Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong - Jamie Chung (2015) - Sai Yeung Choi Street South, Mongkok

Another snippet from the opening montage of this film shows us the view looking north along Sai Yeung Choi Street South in Mongkok. The camera has squeezed everything in close so it looks like all the signage is bunched up here but actually, even back in 2015, I don't recall there being quite so much following a huge Govt crackdown.

Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong - Jamie Chung (2015) - View from the Peak, Hong Kong

The next film up is Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong starring Jamie Chung and her real life hubby, Bryan Greenburg. It's about two people who meet up by accident and immediately hit it off despite having respective other halves. The stand out for me is the impressive cinematography. There's lots of night scenes and in one section some great time lapse capture of various locations that I will get to in later posts.

Anyway, there are lots of great locations to include for this film but I will start off with this tilt-shift view from the Peak.

I Come With The Rain - Josh Hartnett (2009) - Pedestrian Walkways, Central

After spotting someone who he thinks is the elusive Shitao, Kline runs around trying to figure out how to reach him. As anyone not familiar with Hong Kong knows, negotiating the labyrinthine walkways around Central can be frustrating and so it proves as Kline's quarry avoids him with ease without even realising he is being followed.

I Come With The Rain - Josh Hartnett (2009) - Lockhart Road, Wanchai

As Kline wanders around looking for Shitao he walks down Lockhart Road. This is about half way along the section between Percival Street and Canal Road.

I Come With The Rain - Josh Hartnett (2009) - View from Queensway Government Offices, Central

Sadly, most of the remainder of the locations from this film were shot at night which makes it a bit difficult to make out much detail. However, here is a nice shot of the Bank of China Tower and others as Kline heads up to a rooftop and zooms in on various locations nearby in his search for the elusive Shitao. Kline's vantage point appears top be the Queensway Government Offices above Pacific Place. The roof edge has a distinctive shape which is revealed when he goes for a run around the top.

View down to Murray Road

View between BoC and ICBC

View up Cotton Tree Drive (above)

View across to the CITIC building as Kline runs around the roof

I Come With The Rain - Josh Hartnett (2009) - Paterson Street, Causeway Bay

Speaking of Paterson Street, at various points we are shown a sort of religiously inspired street character who plays a significant role towards the end of the film. In the following scene though he is lying on the floor in one of the alleyways separating Causeway Bay Mansion and Towning Mansion, along Paterson Street, and as he looks up the open sky forms a cross shape. The first image below shows the view down the southern end of Paterson Street from just by Kingston Street.

I Come With The Rain - Josh Hartnett (2009) - Yee Wo Street, Causeway Bay

Kline has been told that Shitao is most likely part of the large homeless community that lives in Hong Kong, so we have a variety of locations across the city where he goes to take pictures to see if he can spot the person he's looking for. In the images below, Hartnett and the camera are located on the circular walkway that crosses Yee Wo Street in Causeway Bay. Paterson Street is on the right and you can just make out the SOGO sign in the distant background.

I Come With The Rain - Josh Hartnett (2009) - former Kai Tak Airport, Kowloon

Despite the old airport being shut down in 1998, the land it was on basically remained derelict for the best part of the next 15 years or so as the Govt held their usual meetings about meetings regarding what to do with the site. In the meantime some film companies took advantage of this big open space and shot some movies on it. Remember that another French co-production, Vengeance, shot a fair amount of action on the old runway.

Anyway, around the same time that Vengeance was being filmed, so was this movie and the main location where Shitao has his little ramshackle shed was located on the old runway. A fair amount of footage was shot here including all the shed scenes when Shitao is doing his healing as well as the reverse car chase when Shawn Yue's policeman character spots the main baddie (played by Lee Byung-hun) leaving the area.

I Come With The Rain - Josh Hartnett (2009) - Langham Place Office Tower, Mongkok

Once he has settled in Hong Kong, Kline goes to visit an old police buddy (played by Shawn Yue) whose office is located in a rather swish modern looking police station. Of course, in reality it's not a real police station but is the Langham Place Office Tower on the corner of Portland and Argyle Streets. The building on the left of the top image is the rear of the Mongkok HSBC Office and the pink building to the right is the Far East Consortium Mongkok Building. That is the view looking down Portland Street.

