Author: Lorrie Palmer
Source: Cinematic Starchitecture
Abstract
This chapter proposes that the spectacle of the Hong Kong battle sequences in Pacific Rim (Guillermo del Toro, 2013), Transformers: Age of Extinction (Michael Bay, 2014), and Godzilla vs. Kong (Adam Wingard, 2021) reveals, through the growth of a discursive space that flows from their representational qualities into a transmedia network of architectural display, movie fandom, and urban tourism, an evolving view of what constitutes iconic and cinematic Hong Kong starchitecture.
Both onscreen and as massive media screens, these Hong Kong hyperbuildings – Norman Foster’s HSBC (1985) and I.M. Pei’s Bank of China tower (1990), as well as the Instagram-friendly “Monster Building” (formerly a 1960s public housing development) – cement their architectural iconicity and stardom, not just through the global reach of the representations themselves, but also through subsequent fan activities which continue to facilitate the wider, ongoing spatial cultural discourse of iconicity.
Thus, the transmedia fictions of these action-sci-fi films unite celebrity architects and star buildings with interactive movie fandom, digital tourism, and social media when the monsters and machines come to Hong Kong.