River of Fury - Danny Lee (1973) - KCR Track nr Tai Po, New Territories

I'm doing this one backward for no reason other than this was the first location I found, despite it being the final scene in the film. Here we see the film's lead - Danny Lee - stomping away from Shanghai via the local railtrack. Except of course this is a Shaw film made in 1973 and so rural HK was used instead. In this case it's the very long stretch of straight track between Tai Po and Fanling. The view we see is actually looking south with Fanling behind the camera and the distant ridgeline (shows uo better in the later dimmed shots) is actually the ridge of Tai Mo Shan and its lower slopes and Kwun Yam Shan on the far right.

As you can see in 1973 the KCR track was still only a single line and the lack of powerlines overhead shows that the trains were the pre-electrification diesel ones. This stretch of track is still pretty much on the same route it was back then but obviously the track is now completely off-limits for safety reasons. Perhaps surprisingly, this whole area has avoided the mass redevelopment found elsewhere. Sure the villages have increased in size but there is still very much an open feel to the place.

Project A - Jackie Chan (1983) - Ping Kong Walled Village, Sheung Shui

Another one that has taken a while to find but still here we go, it's the Tin Hau Temple that JC stops in front of during the bike chase. I can't confirm whether or not this is the same village where some the other bike sequences takes place (would need to visit in person) but here is the temple from the film as a reminder.

  There has been a recent renovation to the temple and the area next to the red door above has been knocked through but the temple is still fairly recognisable. Here is a modern view courtesy of Chong Fat's picture on the Tin Hau Temple wiki page.

You know I have to hand it to JC, he truly did go all over the place to shoot this great film. So far we've seen locations in Macau, Lantau, Hong Kong Island, Sai Kung, Ma On Shan and now Sheung Shui. I wonder where next?

Love is a Many-Splendored Thing - William Holden (1955) - Aberdeen, Hong Kong

Yes, it's the perennial filmmakers favourite once more - Aberdeen Harbour. We've already seen it used in Enter The Dragon, The Protector, The World of Suzie Wong, Flatfoot in Hong Kong as well as a brief glimpse in Soldier of Fortune and now it is the turn of William Holden to return here.

Well strictly speaking, this was his first visit because this film was made a few years before Suzie Wong. Anyway, we see Holden driving Jennifer Jones along the Praya in his little car and turning onto the famous shore front that held the restaurant piers at Wu Nam Street (they have since been moved to Shum Wan Pier Drive). If you read my Flatfoot post on this place you'll know that this area has long been reclaimed and is now used as a bus stop, but in this film we can see when Aberdeen town was even older than we saw in Flat foot.

Look carefully in the background of the above snap and you may just be able to spot Aberdeen's famous Tin Hau temple hiding at the back (sorry, it's not a HD screen grab).

 Wu Nam Street seen from the sea looking inland.

 See those conical hats worn by the women? These are still very common in HK amongst those of a Fujianese heritage - i.e the Hokkien fisherfolk.

 The small signs on the boats above say "Baak Fa Yau" aka White Flower Oil, so perhaps the company managed to get some corporate advertising gig with the film company?

Finally the above shot shows our protagonists hopping on board the famous Tai Pak which still sits in the harbour. Perhaps the decor has changed a bit in the years (but I'm not sure it has changed that much) but William Holden was a famous patron of this place even when not filming (he also used to have a house on Lantau Island with Stephanie Powers). Not many people know this but the Tai Pak company also had another floating restaurant, albeit not as grand, floating in the water at Castel Peak Bay (now Tuen Mun).

Love is a Many-Splendored Thing - William Holden (1955) - 41a Conduit Road, Midlevels

I started posting on this film when I first set up the blog a year ago (yes, 1 year old this month), but then promptly forgot all about it. Actually, there's not too many places to write about because if you will remember, all of the dialogue scenes in these early films were filmed on sound stages, and of course the most famous scene of all - the tree topped hillside - is not in HK anyway but was filmed at Malibu Creek State Park (then called the Fox Ranch) back in California.

Anyway, here is a location that is quite famous in HK even though it was redeveloped in the 1970's into apartments called "Realty Gardens". It's the old Mok Villa at 41a Conduit Road and was used as the location for Suyin's Hospital in the film.

The location was used throughout the film, although you don't really see an all encompassing shot of the house, you do get some nice little images of the rear terraces, pagoda and the view over the harbour.

There is some confusion about this location and many people believe that the current pavilion/pagoda at realty gardens is the same one seen on film. However, this isn't true. Certain aspects of the gardens remains (a low balustraded wall, a large retaining wall and a pathway etc) but the small pavilion seen on film (second from bottom picture) like the house, no longer exists. The one that can be found today is a replacement and was rebuilt on a lower part of the terracing. Interestingly though, that pavilion seen on the film is the very same one that Han Suyin used to meet her real-life love interest. So it's nice that the filmmakers used the same location for the film as well.

The view in the very top picture - looking over the harbour - is impossible to recreate now. The scale of high rise development in this same area now would make your socks curl and only those in the highest of apartments in these highrises manage to get any kind of harbour view these days.

Flatfoot in Hong Kong - Bud Spencer (1975) - Repulse Bay...again

Whoops! I made a booboo and misidentified the following location as Macau's Inner Harbour.

Well, the sequence involves Bud fleeing from some unsavoury types in the Macau Floating Casino. He runs outside and jumps onto a small boat before hurling himself into the water (Bud was actually and Italian Olympic swimmer at an earlier stage in life). Well, stone me if it wasn't actually the water in Repulse Bay he jumps into. You can see by the small islets in the background that this scene was filmed very close to the previous Tin Hau Temple one.

Well, mistake rectified. Oh, and by the way...THIS is my last Flatfoot post instead :-)

Flatfoot in Hong Kong - Bud Spencer (1975) - Casino De Macau, Inner Harbour, Macau

Well, the final post for Flatfoot sees Bud go to a former famous landmark (or should that be watermark?) that was moved some time ago now. It's the floating Casino that used to be moored in the inner harbour and was also featured on "The Man with the Golden Gun" as well as the Noble House miniseries.

Here are the shots.

 The casino was moored on the Rua Das Lorchas around the section where it intersects with Av. De Almeida Ribeiro but was decommissioned sometimes in the 90's, after which I'm not sure what happened to it. Judging from the photos above it was quite nicely built.

Flatfoot in Hong Kong - Bud Spencer (1975) - St Paul's Ruins, Macau

What film shot in Macau could be done without at least a quick peek at (arguably) Macau's most famous landmark. The ruins of St Pauls.

Lo-and-behold, down the hill comes Chaplin's chauffer-driven car - at a time when traffic was still allowed around there.