postwar period cinema achieved a level of recognition internationally. Director Masumura Yasuzo in the 1950s critiqued on the melodramatic elements that he saw as the foundation of Japanese cinema, he pointed out that Japanese directors likes to use scenes of nature along with love stories, or depicting themes of motherly love. And he declared that, "the kind of beauty of Japanese cinema is not masculine beauty, bravely facing outward, but rather, is entirely composed of feminine, emotional qualities". His critique can be seen as someone who is worried and impatient on the cinema in prewar period, but his words wasn’t all certain for postwar Japan’s cinema. In 1950s it was the first time where Japanese cinema was exposed to other nations, Yasujiro Ozu was one of Japan’s most influential directors that sought to preserve Japan’s cultural tradition against internationalisation. Tokyo Story is one of the melodramatic film that investigates the family and social structures in Tokyo during a period of westernisation.

The film centred on portraying the nuclear family system; an essential institution that inhabits the domestic environment, and the conflicts between generations through intimate domestic settings. The genre in Japanese is called "Shomin-geki" meaning working-class stories, which the film focus on the banal lives of the ordinary people. The film is not a story about Tokyo, but it can be read as a story about the microcosm of the old couple in the context of Tokyo. It was created after the WWII and takes place in 1953 post-war Japan, the director uses austere story lines and fixed camera positions to achieve framing of characters and settings. Mostly the story is set in Kamakura, the bourgeois residences in the suburb of Tokyo, where an elderly couple Shukichi and Tomi living in the town Onomichi located in Western Japan facing the inland sea travelled to Tokyo to visit their son, daughter and widowed daughter-in-law. However they found the great geographical distance that separates Onomichi and Tokyo, as well as the growing partition of a family hierarchy. The film suggested the inevitabilities of life at that time where children move to the city, leaving their ageing parents behind. With the separation of father and son, the separation between different places; the city and countryside also occurs. However even though the city changes over time but connections between family members doesn’t. The post war period forced Japan into critical transformation where heavy urbanisation and industrialisation impact on the country’s social fabric.

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Resulted the urban identity gradually replaced by a metropolitan identity, where cities gradually becomes modernised. And the unit of family is probably an important support for a improved and secure social structure.

Ozu can create fictions by building relations between the private domain, and the urban domain. Although Tokyo Story was not made as an architectural documentary, the fictional spaces he portrayed are still authentic until the present days. Different to the other two films produced in Hong Kong and Seoul, most of Ozu’s films was an intimate study on the traditional domesticity of Japan. In the film, he documented the complex relationships of a family structure and also treated cinematic spaces with an architectural manner. To evidence this, the living room of the eldest son’s house in the film is going to be discussed and examined further in the text. It is a space in the film where most of the indoor scenes took place, and the director constructed an apparent conservatism of Japan’s patriarchal norms through characters actions. It is also a particular space that was not assigned with specific functions, instead it being used as a bedroom and a dining room. This modular relations within spaces was ingrained from the traditional Japanese architecture, which enables Ozu’s artistic approach to the use of camera and blurs the boundaries of an architect and a filmmaker.

In the Mood for Love is one of the iconic creation of Hong Kong cinema, it was a melodrama that deals with the affiliation of men and women interpersonal conflicts within a domestic environment. Set in the 1960s under the context of a Shanghainese community in British Hong Kong, before the shift of cultural identity when Hong Kong was handed over to Mainland China in 1997. The film talks about an affair between a man and a women, Mr Chow and Mrs Chan, who were neighbours but married to adulterous spouses. Two of them grew affection for each other however under the cultural and moral restrictions they must mediate between each other physical and societal spaces, which eventually draws them between intimacy and separation. The architecture in the film such as the corridors, staircases, alleyways and sidewalks or even the intersection of streets were ambiguous spaces and territories that allowed characters to encounter and interact. These spaces encouraged closeness to the platonic lovers in the film and depicted a cramped and busy cityscapes of Hong Kong. Since the late 1980s, Wong Kar Wai has created films that not only focused on the use of dramatic tones. He established a leading role in the contemporary Hong Kong cinema with the piece In the Mood for Love. The film was created and shot in 2000 thus Wong has a nostalgic approach to filming the past that was under the era of colonial modernity.

Wong Kar Wai uses post-modernistic filming techniques to create his cinematic spaces, as ways to reconstruct and revoke a pre-existed nostalgia. Within the cultural context he is an avant-garde director who has a postmodernist style of using camera, lighting and sound to create visually compelling and emotional resonating films. Stephen Teo claimed that "Wong has come to signify a cool, postmodern sensibility in world cinema." Like Ozu, in this film Wong’s cinematography consider an excessive use of closeup shots with an emphasis on the storytelling. The frame within frame camera technique of a scene connected the entire film with close-up and still shots. This approach established an interrelation between the characters and their surrounding, also encourages us, the audience to examine the couple’s limited dialogues and the architectural details within frames. This frame within frame camera technique is similar to Ozu’s still shots, because they both focused on creating fragmented scenes along the movie.

Where each of the shots generated a photographic quality.

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Fiction and reality: cinema and architecture

The characters live in a rental apartment where spaces are liminal, other than bedrooms everything else is shared with the neighbours. The in-between spaces of the film constantly enriched the film, such as the stairs and corridor spaces. I selected the corridor space because it is an important interspace of the staircase and the apartments.

It functioned as a matchmaker for the couple who lives just next to each other in the building, it draws them close to each other and separate them again. Although it is not a space designed for socialising but it is a common space where neighbours can encounter each other to enter the living room within the building. And further studies will tell us the camera position located in the space vividly portrayed the intimacy between people in a semi-private environment. Out of the many films Wong created, this film is the boldest at its cinematography, where the combination of image and sound created the mood of ambiguity and mysterious of living in a neighbourhood community, under an era in the past. About Wong’s postmodernist film art, french film critic Jean Marc Lalanne summarises the ambiguous narrative of Wong’s cinema as "favouring the detail above totality, and the part over the whole." This suggested that Wong’s cinema created an incomplete and fragmented cinematography.

