The old walled city of Kowloon has come down.

Almost to the end, it retained its seedy magnificence. It had never looked more impudent, more desperate, more evil to some eyes, more weirdly beautiful to others. indie kowloon walled city oc est. forever image credits

[outofeverythingthisnamewasleft]

[haknam]

kwc tags on this site are just filled with ai slop lmfao. do NOT piss me off

[nightprompts]

&. 𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐮𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐭𝐬.

( this is basically just a very self indulgent list of various fluff, angst, and suggestive themed dialogue sentence starters. )

❛ i could keep you safe. they’re all afraid of me. ❜

❛ i’m trying to fix your hair, so hold still. ❜

❛ your heart is beating so fast right now. ❜

❛ promise me you’ll still be here when i wake up. ❜

❛ you’re not as bad as everyone says you are. ❜

❛ i thought you’d like some company. ❜ 

❛ clean yourself up. you're getting blood all over the place. ❜

❛ here, give this a try and tell me what you think. ❜

❛ you can kiss me, you know. ❜

❛ come back to bed. ❜

❛ you look good like this. ❜

❛ working together again, it’s just like old times. ❜

❛ how is it you always know what i need, huh? ❜

❛ you’re lucky you got away with only a scratch. ❜ 

❛ i can’t imagine losing someone like that. i’m sorry. ❜

❛ you know you can always talk to me. ❜

❛ the only one who gets to kill you, is me. ❜

❛ so, what do i owe this pleasure? ❜

❛ ah, so you aren’t heartless after all. ❜

❛ may i have this dance? ❜ 

❛ it’s okay, you can touch me. i won't break. ❜

❛ enemies make the best lovers, you know. ❜

❛ hold still. this might sting a little. ❜

❛ we can't keep doing this. ❜ 

❛ you look like you've got something to say. ❜

❛ just relax and let me take care of you. ❜

❛ thought you’d be lighter without all that blood. ❜

❛ i had it under control. you didn’t need to do that. ❜

❛ everything looks so beautiful from up here. ❜

❛ you treat all your ladies like this? ❜

❛ well? how do i look? ❜

❛ can’t sleep? ❜

❛ do you mind if i smoke? ❜

❛ i’m scared of ending up alone. ❜

❛ i don’t think i’ve ever seen you smile. ❜

❛ how long has it been since you've slept? ❜

❛ you are losing my interest, and that’s very dangerous. ❜

❛ i’d suffer hell if you’d tell me what you’d do to me tonight. ❜

❛ you look really pretty right now. ❜

❛ i’ve never cared for anyone the way i care for you. ❜

❛ i’m not wearing any underwear. thought you’d like to know. ❜

❛ just a few more stitches and you’ll be as good as new. ❜

❛ i’d say we make a pretty good team. ❜

❛ i want you to forget this ever happened. ❜

❛ i'm here for business — not pleasure. ❜

❛ if i didn't know any better, i'd say you were jealous. ❜

❛ you'd look better down on your knees. ❜

❛ fine, keep acting like you hate me. ❜

❛ kiss me again. ❜

❛ are you asking me out on a date? ❜

❛ just sit there and look pretty and let me handle this. ❜

❛ you okay? caught you staring off into space again. ❜

❛ well, i do feel better now that you're here. ❜

❛ i'm not drunk enough for this. ❜ 

❛ why is it whenever we see each other, you’re covered in blood? ❜

❛ i was wrong about you. ❜ 

❛ the first time i met you, i had no idea you'd mean this much. ❜

❛ you gonna be a good girl / boy for me? ❜

❛ i’m not afraid of you. ❜

❛ books mean more to me than people anyway. ❜

❛ i just wanted to say thank you for protecting me. ❜

❛ how about a kiss goodnight? ❜

❛ i don’t have time for distractions right now. ❜

❛ you shouldn’t be out here by yourself. ❜ 

❛ if i have to think about one more thing today, my head will explode. ❜

[haknam]

guys. holy fucking shit. considering i remade this blog when shihong's original was like 3 years old. ive had this loser living in my brain for over 13 years in total (CRIES ABOUT IT)

