Spectatorships, Pleasures, and Social Uses of Cinema: A Tentative Study of the Reception of Cape No 7

Cape No. 7 seems to have a simple storyline despite the large number of characters: essentially the story involves a Mandarin-speaking fashion model from Japan assigned the difficult task of managing a hastily assembled band comprising seven untrained locals. Not only in the movie, is the journey to success of the band a "miracle," but the marketing of the movie itself is a miracle as well1. The unusual music-comedy genre, strong character development, and localized humor are all important to the content of the movie (Hu, 2008; Cape No. 7 official site). The characterization in the film is especially impressive, as the characters are presented as rounded individuals with multi-faceted personalities.