Korean director Bong Joon Ho created the film Parasite, a piece which just made its debut last year and received numerous awards before the outbreak of the current pandemic. Set in the 21st century of Seoul after a crash of Korea’s economy, where people were struggling to get employed. It is a melodrama that is shot like a comedy and triller, a mundane kind domesticity is transformed into a psychological drama. Parasite is about class antagonism and its hierarchy situated within a domestic sphere. The film is a prominent and recent example of living in a pre-pandemic society in one of another East Asia regions. The drama is directed and set in two different homes, a small semi-basement apartment of Kims poor family and a grand modernist villa of Parks wealthy family. The families came from different worlds however Mr Kims' family depend on Mr Parks’ employment, and Mr Park also requires the labouring of Mr Kims' family. Throughout the film, class division created a separation 'line' between two of the families, it is a line that shouldn’t be crossed. But the Kims always tried to cross the line of class barrier by being 'parasitic' to the Parks thus the Parks was forced to secure the line. Their relations became interpersonal within the backdrop of the household when Mr Parks' villa eventually became a site of waged labour.

The architectural sets in the film are more distinct than director’s use of sound or camera movements, as the architectures in Parasite were created as fictional sets similar to Tokyo Story. Production designer Lee Ha Jun created the sets to support a more precise framing of shots. The house of Kim’s family was modelled from realistic Korea basement apartments while the house of Parks’ family was modelled as an elegant and simple typical modernist villa. By building sets it really allows the mise-en-scene elements to perform their strengths, where the sets decide the shooting of specific scenes instead of the use of camera techniques. Also the sets created an illusion for the audience, for us to accept the idea that it was a real house. However sets is never close to being a real home, Lee revealed by saying "for me blocking and framing are prioritised; on the other hand, architects build spaces for people to actually live in and thus consider how the environment informs the way the inhabitants live in the space." Here it suggested the difference that exist between fictional sets and architects build spaces is what brings architecture exists like cinema, however to an extent. I selected Parks' family house to examine because more than half of the film take place in this villa, it is a private site however semi-private, as it is a household yet reliant on frequent visit from non-family members. The spatial organisation of Parks house suggested hierarchical relations, where the owners occupied luxurious spaces while the labourers occupied the basement, this also later revealed societal inequality.

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Tokyo Story: a classic

by Yashujiro Ozu, 1953

Ozu is a director that made his name internationally by focusing on producing contemporary dramas or gendai-geki in Japanese. He is very meticulous at the depictions of domesticity. Whether it’s the specificity of domestic setups (mise-en-scene), the camerawork (cinematography), editing (montaging) or the scenarios. To me, his dramas does not appear as dull or stereotypical, instead his approach to filmmaking make you look at home and people from alternative perspectives.

Ozu is a modernist behind his camera but traditionalist in his interest and depiction of domestic spaces. First I want to discuss about his idiosyncratic cinematography. In Tokyo Story his camera often remains static and waist-high, similar to the height of a person sitting on the floor. A fixed length of 50mm in every shot kept away from furnitures and objects, which directed the characters to appear at a frontal position. Resulting the mise-en-scene elements to be framed by 90 degree angles and parallel lines. This low-level camera position cut away excessive horizontal architectural elements such as ceilings, but makes vertical elements such as paper sliding screens and windows more prominent. Therefore magnifying actors actions and developing a sense of solidity to the houses. It avoids the shrinking of interior spaces on-screen, and engaged audience perceptions to the cinematic spaces. This suggested a minimal stylistic approach was given to his filmic spaces, which gives viewers an impression of intimacy within domestic interiors. [see drawing 1] Also he uses pillow shots (still shots) to cut between scenes of landscapes [see drawing 2], buildings and objects that were plot-wise unrelated to the everyday house lives of the characters. However pillow shots

Figure 1. Pillow shots of chimneys always introduces Tokyo

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Fiction and reality: cinema and architecture

drawing 1

Plan drawing: House of the eldest son 10

Fiction and reality: cinema and architecture

Tokyo Story (Tokyo Monogatari) 1953 11

drawing 2

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Fiction and reality: cinema and architecture

scenes such as the towers and factories often vertically or horizontally divide the screen (see figure 1) which always generates 90 degree angles. They are compositions that I found or perhaps the audience found similar to a painting. This kind of careful on-screen compositions allows us to examine architecture aesthetically in cinema, through a transition from imaginary spaces to real spaces. Film critic Donald Richie is the first author who wrote about Ozu, in his book Ozu: His Life and Films (1974), he described Ozu’s treatment on films by saying "formal and his formality is that of a poetry, the creation of an ordered context that destroys habit and familiarity, returning to each word, to each image, its original freshness and urgency." (Richie, 1974) Ozu’s camera art is minimal that embodies traditional Japanese aesthetics of concepts like Zen which emphasis simplicity, peacefulness and the beauty of transience. This is also reflected later on in his creation of traditional Japanese architecture spaces. In his film everything is reduced to minimal including behaviours of characters and the background music, to him "drama is something without sensational incidents", it is something you can’t easily put into words." (Schilling, n.d.) This stylistic approach gives him the ability to transforms everyday human lives into timeless visuals which still remain recognisable across the present time. This brings out a universality to his cinematography. [see drawing 3] [see drawing 4] Next the more relevant, what kind of domestic spaces has he constructed in Tokyo Story? It is important to note that there is a obvious relationship between framing of spaces and his set designs. In the film Ozu and his set designer Toshio Takahashi planned his household spaces by referring to Japanese traditional townhouses or Machiya in Japanese, it can be found throughout Japan and is originated from the Heian (7941185) period and developed into the Edo (1603- 1863) and Meiji period (1863-1912).

Is was a domestic typology that consists of a street-facing shop frontage, and a living area that leads into a small courtyard space depending on the scale of the ground floor.