[browneyeslouis]

having a character playlist is like this song is them. this song is who they think they are. this song is their brand of insanity. and this song is about a specific ass situation they were in. this song is about their relationship with another character. that song is about the relationship they would have with another character. this song is them but slightly to the left. this song is totally misinterpreted just to fit them. this song is just their vibesTM. this song is if everything had gone different. this song only has one line that applies to them. and this one has nothing to do with them but i was vibing with it real hard at the same time i fixated on them and now i'm unable to think of it without thinking of them

[haknam]

batting the pornbots off my blog with gusto

[luthienne]

girl help i’m starting over again for the 1000th time & i’m beginning to think that life is a never-ending cycle of starting over & i actually have to make peace with that in order to move forward

[luthienne]

[fuforthought]

If anyone’s into newer kung fu movies, here’s a fight scene from the recently released Kowloon Walled City (2021)

Unfortunately, there’s no way for anyone to get their hands on this at the moment since it’s only hit Chinese streaming services.

[4eternal-life]

Ryuji Miyamoto  /Japanese, born 1947

Kau Lung Shing Chai (Kowloon Walled City)

… Miyamoto’s dystopian night views of Kowloon’s streets and alleyways create an ominous sensation, as if one cannot escape the walled city.

© 2022 Vincent Borrelli, Bookseller.

[eggwhiteswithspinach]

OLD Picture of 九龍寨城, very old picture of Kowloon Walled City

https://www.reddit.com/r/HongKong/comments/10cvcpz/old_picture_of_九龍寨城_very_old_picture_of_kowloon/

[blackramhall]

Alley View, 1990. Greg Girard

Blackram Hall: whodunit, murder mystery, hardboiled, pulp, crime, thriller, italian giallo, noir and neo-noir, detectives and serial killers, spy stories, vintage, manor houses, art, life and death.

[tr1p0d]

Metal grate protects temple from garbage, thrown from upper floors (1989, Greg Girard)

[haknam]

okay which version of xkit should i be running rn because ermm i cannot be fucking up the post formats this bad

[haknam]

Oh, did Shìhóng ever miss Chūn-Yàn‘s energy! For once, he bites his tounge-- that the hour of the day can’t kill what’s already been dead for years, and instead his palm connects squarely with his forehead and he keels back a bit, a grand display of piety, although clearly in jest. 

“Gatekeeping?! Me? How could you--”

Smoke curls from his mouth as he laments, and deeming that it’s done it’s duty,  Shìhóng extinguishes his cigarette on the bottom of his shoe, before flicking it away, into a trashcan. 

“I’d never. How the hell could you think that I wouldn’t tell you where you could get the best-- cheapest-- curry fish balls or whatever else you’ve got on the brain, at four o’clock in the morning.” 

[haknam]

springswallow:

A sly smile graces her face, much like a snake in awe of music playing before it. Years of painted skin, lines rehearsed and the occasional verse improvised—yes, she could recognise an invitation for theatrics when she saw it. She would dance along.

The hour is four o'clock. Lightly four o'one by now. Which means it is time… to be a little silly!

“Ah, my hubris has fetched me a hefty penance!” she announces. “I should not have doubted your wisdom. Curry fish balls, tea eggs, pineapple buns. Rù xiāng suí sú, you lead the way. What is the tradition of early risers such as yourself?”

They might even have a DIRECTED BY WONG KAR-WAI pop up at the end of this excursion! What fun!

Does it count as rising early if you haven’t slept? Shìhóng isn’t sure, but he ponders it for about half a second. He drapes an arm around his newfound company and gestures with the other towards the vast expanse of city in the (relatively small) distance. 

“Well I can tell you with my whole chest that there’s a insanely good spot like, maybe a five minute walk from here.” 

