Samantha Tse Bing Ying

“Every man has his own destiny: the only imperative is to follow it, to accept it, no matter where it leads him.” Inside an after-hours bowling alley, a counselling session is underway with the attendances discussing the various merits and drawbacks of execution strategies and the prevention of occupational hazards. A man offers to play the flute and all hell breaks loose from there. The weapon is a folded chair, the victims his fellow professionals and the crime is predestined by karma. As the camera lingers on the gory actions, set to offbeat music and at times muted and occurring out-of-frame, a foreboding, dark and somewhat sinister overtone hangs heavy in the air. In a profession such as his, life is predestined by karma and choice is not an option.

Yee-tou cannot recover from her sorrow at her fiancé’s death. Her admirer Heem with a quiet and introverted character is kind enough to take care of her. Deeply depressed, she resists taking her medication and suffers from frequent hallucinations. Eventually she kills herself in front of Heem, who is consequently infected by her depression, and keeps a tank of goldfishes at home. From a glass fish tank to our world, are we living in a true world or is life an illusion? “The Glass City” is a love story with sad sentiments mentioning the limitations in life as if goldfishes living in a glass tank.