The house is usually one to three-stories, and the sequence of a Machiya space started from the main entrance, then an area used for as a public shop (mise), then a working space (doma) opposite to the shop, after that an inner shop area (mise oku), and then is the living room layered with tatami mats known as the zashiki. This kind of layout started out narrow and extend vertically into one side of the house (see figure 2). Ozu’s spaces centres around the living area considered as moya space, the space uses modular system to create flexible and alterable

Figure 2. Hachise, 2020

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Fiction and reality: cinema and architecture

Tokyo Story (Tokyo Monogatari) 1953 14

drawing 3

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Fiction and reality: cinema and architecture

Tokyo Story (Tokyo Monogatari) 1953 16

drawing 4

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Fiction and reality: cinema and architecture

arrangements of rooms. The system allowed rooms and furnitures to be flexible and portable in Ozu’s studios, as spaces were not assigned with specific functions and can be rearranged for different functions. The partition used to divide each rooms were sliding screens made of wooden timbers and washi papers. A modular unit means the sliding screens are modular in size as well, other than its function to open or close a space, it also controls the scale of the rooms, this means the screens can construct larger areas for family to inhabit, or divide up to smaller areas for couples and individuals. Moreover, the sliding mechanism allows Ozu to frame his spaces against various furnitures in the background. In real world the screens also helps to maximise daylight and improve air circulation. [insert drawing] The use of tatami mats allows spaces to interconnect each other forming right angles that are suited for Ozu’s typical camera movements. Tatami mats were being used to also divide the hierarchy of spaces, the larger the space meant that more tatami mats were used. Consequently, this means that rooms used for sleeping can also be used for eating or working, however always connected with each other through the modular relationship. Eventually this system created a modular aesthetics for all of Ozu’s filmic architecture. [see drawing 5] This mundane and flexible domestic structure allows Ozu to frame his people and objects geometrically in different angles, for example when he switched between interior shots he is presenting us a series of 90 degree twists. Which gives audience the real perception of us sitting on the floor in a traditional Japanese house. It also provided a sense of identicalness on the interiors, because by reorganising the siding screens it means that shots taken from one place can look like they are filmed in two different locations. Ozu is constructing his spatial template by adopting the spatial relationship of traditional Japanese houses, which are culturally specific filmic spaces that are nothing like the contemporary domestic interiors for example in Parasite. Ozu also employ Japanese traditional art culture when composing his spaces. Richie pointed out that "the pictorial qualities of Ozu are the product not only of the architecture in which he sets his films but also of the compositional sensibilities typical of his cultural background."

(Cairns, 2014) He suggested Ozu used the pictorial tradition of ukiyo-e, a popular art culture originated from the Edo period, where artists produces woodblock prints and paintings, compositions are usually presented in one plane with a balanced foreground and background relationships. A comparison below described Ozu’s take on his architectural compositions from the ukiyo-e paintings (see figure 3,4). Both of the pictures depicted a low-level point of view, with a composition of small areas of empty spaces balancing large spaces with concentrated details. And actions are seen front-on with a centring perspective. Also architectural elements such as the windows, sliding screens and the black borders of tatami mats generates vertical and horizontal lines which demarcated actions of the people.

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drawing 5

Ozu’s tatami modular arrangements mats can be rearranged differently

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Fiction and reality: cinema and architecture

Figure 3. A party of married couples in a Tea-house in Shinagawa (美南見十二候 品海汐干), ca.1783 (Edo period). Torii Kiyonaga. Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Figure 4. A family gathering scene in a middle-class household, after the death of mother Tomi. Showing a low angle and a symmetrical composition on screen.

Screen captured from the film Tokyo Story (1953).

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Ozu also depicted the hierarchy of domestic spaces through gender roles. In Tokyo Story the women who was married and has children are housewife and those who are single work as office workers or teachers, while the men work as doctors or businessmen. In the home of the eldest son, his wife is portrayed as subservient, while the son is characterised as self-important, and the decision-maker. This reflected that father in the postwar films was the patriarchal pillar of the family (Iles, 2008) (see figure 7). Ozu’s camera revealed this relationship for example at the family gathering scene (see figure 4) where the son was seated at the centre of the table, and rest of the family was seated facing each other. In the moya space of the house which functioned as a communal room for dining and sleeping, the wife was depicted as the custodian of the rooms, she is a full time domestic labourer that primarily was cooking in the kitchen, cleaning the living room and laundering in the balcony (see figure 5,6). This suggested a clear division of spaces was present within Japanese household in the postwar period. Where gendered bias was underlined through spatial arrangements in the home, and there was a definite traditional relations between home and the woman. Tokyo Story presented family as the main foundation of a rigid domestic and social structure, however the structure was transforming due to generations separation and gender roles played on woman and man. Therefore it is important to reconsider the domestic structure in the context of a post-pandemic society, by focusing on establishing the relations between men and women, parents and children. Although the past social mores can’t be changed, but the architectural spaces of a house can be. Spaces that will not be restricted by gender roles and division of labour could reinforce a healthier social order.

Figure 5. Female figure’s movement in the house: living room.

Figure 6. Female figure’s movement in the house: Balcony.

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Fiction and reality: cinema and architecture

Figure 7. Through visual composition, father figure was presented as prominent in the house.

Ozu’s spatial thinking is also evident in a series of scenes that subtly convey the concepts of "mono no aware", "wabi" and "sabi". "Mono no aware" means "the pathos of things", in other terms is the awareness of impermanence (mujo). While "wabi" expressed the notions of simplicity, imperfections and the elimination of all unnecessary details, and "sabi" emphasises the solitude and imperfections under the effect of time upon spaces. The author of "In Praise of Shadows" Tanizaki Jun’ichiro argued how Japanese traditional architecture created the aesthetics of "Wabi", he wrote "An empty space is marked off with plain wood and plain walls, so that the light drawn into it forms dim shadows within emptiness. There is nothing more..we are overcome with the feeling that in this small corner of the atmosphere there reigns complete and utter silence; that here in the darkness immutable tranquility holds sway." (Japanese Aesthetics (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy), n.d.) This suggested the principle of Wabi, that cutting away the light of a space create a new world of shadows, the shadows forms a new space which reaches the peak of simplicity and imperfections. Thus concept of "Ma" is also created, it is about the gap between an environment and an observer created by empty space, suggesting the beauty of emptiness and formlessness, also the feeling of ambiguity when spaces merges the foreground with background, the interior with the garden. In Tokyo Story this is presented in spaces rather than through actors actions, such as: two pair of slippers in-front of the entrance of a bedroom when the couples were struggling to fall asleep (see figure 8), an empty scene before a person entering a room (see figure 9), an extra shot of the scene after the person is gone, or a shot of an empty corridor illustrating a moment of emptiness (see figure 10).

They were rather empty scenes that illustrated the beauty of transience and absence.