He guides her out of the Kowloon Walled City Park, then Carpenter Road Park, with ease, manicured lawns and stone pathways giving way to the electric buzz of Lok Sin road. 

“So!” Shihong starts, giving Chūn-Yàn a playful look. “I know you didn’t come to Hong Kong just looking for me. What, time for a vacation?” 

[paralianprince]

@haknam from here god bless

-

"I did miss you, obviously, you utter madman, and you ain't allowed to tell anybody, on account of my reputation for havin' perfect accuracy, which I'd quite like to maintain, thank you very much!"

Peter had, of course, not had the reflexes on hand to throw anything in Shihong's general direction in time. Even with the damn-near-supernatural aim he likes to brag about so much. He'd just been chilling!! He wasn't ready!! Do-over!!!

"You startled me this time, is all-- you're playin' dirty-- I won't miss you twice!"

Cackling already, he reaches for the nearest object which could generously be considered a projectile. Which today, happens to be a dustpan brush. He holds it aloft, in a way that might have been the least but threatening, if not for... literally every other detail of this situation.

"... So, can you be half-solid-half-not, both at the same time, or what? Like, if I throw this will it just pass straight through you? Man-- this ain't even the first time some intangible bastard's phased straight through the door to check up on me in my own home. Blah blah, weird that it happened twice, et cetera. Right, anyway, go long!!"

HURTLING DUSTPAN BRUSH INCOMING.

[haknam]

“You know, I really can’t control it all the ti--”

Before he can finish, the dustpan brush connects squarely with Shihong’s chest with a hollow thud. It clatters to the floor, and Shihong spares it a glance for about half a second. Good, he’s solid. 

So that just means that there’s nothing stopping him from striding across the room to bury his knuckles into Peter’s already messy hair, not gently, mind you-- Shihong doesn’t know the meaning of the word, but nowhere near hard enough to hurt For Realsies. (Jesus Christ is he cold though.)

“So like, twice y’ve got people phasing through your walls to see how alive you are and like, you STILL didn’t learn to call?” 

Unceremoniously, Shihong makes himself comfortable on the closest thing-to-sit-on. 

“What else did you expect me to do?”

[haknam]

If your character was in a traditional series (with a beginning arc, middle arc, and ending arc) what would the end of their character arc look like? What would be that fade to black moment on their life before the ending credits?

Honestly, I think the end of Shihong's character arc would be with him finding peace. Like, I know that sounds so corny but bear with me i promise.

Shihong as a character has always been made definable by how his spite fuels him. He's never been able to have peace due purely to the actions/interference of others. He had it once, living in his prime before the Walled City was demolished. He'd had scares in the past with govt wanting it gone, but they never went through with it until they did.

When demolition started in 1993, with the peace his home brought him shattered, it was something that he'd never expected. Shihong had eventually, over the course of that slightly more than a year, resigned himself to death, and maybe some small part of himself made peace with the fact. That's certainly not anything he would tell anyone, but he did, at some point, surrender himself to it. He made something like peace with the fact that he was going to die, and towards the end he just stopped fighting and waited for it to happen.

Then when it was good and done, Shihong was robbed of his peace in death when his brother resurrected him. While yes, it was a desperate act born from.... good(?) intentions, it threw him back into a world where not only was he obsolete, the only place he could ever call his home gone forever, but now he had the special and sacred duty of picking garbage out of the south gate ruins-- essentially the calcified remnants of his bones.

I feel like a perfect ending for Shihong would be where he would be allowed to grieve properly. Sure, he's grieved plenty, but he deserves something quiet, and personal, something where he can air his grievances and make sure he's heard. I think in the future I would want to see him comfortable with who and what he is. Shihong can keep the story of what he was alive, and he can speak about it with love in his heart without it bringing him pain.

I hope that makes sense!!!

[389]

sorry for being intense about everything, it’ll happen again