Queen's Road East - Now and Then

This attempt at a now/then comparison is using a still from Visa to Canton (1960) starring Richard Baseheart in one of several Hammer films featuring Hong Kong over the years (the others being Shatter and The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires).

For a wider version of the 1960 image - it's a stitch of several screen grabs from a panning shot - you can see my original post here.

Central Police Station - Now and Then

Despite the former Central Police Station compound being open for several years now (looks like it was open as far back a 2018) I have only just made the effort to go there this week. I have yet to have a decent wander, but I did go to the Happy Valley museum in the basement of the Police HQ block. "Why is there an historical exhibition for Happy Valley in the Central Police Station compound?" I hear you ask? It's because the renovation of the compound was funded by the Hong Kong Jockey Club so they wanted to make it a bit about themselves as well.

I will go back at some point and get some better pictures and explore a bit more, but in the meantime, here are a couple of shots to compare to some screen grabs taken from Rod Taylor's entertaining 1960s show "Hong Kong", for which I did an episode-by-episode location breakdown about five years ago. Incidentally, for those not wanting to go to the Internet Archive, I am also uploading all episodes to my Youtube channel.

Shing Wong Street - Now and Then

There is a scene in Painted Faces where the boys are being led along a pathway and are called "Bald Headed Pigs" by the local children. This was filmed along Wing Lee Street and Shing Wong Street. I was here just the other day and tried to capture the same angles.

The first two images show the view looking along Wing Lee Street from where the boys are being led by Sammo.

These second images show the view up the steps of Shing Wong Street as they turn uphill and walkup the steps.

Former Marine Police HQ - Now and Then

Here's a recent set of pictures I took at the Marine Police HQ. If I was a more diligent location documentarian I would be doing this for all the locations I post about but the problem is that I have over 3000 location posts on this blog so it's a bit overwhelming.

Anyway, here are some rough comparisons for a few locations around the former Marine Police HQ. It's now a boutique hotel that has gone through a variety of names, the current one being 'FWD House 1881'. I have no idea where the 1881 comes from because the building was built in 1884 but I suspect it may be due to the '4' bit being a bit unlucky (so many '4's are dropped in HK because it sounds similar to the word for 'death').

The first images are from Soldier of Fortune (1955). Below is the view looking west along the front of the building. The building was constructed on a hill and when the area was 'revitalised', the whole front of the hill, including where Ronald Chow and Michael Rennie are walking, was excavated to make room for shops. By the 80s, that whole area was covered in mature tree growth, all of it chopped down to make way for jewellery stores no one visits (and hence why many of the shops are now empty).

1955 v 2024

1955 v 2024

The image above of Michael Rennie was shot at the eastern end of the front facade. It looks as though there was a partition wall to the right of him that was removed at some point.

Next up are some relatively more recent film grabs, although they show the place before it was renovated and still had its white/light blue colour scheme. The image below is from Takeshi Miike's 2002 Dead or Alive: Final. The top image below shows (what were) the stables on the west side of the compound. I believe this building has since been converted into a Sushi/Sashimi restaurant.

And finally a location that was a bit harder to get a decent compariosn of because of the time ball machinery that has been reinstalled smack bang in the middle of the room. The old time ball tower, located at the front of the former Marine Police compound, had a metal ball on a spike that was dropped every day at 1pm so that ships in the harbour could calibrate their onboard clocks to allow more accurate calculation of longitude. This responsibility was later (1908) passed on to the tower at Blackhead Point/Signal Hill. As you can see from the screengrab, the mechanism for the time ball was absent in 2002, so I can only assume it was in storage somewhere and was reinstalled when the whole compound underwent its renovation and was reopened back in 2009.

Old Wanchai Post Office - Now and Then

No new films in the run up to Xmas as I wind down the posts for the year and head off for a holiday, but here are some Now/Then images that I have had on the pile for a while.

This one isn't such an old image because the film the still is taken from, Crossing Hennessy, was only released in 2010. Despite that, there has been some change to the background. This is the old Post Office (built 1913) on Queen's Road East. Crossing Hennessy isn't the first time it appeared on film, there is a brief, rather restricted, view of a sliver of the building during a scene in Soldier of Fortune . That view is a bit hard for me to recreate though so instead, underneath, is a recent picture from a brief trip there.

Around the World in 80 Days - David Niven (1956) - Cheung Chau

I have to thank Gwulo user, hkspace_wl, who recently posted a screen capture from Around the World in 80 Days showing that it does include some footage, albeit very brief, of Hong Kong and its environs.

The film was shot in 1955 and wiki states that principal photography took place between August and December of that year. It doesn't mention it specifically, but I assume this included all the location footage as well. It's interesting to me because Hong Kong is not listed in the film's page over at the AFI catalog. The history section of the film is an interesting read and well worth a few minutes of your time.

The actors' scenes were obviously shot on a film set and not on location in Hong Kong. Even by 1955 standards, Hong Kong was a modern city and would not have been able to provide the proper period setting for any close up scenes. It's this same reason why Cheung Chau was chosen as the best representation of the Victorian-era colony for the wide angle shots. Sadly it's only two, too brief snippets.

Both images are supposedly of Victoria Harbour, but obviously are looking west from Cheung Chau. The island on the centre left is Shek Kwu Chau where Hong Kong's new waste incinerator is currently being constructed. The second image shows the view further to the right (north) and shows a bit more of Lantau's southern coastline.

The main thing to note from the top photo is that the building bottom centre, with the roof terrace and flag, is still around. You can read a bit more about it on the Gwulo screen capture link I posted above.

Hafen der Düfte - Veronica Ferres (2013) - Aberdeen Harbour

Edward takes Victoria out on a little boat trip to visit his mates/gang members who has one of (what I think is) the stolen antiques. There's quite a lot to see in these few screencaps, including the now sunken Jumbo, the now delapidated Tai Pak (apparently due a refurb at somepoint), and (look carefully) what looks to be the construction of the MTR's new South Island Line bridge over the harbour. The latter was inaugurated at the end of 2016.

Hafen der Düfte - Veronica Ferres (2013) - Shantung Street, Mongkok

A transition shot now as the story moves to Aberdeen. This image shows some of the old signage along the western part (i.e. west side of Nathan Road) of Shantung Street. All of these signs have been removed, sadly, but the Chung Po (中寶押) pawnshop remains at the same location at 36 Shantung Street. Several of these signs are visible in the historic Google Streetview imagery as recently as 2017.

Hafen der Düfte - Veronica Ferres (2013) - Nathan Road, Mongkok

We see Nathan Road a couple of times in the film, the first time being during the opening as Victoria's car is heading to her hotel. This is the top image below and shows the area in Mongkok just by Shantung Street. The building on the far right with the red trim is the King Wah Centre which sits on the same site as the old King Wah Restaurant.  There is also another quick scene filmed at night time and used later in the film that was shot from around the same place but on the opposite side of the road.

Hafen der Düfte - Veronica Ferres (2013) - View across Wanchai - Day v Night

This film has many nice shots of the Hong Kong harbour and skyline. Here's one that took some time because it shows the view across Wanchai, with the Hopewell Centre on the left, from day through to night. The film crew obviously liked this view because it's used in three or four places throughout the film. The first view shows us a relative close up of the Hopewell Centre. The last two images are from a time lapse sequence that changes from night back to day with a much wider angle but, looking at the relative positions of the various buildings, it was shot from the exact same location: Stubbs Road Lookout. 

If you want to see how much the view has changed over the years then look back at my Forced Vengeance post that showed views from the same place from circa 1982.