Therefore the filmic spaces of Ozu becomes the most charismatic when are not filled with any people. It is the kind of spaces that really emphasise and depend on the perceptions of the inhabitants and their experience to the architecture. Also the deliberate planning of the sizes of the rooms revealed spatial ambiguity. Because of the technique of in-studio filming, Ozu’s houses lacks the depiction of exterior environments, rooms were often obstructed by walls or signs of neighbourhoods, thus sizes of the rooms were often unclear. This generated sense of fictionality when the entrance is similar to the closing spaces of other Japanese architecture.

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Figure 8.

Figure 9.

Figure 10.

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Fiction and reality: cinema and architecture

In the Mood for Love: Wong Kar Wai, 2000 Hong Kong is well known for having confined spaces. In The Mood For Love is a romantic melodrama created under a political and historical context of Hong Kong, before the city was handed over from Britain to China. Although directed in 2000, the architecture is a periodic set representing Hong Kong in 1962. The 1960s was a sensitive time of transition for the city. It was a time when the society was under political pressures, westernisation, and social independence. (Jun, Jun and Jun, 2019.) The director uses spaces of a private domain to describe an intimate relationship between two neighbours Mr Chow and Mrs Chan. The filming of interior domestic spaces not only revealed a secret love affair but also reflected a loss of local identity in Hong Kong in the 1960s. In the film architecture was used to tell the identity of a place, as the spaces was constantly being related to the existing structures used in everyday life in Hong Kong. By filming on-site instead of on-set director Wong discovered spatial qualities that only existed in real locations. Wong is an immigrant from Shanghai, thus he had a childhood of living under close-knitted communities, by using his camera buildings and colours were framed meticulously to create an atmosphere of loss and loneliness. And he was able to capture the sense of isolation and intrusiveness pervaded across such dense domestic environment.

The film is heavily dominated by private spaces with discontinued shots of indoor scenes, similar to Ozu the camera was frequently framed at the body movements and facial expressions of the two protagonists instead of long shots of the cityscapes. For the audience this allowed them to fully acted as an user to the filmic spaces presented.

And for Wong this kind of mise-en-scene exemplified characters interpersonal relations and suggested a collective memory of being stranded within a tight apartment space, unlike the industrialisation of Tokyo as a metropolis, Hong Kong was more similar to an imagined and nostalgic city for the characters. Throughout the film Wong focused on the two protagonists and the spaces in which their bodies occupy but not through their dialogues. The intimacy is enhanced through physical tightness of the rooms in their apartments, the narrow corridor and the city alleys. For example in one scene, two of them were standing in front of their rooms about to open the doors (see figure 11), Mrs Chan was shot out of focus standing at the foreground and Mr Chow was shot clearly at the background, Mr Chow spoke "I haven’t see Mr Chan recently", Mrs Chan answers "He’s busy with his work", then Mr Chow said "No wonder I often see you at the noodle shop." Then camera cut Mrs Chan to the background (see figure 12), she says "I am too lazy to cook for myself. What about your wife? I haven’t seen her lately.” A close-up was given to Mr Chow, he says “She doesn’t feel well and goes to her mother’s place (see figure 13).” This casual short conversation within a cramped space and tigh camera composition suggested an ambiguous anxiousness and desires that were perfectly hidden between a claustrophobic environment and beautifully dressed up characters. This also challenged the boundaries between a private space and a public space to be ambiguous.

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Figure 11.

Figure 12.

Figure 13.

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Fiction and reality: cinema and architecture

Wong’s use of slow motion in the film enhanced the quality of spaces, as Wong explained in one of his interview about the use of slow panning shots with close-ups that "There are some details that I wanted to show. The slow motion doesn't express the action, but the environment…It was there to capture a certain space, a certain ambiance." (Li, 2017.) This explained when there was a slow motion the actions of characters were enlarged into details, actions such as slow body movements became like a journey within a space instead of just a shot. It amplified a moment of time which draws audiences close attention at observing the filmic spaces. Also this suggests how architectural spaces can control movements of people within a space. [insert drawing] For example, the drawing illustrated the journey of the characters in the apartment in one of the film scene, the walls and doors generated rhythmic movements of the characters. This explained Wong’s architectural spaces never acted as a backdrop to the story, instead elements such as the corridor acted as a transition in time, it allowed the interactions and movements of three of the characters.

Throughout the film, Wong’s depiction of confined spaces were created by tight camera compositions, static shots and the framing of foreground against background. In the film, the public realms such as the streets were presented as enclosed spaces by walls and the private realms also consists of cramped hallways and packed rooms.

The mise-en-scene of the film consists of tight and closed living spaces which created a mood of claustrophobia and restrictions. Therefore Mr Chow and Mrs Chan are represented like prisoners of societal norms. No matter where they go they are always framed narrowly in hallways, confined with a closed physical wall or by the ‘spoken’ wall constructed psychologically by the neighbours. Wong uses the camera movement to represent the neighbours eyes who would captured the characters movements by using medium shots or long shots. This complex spatial relationship can be described through an iconic opening scene in the film. Accompanying with slow motion, absence of the dialogues, music in the background and two camera positions, the scene introduces the social space within the apartment. The space functions as a living room, and the two couples Chans and Chows gathered for the first time to play mahjong with the landlord and their neighbours. The drawing plotted different angles of the camera along with the movements of characters A, B and C [see drawing 6].

It is a confined semi-private space where the corridor of the house were shared by the couples. The scene described how intimacy is enhanced between the physical tightness of the spaces. And suggested a limited habitable environment in a densely populated city. The camera is positioned at an eye level, outside the doorway facing the centre of the living room, it capture the precise moment when Mr Chow and Mrs Chan squeezed pass each other then immediately the space separates the two of them. Us the audience are like observer following the eye of the camera and remained at a peering angle into the room. Then the scene ended by the camera subtly following the exit of Mr Chan through the hallway. The narrowness of the spaces resulted the two protagonists to be enclosed within edges of the frames, faces of their spouses were never seen and neighbours reactions were unclear, this generated the sense of ‘imprisonment’ endured by the characters which echoes with the surrounding environment. The camera movements and constraint framing in the scene really allows us to capture the sense of isolation felt from the characters of living in shared households, and the lack of privacy you would experience when you live in close-knitted communities.

