k drama k pop intermediate

Panel one: "hard to love" simple drawing of a cat curled up on a cane "disability and cats"

Panel two: "sometimes, i think i'm hard to love" drawing of a person with shortish hair sitting on the ground facing away from the viewer "my body doesn't work like it's supposed to"

Panel three: drawing of the same person hunched over what looks like maybe a calendar with their head in their hand and question marks over their head "I forget things" "I move slow" drawing of the same person walking with a bag and a cane. Drawing of the same person hunched over to grab something off the floor with their hand on their back and lines indicating pain coming off of them "it hurts to do things most people do easily"

Panel four: "my cat's body also doesn't work like it's supposed to" drawing of a cat with part of one ear missing sitting up and looking at the viewer

Panel five: "he doesn't remember things" Drawing of the same cat looking at the ground with question marks over his head indicating confusion with what looks like a food bowl in the background. I think this is meant to be the cat having trouble finding the food bowl. Drawing of the same cat falling gracelessly on his face. "he's clumsy" "he can't do things that other cats can do" drawing of the same cat stretching up towards what looks like a counter. I think this is meant to be the cat having trouble getting up on to the counter.

Panel six: "and i love him so much" drawing of the person holding the cat up, touching their faces together. there is a heart symbol above their heads likely indicating fondness, affection, or love

Panel seven: "so maybe" drawing of the person with the cat in their lap, petting him, facing the viewer this time "it's not too hard to love me"

but that doesn't mean hong kong cinema is dead today, the way some people like to proclaim (the continued worship of a past "golden age" for hong kong film and music is related to this, and something i'll likely talk about again in future). actors on both screen and stage are still trying to achieve their dreams, to create something for themselves and others. old and new directors are here and they're still making films, still telling stories, good stories, despite lower box office return for local projects and movie theatres closing. there are creatives who have turned to using the internet and youtube in different ways to draw people in to hong kong entertainment, from both inside and outside the region. the industry is smaller, yes. everyone who chooses it as their life path takes a risk, and they don't know now, more than ever, if it'll pay off. but this place is far from dead.

how it WILL be left behind, however, is if people around the world continue to write off hong kong cinema, and ignore the existence of every individual who's thrown themselves into it. (for passion, for joy, for the fact that someone must continue the work. no one chooses this industry for money, these days.) the way you ensure hong kong cinema dies more quickly, is if people don't give it a chance, and turn it instead into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

破地獄 | The Last Dance (2024), dir. Anselm Chan

九龍城寨之圍城 | Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In (2024), dir. Soi Cheang

看我今天怎麼說 | The Way We Talk (2025), dir. Adam Wong

不赦之罪 | Valley of the Shadow of Death (2025), dir. Jeffrey Lam and Antonio Tam

眾生相 | Queerpanorama (2025), dir. Jun Li

There are 3 main types, but from my research, this looks to be American Gregg Shorthand.

As you can see, there are set symbols for every letter.

Let’s break one of the words down:

Using the Gregg Alphabet as reference, we can see most of the letters in “atrophied” are present. But why no “o” vowel, and why is “ph” written as “f”?

Simple. In shorthand, you cut out all vowels in a word when writing it down, with the exception of words that BEGIN or END with a vowel (hence the “a” at the start being present), or like in the “i” in “atrophied”, to make it more readable when the sound could be harder to distinguish if it isn’t written. In “atrophied” if the the “i” isn’t written, it could be hard to tell if the writer meant a “fud”, “fad”, “fod” or “fid” sound, for example.

Also, since Shorthand is a phonetic writing system, you are encouraged to write down the phonetic sounds of words rather than the actual letter blends - in this case, write an “f” instead of a “ph”.

So in actuality, these aren’t just meaningless scribbles - it’s Gregg Shorthand, a writing system developed to take down notes more quickly than when written out in full, which is very useful in a medical or journalistic environment.

Some people can even write over 100 words in a minute! And, it’s been in use since John Robert Gregg invented it in 1888! Wow! So old!