Kowloon Walled City - Cultural Depictions

Cultural Depictions

The Walled City of Kowloon has no visible wall around it, but it is as clearly defined as if there were one made of hard, high steel. It is instantly sensed by the congested open market that runs along the street in front of the row of dark run-down flats—shacks haphazardly perched on top of one another giving the impression that at any moment the entire blighted complex will collapse under its own weight, leaving nothing but rubble where elevated rubble had stood.

A few people who spent time in Kowloon Walled City have written accounts of their experiences. Evangelist Jackie Pullinger wrote a 1989 memoir, Crack in the Wall, about her involvement in treating drug addicts within the Walled City. In his 2004 autobiography Gweilo, Martin Booth describes his exploration of the Walled City as a child in the 1950s. In addition to such accounts, many authors, game designers, and filmmakers have used the Walled City to convey a sense of oppressive urbanization or unfettered criminality.

In literature, Robert Ludlum's novel The Bourne Supremacy uses the Walled City as one of its settings. The City appears as a virtual reality environment (described by Steven Poole as an "oasis of political and creative freedom") in William Gibson's Bridge trilogy, and as a contrast with Singapore in his Wired article "Disneyland with the Death Penalty". In the manga Crying Freeman, the titular character's wife travels to the Walled City to master her swordsmanship and control a cursed sword. The manga Blood+: Kowloon Nights uses the Walled City as the setting for a series of murders.

The 1984 gangster film Long Arm of the Law features the Walled City as a refuge for gang members before they are gunned down by police. In the 1988 film Bloodsport, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, the Walled City is the setting for a martial arts tournament. The 1992 non-narrative film Baraka features several highly detailed shots of the Walled City shortly before its demolition. The 1993 film Crime Story starring Jackie Chan was partly filmed in the deserted Walled City, and includes real scenes of building explosions. A walled neighborhood called the Narrows in the 2005 film Batman Begins was inspired by the Walled City. The 2006 Hong Kong horror film Re-cycle features a decrepit, nightmarish version of the Walled City, complete with tortured souls from which the protagonist must flee. The anime series Street Fighter II V featured Kowloon Walled City as the location of an underground fighting circuit.

Hive of dream. Those mismatched, uncalculated windows. How they seemed to absorb all the frantic activity of Kai Tak airport, sucking in energy like a black hole.

Kowloon Walled City is also featured in several games, including Kowloon's Gate, Shenmue II and Call of Duty: Black Ops. The game Stranglehold, a sequel to the film Hard Boiled, features a version of the Walled City filled with hundreds of Triad members. In the games Fear Effect and Fear Effect 2, photographs of the Walled City were used as inspiration "for moods, camera angles and lighting." Concept art for the MMORPG Guild Wars: Factions depicts massive, densely packed structures inspired by the Walled City. The pen-and-paper RPG Shadowrun includes a crime-ridden, rebuilt version of the Walled City set in 2070.