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The semi-private spaces in the film such as the living rooms were no longer private and became more like semi-public spaces, because the observant eyes of the community members. This kind of confined spaces used in the film can be related to a residential project Nakagin Capsule Tower constructed in 1972, designed by Kisho Kurokawa (see figure 14). The Nakagin was a particular built example of postwar architecture in the Metabolism period of Japan, representing the innovative use of prefabrication construction techniques among metabolism projects. The interior of the capsule units were factory fitted with installations fulfilling the basic needs of people. Consisting of a bath unit, bed, wardrobes, desks, radio, TV etc. Thus the capsule is like an extension of the user, together they became like a cyborg entity where they rely on each others existence. Through studying the plan of the tower (see figure 14), one floor of the tower consists multiple capsule spaces each can accommodate maximum of two people. Other than capsule spaces the building only contain serviceable and circulation spaces. The arrangements of capsules is similar to the confined rooms inhabited

by Mr Chow and Mrs Chan [see drawing 7]. Both of the plans illustrated a tight and non-flexible layout where one room is next to the other room. In the film the rooms are like microcosms of the inhabitants, they acted like capsules as a container to protect the occupier from the outside space, the tiny rooms are like a strictly controlled personal environment that allows the protagonists to have complete privacy for emotional exchange. The rooms are like capsule spaces which protect the protagonists from an oppressive society. The Nakagin Capsule Tower acted as a prototype for Space Capsules apartment, build in 2016 in Hong Kong. This wasn’t the first time that capsule spaces appear in Hong Kong, some projects such as capsule hotels were build in the city since 2012. In the apartment, two capsules were installed to create a bedroom with one kitchen and one bathroom shared by the tenants. (Hong Kong landlord launches ‘space capsule’ homes for rent, 2016) The capsules are inbuilt with functions that are similar to the Japanese capsules, they are particular examples of households in densely populated cities as they improved the living conditions of the lower-class Hong Kong people, who can only afford to live in poorly-maintained cubicle homes and partitioned flats.

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Fiction and reality: cinema and architecture

drawing 6

The Majong Scene 05:00-05:57

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drawing 7

Plan drawing: The apartment of In the Mood for Love

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Fiction and reality: cinema and architecture

Figure 14. Moreaedesign, 2010

It can be envisaged that in a post-pandemic society, there will exist a high demand for comfortable and personal spaces in cities such as Hong Kong. Thus the existence of independent spaces such as capsule spaces might become essential, as it could promote new types of households that focus on characteristics of spaces and feelings of individual.

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Parasite: Bong Joon Ho, 2019

Parasite is an award-winning contemporary film, its popularity is associated with how much the built environments speaks more than its narratives. (Nicole, Brown, E, 2020) The film is also a melodramatic film and is the most up to date one. It suggested an economic progression that is happening under different Korean communities. In Parasite, the architecture is a vital element that deploy the storylines, it supported the creation of narratives and provided an aesthetic value for the audience. The architecture in the film were fictional spaces that was created entirely from scratch as physical sets. And the spaces represented a divided class system that thrives within a capitalist economy under the context of South Korea. Director Bong and set designer Lee wanted to challenge and critique the current social inequalities, by building fictional hierarchical domestic environments to overcome an existing class system. Perhaps the intention could lead us to reexamine the hierarchies of spaces in a post-pandemic setting.

First I want to talk about how the fictional spaces in the film commented on a corrupted reality. Throughout the film, the division of class systems was clearly presented by the houses that two of the protagonists families live in. Mr Kim’s family live in a dark and cramped semi-basement apartment on one of the Seoul street because of their low income status, while Mr Parks’ family live in a modernist villa hidden above the hills looking down at the city streets. The Kim’s family apartment is an example of aesthetics identified as dystopia. The house is located half underground and not fully underground, the only daylight they get was from a slim window positioned at eye level, looking out to the city streets (see figure 15). And they were forced to live disadvantaged from civilisation when they struggle to connect with the Wi-Fi offered upstairs by a coffee shop. The camera introduced these details through an infiltrative manner, descending from the streets into their claustrophobic spaces. Conversely, while poorer people live underground wealthy people live above ground. The Parks’ house is situated at the top of a hill, visually representing the upper class status, where minimalism played its full role. Their house have three floors excluding the underground bunker, the spaces are clean and controlled with displayed cabinets on the wall, also a floor to ceiling window that looks into their well-maintained garden (see figure 16). The residence is said to design by a fictional architect in the film. The spatial differences between two of the homes illustrated that although both protagonists are nuclear families the scale of their inhabit spaces are different. The Parks have access to large and outdoor spaces while the Kims have access to cramped and uncleaned spaces. Both of the setting described the politics of spaces, as they critiqued a disrupted hierarchy in the society and indicated a clear separation line between the working classes and middle classes. This line of inequality will continue to remain within domestic environments in the post-pandemic society. The architectural environments in Parasite are also reflected in Hong Kong’s society, where capitalism is effecting how the rich and poor lives. The architectural spaces of the middle class people are free and luxurious, while the working class are living in chaotic spaces that are cramped and limited, such as the spaces presented in In the Mood For Love. In Hong Kong’s society personally I experienced how domestic spaces represent individuals social status. As in Hong Kong if you live 'above' you are considered as wealthy and vice versa. Thus, the 'above and below' relationship might effect how people inhabit its spaces.

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Fiction and reality: cinema and architecture

Figure 15.

Figure 16.

Parasite’s spatial designs relates to the idea of infiltration. Bong in one of his interview expressed infiltration was based on his experiences over the years as he worked as a tutor. During the tutoring years, the director felt like he was infiltrating the family he teaches in, and it gave him the inspiration and motivation to direct the film. (O, Falt, 2020) This idea also means 'crossing boundaries'. It all took place within Mr Parks’ house. First it started when the son of Mr Kim Ki-Woo was offered a job as a tutor for the daughter of Mr Park, in order to survive from being in poverty, the Kims family then decide to infiltrate the Parks house, by working for the Parks under different job roles. Eventually what was considered as a private space was no longer private, each of Kim’s family member crossed over the boundary into Parks personal spaces at home. In the film the Kim’s even decided to inhabit within the living room when the Parks were absent from the house for a vacation. The boundary is also depicted at the beginning of the film, Ki Woo’s first session to tutor the daughter was on the ground floor of the house, but when the mother Park Yeon-Kyo approved his teaching she fitted Ki Woo to teach in the daughter’s bedroom, which is on the first floor. However there still exists boundaries that Parks wanted to protect, such as when the daughter of Mr Kim was hired as an therapist for the youngest son of Mr Park and she wanted to have a session upstairs, but Park Yeon-Kyo told her to wait downstairs instead. Scenes like this demonstrated that the Parks were assigned spaces at the lower level of the house, while the first floor holds a sense of privacy and luxuriousness that belong to the Kims [see drawing 8]. Thus who is the host or who is the parasite wasn’t difficult to tell.