In the lower two images we are looking the other way to the opposite side of Argyle Street with the pink coloured building there is called Argyle House and the green building on the right with the arched window frames is the Mongkok Commercial Centre.

I Come With The Rain - Josh Hartnett (2009) - Various Hong Kong Locations

I Come With The Rain is a French film made by Vietnamese-French director, Tran Anh Hung. It stars Josh Hartnett as Kline, a burnt out cop who has left the police after a violent encounter with a rather sadistic serial killer and he is hired as a private investigator to track down the missing son of a wealthy pharma boss. After a brief bit of searching in the Philippines he heads to Hong Kong to enlist the help of an old police friend who now works with the HK Police Farce...oops...I mean "Force".

The opening Hong Kong scenes are of Kline catching a car to his hotel and we get a few flashing glimpses of various parts of Wanchai. Such as the Hopewell Centre, Pico Tower. Then in some bizarre reverse time warp the car ends up back in Central (see third image) as the car passes the PLA Central Barracks (formerly HMS Tamar).

Dead or Alive: Final - Shô Aikawa (2002) - Lok On Pai Desalination Plant, Tuen Mun

The weird finale/showdown between the two main android characters takes place in an old abandoned warehouse. In fact this warehouse has featured quite a few times in both local and overseas movies. It's the old desalination plant at Lok On Pai near Tuen Mun.

Some trivia: Although I have never bothered including it on this blog, The Expendables 2 had some scenes filmed inside the plant due to Jet Li's China-based film commitments. The US production company flew a bunch of interior sets to Hong Kong and installed them inside the Lok On Pai factory so that jet just had a quick trip to HK to complete his scenes. Now you know this you can go back and watch the film and see how they managed to edit him into the plot line.

Dead or Alive: Final - Shô Aikawa (2002) - Catchick Street, Kennedy Town

There is a brief shot of the famous Hong Kong tram in the middle of the film. Honda is riding it to get to the police station. However, given that this strip of the tram track is located along Catchick Street in Kennedy Town. The tell tale sign here is the proximity of the track to the pavement (most other sections of the tram route along the whole of the island runs down the middle of the street rather than the side) and the presence of the latticed podium structure of Harbourview Garden in the distant background of the top image.

Dead or Alive: Final - Shô Aikawa (2002) - Harbour View from Lei Yue mun

In this shot, Aikawa's cyborg character is sitting on a concrete pier with a view across the harbour towards Tsim Sha Tsui and Hung Hom (you can just make out the Coliseum if you squint). As the camera pulls out there's an element that has been added afterwards: the large ship that is hovering behind Harbourfront Landmark (centre right). The tall building with the pyramid shaped roof on the left is the Prosperity Millenia Plaza in North Point which means we are probably somewhere near to Lei Yue Mun again. Back in 2002 there was an old concrete pier that jutted out from the shorefront but I notice that recently a bit of beautification has gone on and it no longer exists. I think that's where Aikawa was sitting.

I would have included this post with the previous Lei Yue Mun one, but it took me a while to realise where it was because the angle was so confusing.

Dead or Alive: Final - Shô Aikawa (2002) - Little Palm Beach, Sai Kung

A few scenes where the heroes plot their revenge against the mayor were filmed close to the location of Honda's home. Just down the road is Little Palm Beach. You can just see Ngam Tau Sha on the far right of the top two images. The island opposite is Shelter Island.

Dead or Alive: Final - Shô Aikawa (2002) - Lei Yue Mun

A fair bit of the film appears to have been shot in and around the various small villages that sit around the Lei Yue Mun headland. Getting definitive locations from these images is difficult without going there and wandering around all day, so I'll just say that the top image was taken somewhere at the southern tip of the headland because that is Hong Kong Island in the background.