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drawing 8

Movements of the three families & four generations in Parasite

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Fiction and reality: cinema and architecture

About this spatial relationship Bong said "I had to really meticulously design the house itself. It’s like its own universe inside this film. Each character and each team has spaces that they take over that they can infiltrate, and also secret spaces that they don’t know. So the dynamic between these three teams and the dynamic of space, they were very much intertwined and I think that combination really created an interesting element to this film". (Tokyo, 2020) Like Ozu’s architectural spaces, Bong suggested the houses of the film were carefully constructed set-pieces that created a half-fictional environment for the characters (see figure 17). The sets are fundamental to the film as it drives the story, and takes spatial hierarchies into consideration thus created imaginary homes that looks and functions like real structures. This can be seen from the plan [see drawing 9], that some spaces such as the basement floors were deliberately built and arranged for the actors, and do not equip with qualities for living. Set designer Lee explained in the interview with IndieWire that “I’m not an architect, and I think there’s a difference in how an architect envisions a space and how a production designer does. We prioritise blocking and camera angles while architects build spaces for people to actually live in and thus design around people. So I think the approach is very different.” (O, Falt, C, 2020) Thus, by arranging their build environments Bong and Lee has demonstrated a way of using their filmic spaces as a medium for criticism on the reality.

Figure 17. Indiewire, 2019

Other than the idea of infiltration between spaces, the concept of vertically penetrates the houses of the Kims and Parks. Both of the houses contained a hierarchy that either goes from the bottom to the top or vice versa. The semi-basement apartment of the Kims started from the ground floor and descend into the entrance, but with the highest point being in the bathroom (see figure 18). In the film, the camera introduced the house by the youngest members of the family scanning the apartment using the flashlight from their phones, searching for Wi-Fi. The bathroom is defined as the communal space for gathering because it is the only place with a network connection. Bong

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drawing 9

Plan drawing: Mr Park’s house

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Fiction and reality: cinema and architecture

Figure 18.

described their apartment as a crawlspace, the spaces are designed as half-overground when you can still access the sunlight, this reflects the conscious of the Kims, where they still have the hope of living on the 'top'. This verticality structure is presented more clearly in the Parks house. Half way through the film, when the Kims thought that they fully infiltrated the house there was a plot twist that interrupted their plan. The Kims were not the only 'parasites' of the Parks, they discovered the former housekeeper family was living in the bunker hidden under the basement floor. And none of the Parks was aware of their existence. This generated another level of hierarchy between the Kims and the housekeeper family, when both of them wanted a higher position in the house. The Parks were unaware of the bunker’s existence until the end of the film, this again reminded us that the space was a result of the class division. The bunker located beneath the basement was only accessible through a descending staircase hidden behind the huge cabinets in the basement, thus it is considered as a lower-basement level [see drawing 10]. Through the plan drawing, one can see this floor created another elevational separation that started from the bottom level to the top. Stairs within the house is an important architectural element that created the family’s hierarchy. In the plan there are already six staircases that was constructed to direct characters movements. Bong uses the stairs as a metaphoric space where going upstairs means ascending to power, while going downstairs leads you to darkness. The drawing suggested that Bong created spaces vertically layers above layers; starting from the lower basement floor climbing up to the first floor. Where the altitude shifts as the density of spaces changes. Also the drawing shows that boundaries was drawn between the spaces, even if three families and four generations lived among each other, their experiences are completely independent and apart. To summarise, the detailed architectural planning of both of the houses in the film creates a filmic metaphor of class division.

And I think it is possible that the separation of spaces can broadens the housing typologies for families, under a post-pandemic society when people are being forced to live together.

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Fiction and reality: cinema and architecture

Areas where director prioritise characters movements

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drawing 10

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Fiction and reality: cinema and architecture

Discussion

domesticity & the current pandemic

The above examples are fictional films that archived, expressed, and portrayed domesticity under different social context. All of them illustrated how humans occupy domestic spaces by recording their daily routines and movements in the dimension of time and space. They identified the cultural and societal changes that took place through the post-war period to the present day. Filmic spaces in Parasite and Tokyo Story demonstrated the role of architecture through the construction of sets, the sets are different to physical architecture as they are free from the burden of materials, and repetitive human activities. Parasite’s spaces are a radical construction that critiqued on the existing class systems. The film acted as an allegory; Bong created an entire new structure to demonstrate reality, with this he created a metaphor that new social systems can also be built, if we are willing to improve the existing class systems; the houses of the Kims and Parks.

The staging of In the Mood for Love were intimate spaces of a real environment, which studied on traditional domesticity in a historical period of time. Acted as a medium, the films preserved a pre-existed society, documented cultures in an era of change and demonstrated a shifting reality.

Therefore, although films create fictions, it is inbuilt with a precede reality. Jonathan Raban once described film as the 'soft city’, "The city as we imagine it, the soft city of illusion, myth, aspiration, and nightmare, is as real, maybe more real, than the hard city one can locate on maps in statistics, in monographs on urban sociology and demography and architecture". (Penz, F, 2020) Thus, filmmakers are like architects, they allowed an intersection between cinema and architecture where both fields are considered as 'spatial arts'.

Cinematic narratives and architectural spaces can never be separate entities, because together they explored spaces of the past in order to predict spaces of the future. After the outbreak of COVID-19, the current situation lead us to face the realities of self-isolation. The cities never function the same as before because the design of private spaces becomes more crucial than public spaces. In quarantine conditions our perception of time and space has changed, houses go back to its pre-historic idea which function as a safe and protected shelter from the outside world, and homes became a haven for our mind and soul. Many of our values on lives and habits were forced to change, as our regular routines called a temporary pause. Being bounded by isolation and restrictions, our social life, work life, and daily activities were reduced to a minimum. Therefore providing the pandemic persists for an undefined period of time, new forms of living must be imagined for the post-COVID future to adapt to these changes that has been brought to us. The cinematic spaces explored above speculate on the dwellings of a time to come.

The fictional domestic spaces under Ozu’s camera lead to my exploration on minimal and flexible domesticity in reality. The long-term impact of the crisis means our lifestyle will have constant changes, there will exist the need for both working space and studying space within the same environment, or multifunctional spaces that can be transformed to adapt how we exercise, relax and eat. (Steele, J, 2020) Modular system of the Machiya houses suggested in Tokyo Story can be a model for post-pandemic living. Because the interiors of Machiya proposed adaptable, versatile and multifunctional living spaces, which allows single family and multi-families inhabitation. The household promotes adaptability by using sliding screens (fusuma) to divide a large space into separate spaces, they are similar to moveable walls however sustainable as they can be reused and removed. As self isolation reduces the requirement to socialise and live in apartments, a modular residence means our physical contact with public facilities and neighbours can be reduced, in order to be protected from possible infections and viruses.

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The modular system of the residence can promote mixed-use environments where members of single family or multi-families can be gathered within a safe habitat. It create a sense of communal living but also allow privacy of individuals. The entrance area of the household and living quarters will be separated to maintain basic hygiene. The layout of the residence can be constructed by different compartments each equip with individual needs for different family members, resulting spaces that are constructed by compartments. Similar to Machiya the spatial layout of spaces could introduce partitions between compartments, this might bring an end to open-plan spaces where entrance and living quarters are all united. This modular spatial organisation demonstrates flexibility that allow the coexistence of various working spaces, where studying spaces for children can be separated from working spaces for adults. Also the compartments grants spaces such as living rooms and exercise rooms with privacy, at the same time inbuilt with access to other facilities within the same environment. Green spaces such as gardens which used to exist exteriorly in open-plan households can no longer be outdoor, instead they can be build privately as courtyards or indoor gardens.

Architectural spaces presented in Parasite also transforms our post-pandemic living environment as the Parks house speculate on a home for multi-families or multi-generations. The house of Mr Park is a low-rise building with the second floor primarily acquired by the Parks, the ground floor and basement floor were mixed-use by the Kims and Parks, and the lower-basement floor solely used by the former housekeepers. Thus the house proposed a new housing typology as it is the residence of two generations of the same family with three unrelated families. However filmic spaces in Parasite created a hierarchical sense of ownership to spaces, where the spatial boundaries were blurred in and out, as areas such as kitchen and dining spaces were shared by different families, this also confused the level of privacy between characters. But for a post-pandemic society, the typology allow flexibility to multi-generations domesticity where families can inhabit under the same household setting, but there is still a need to create additional rooms and improve the privacy controls. This plan could avoid mental health problems that can be caused by living under self-isolation (City, University of London, 2020), also it might solved the future demand for accommodating family units under the flux of epidemic situations.

(Multihousingnews, 2020) Furthermore, the presence of basement floors might create the possibilities of bunkers style spaces. The basement structures in the film were modified from real apartment examples in Seoul by set designers, the structure first appeared when people started to build bunkers for living after the Korean War in the 1970s (Ulaby, 2020), they became homes for the poorer people in the society even until the present. These spaces could act as housing typology for survivalists in the future, it is no longer surprising if our society gradually focus on building for survival. In the film basements of the Kims and Parks were portrayed as cramped living environments, but in reality, the spaces are fortified environments that can be adaptively used and reuse for different purposes. It might not only improve the hygiene of buildings but also prepare homes from unexpected crisis Under the lens of Wong Kar Wai, he portrayed a restrained and confined domesticity in the context of Hong Kong. In the reality, these are liminal living spaces in a communal environment, that lacks the sense of privacy and flexibility. Perhaps a flexible and self-sufficient environment can be speculated in the near future, by revising the concept of capsule spaces. Where capsule spaces incorporates the idea of modular flexibility. The origins of capsule relates to a single space, or a ‘cell’, the space is only meaningful when it is contained. Capsule space can be see as a shelter which protect the occupier from the outside space, in the case of pandemic it is like a house that protect us from the unwanted viruses and diseases. The Nakagin Capsule Tower located in Tokyo was a prototype of capsule architecture, it was constructed by 144 prefabricated capsule modules attached to a concrete centre pillar, and was imagined as a rental apartment aim to accommodate working-class people and businessmen in the city. The capsules of Nakagin are adaptable spaces because they are prefabricated and modular constructed. (see figure 19) They are build by identical functional units and interchangeable parts, where variety of essential furnishing were built into a confined space, along with a bathroom unit that can be replaced and renewed at anytime.

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Fiction and reality: cinema and architecture

Figure 19. Noritaka Minami, 2017 This allowed variety of interior spaces to be assembled according to individual needs, resulting variety of possible productions. Thus, capsule spaces can respond to the changes that can occur in peoples’ lifestyles, by being flexible through forms and functions. The prefabrication technique implemented on Nakagin lead to the recent use of contemporary modular construction, it is a cost-effective strategy for building post-pandemic modular spaces (buildingenclosure, 2020). The method involves bringing the prefabricated modules in factories for on sites assemblage, thus allow more efficient construction time.

The efficiency of such projects allows a carefully planned and controlled manufacturing environment thus, this efficient process requires fewer skilled workers and reduces the labor costs involved. (see figure 20) The diagram illustrated how the capsule module of Nakagin was being inserted and replaced.

Furthermore, because capsules were designed as minimal 'cells' they often rejects excessive ornaments within spaces, instead they suggest a non-materialist space and simple lifestyle.

Figure 20. William Harbison, 2009

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Thus the environment can be easily sanitised and are adaptable for the use of anti-bacterial furnishing materials. However, capsule spaces are not ideal for single family or multi-families domesticity because they focus on promoting personal and private experiences. The Nakagin tower currently faces demolition because the building was lacking the importance of social symbiosis, just like the apartment rooms in In the Mood for Love they are very personal and identical spaces that expresses the individuality of individuals. The capsules are a predecessor of micro-apartments instead of visions for low-level houses. The housing alternative for post-pandemic domesticity should really obtain a symbiosis between individual and familial, independent spaces and communal spaces. It shouldn’t be a contained, and non-flexible environment.

Therefore, contemporary modular housing that incorporates modular systems are a more recent and effective typology for creating flexible domestic environments. A recent example called Gomos housing uses modular system to create multi-services spaces, the project locates in Portugal and was build in 2017. The model was efficient to build and promotes adaptable domesticity by adopting adjustable modules. The ground floor is a mixed-use environment with the first floor being individual habitation units. (see figure 21) On the first floor the units were build as single module, each equipped with essential interior and exterior functions, and they were all build in factories and assembled on site.

While the ground floor was build with removable panels, this allow the coexistence of various types of spaces. To summarise, the building is a model created with adaptable room layouts which could allow individual, nuclear family and multi-family habitation. It is also a type of environment that do not generate ambiguity at the use between private and public spaces. This kind of spatial organisation might put an end to pre-COVID spaces which focus on static, and permanent purposes. Such as non-adaptable hierarchical households or houses that are varied in sizes and the range of facilities provided. Also open-plan households where there isn’t a clear division between entrance area and living areas.

Figure 21. Inhabitat, 2017

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Fiction and reality: cinema and architecture

Conclusion Architecture seemed to be closely linked to cinema, where the filmmaker has become one step closer to the architect and vice versa. But the difference between two of the fields is that film makers constructs place and creates space not only through the form of sets, but also by establishing a common awareness between the audience and the filmic spaces. Because if a filmic scene was not a place of memory for a person before it was filmed, then the film is creating a fiction and not a reality. And as architecture and its physical spaces consistently changes over time, architecture in films remains a poetic reality, a 'soft city'. Both of them are all spatial arts that focused on the construction of spatial elements such as light, shadow, scale and motions. Thus cinematic narratives and architectural spaces can never be separated. Having analysed three films and their architectural spaces in detail, they all recorded and preserved an realistic image of the past and portrayed different kinds of domesticity. For Tokyo Story Ozu has depicted an ordinary family life but in reality, the narrative becomes the tool for an intimate study on nuclear family’s domesticity. Using Tokyo Story, I was able to speculate on modular layouts for domestic spaces in the future, by modifying the traditional spatial techniques used by Ozu. The film In the Mood for Love was a exploration on spatial intimacy, I have analysed how the director uses framed and fragmented spaces to portray a real architecture environment. These studies lead to my understanding on how filmmakers can construct domestic spaces that reflect on individuality and interpersonal relationships. And how on-site filming can be different to on-set filming used by the other two directors. For Parasite, the architecture clearly critiqued on the social system that not only exist in South Korea but also around parts of the world. Director Bong uses architecture as a powerful tool on-screen, as it suggested multi-families inhabitation under post-COVID situations. One might question why employ cinematic spaces to question architectural reality, it is because they develop spatial quality in the dimension of time and space, but architecture only gives access to the dimension of space. British filmmaker Patrick Keiller once predicted: ‘In films, one can explore the spaces of the past, in order to better anticipate the spaces of the future’. (Penz, F, 2020) Films allow us to reflect on the spaces of the past and comment on the reality, the same as how the current pandemic also offers us the opportunity to improve for the future. Our lives after the pandemic will never be the same because our values and habits will change. And architecture might find itself entering the post-pandemic style, where it become a refuge for survival. The cities are already facing the impact that has been brought to us, and we are being tested by how domestic environments can be design safer and greener in the near future.

With the future being unclear, perhaps a flexible, self-sufficient, sustainable and healthy living environment is what I anticipate. This paper does not suggest all of the problems that we are currently facing, and the above discussion are speculation solely on how domesticity can be improved and challenged.

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Figures Fig 1 - Anqi, 2020, Tokyo Story (1953) Fig 2 - Hachise Co. Ltd. 2020. Kyo-Machiya From Meiji Era | Traditional Kyoto Machiya Houses For Sale - Hachise Co. Ltd.. [online] Available at: <http://www.hachise.com/buy/63079/ index.html> [Accessed September 2020].

Fig 3 - Ukiyo-e Search. n.d. Torii Kiyonaga: Teahouse In Shinagawa - Metropolitan Museum Of Art. [online] Available at: <https://ukiyo-e.org/image/met/DP144663> [Accessed September 2020].

Fig 4 - Anqi, 2020, Tokyo Story (1953) Fig 5 - Anqi, 2020, Tokyo Story (1953) Fig 6 - Anqi, 2020, Tokyo Story (1953) Fig 7 - Anqi, 2020, Tokyo Story (1953) Fig 8 - Anqi, 2020, Tokyo Story (1953) Fig 9 - Anqi, 2020, Tokyo Story (1953) Fig 10 - Anqi, 2020, Tokyo Story (1953) Fig 11 - Anqi, 2020, In the Mood For Love (2000) Fig 12 - Anqi, 2020, In the Mood For Love (2000) Fig 13 - Anqi, 2020, In the Mood For Love (2000) Fig 14 - moreAEdesign. n.d. MORE ABOUT: Nakagin Capsule Tower – Tokyo, Japan. [online] Available at: <https://moreaedesign.wordpress.com/2010/09/14/more-about-nakagin-capsuletower/> [Accessed September 2020].

Fig 15 - Anqi, 2020, Parasite (2019) Fig 16 - Anqi, 2020, Parasite (2019) Fig 17 - O;Falt, C., 2020. Building The ‘Parasite’ House: How Bong Joon Ho And His Team Made The Year’S Best Set. [online] IndieWire. Available at: <https://www.indiewire.com/2019/10/ parasite-house-set-design-bong-joon-ho-1202185829/> [Accessed September 2020].

Fig 18 - Anqi, 2020, Parasite (2019) Fig 19 - Nationalgeographic.com. 2017. Pictures Reveal Life Inside Tiny Futuristic Cubes. [online] Available at: <https://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/proof/2017/10/ nakagin-capsule-tower/> [Accessed September 2020].

Fig 20 - Harboproject.blogspot.com. n.d. Nakagin Capsule Tower, Tokyo 1972. [online] Available at: <http://harboproject.blogspot.com/2009/08/nakagin-capsule-tower-tokyo-1972.html> [Accessed September 2020].

Fig 21 - Jewell, N., n.d. Largest-Ever Modular Gomos Building To Be Completed In Just A Few Months. [online] Inhabitat.com. Available at: <https://inhabitat.com/largest-ever-modulargomossystem-project-to-be-completed-in-just-a-few-months/> [Accessed September 2020].

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Fiction and reality: the domestic spaces presented in the films Tokyo Story (1953), In the Mood for Love (2000) and Parasite (2019)