Dragon's Claws - Lau Kar-yung (1979) - Kai Ham, Ho Chung

The scene where we are introduced to the Dragon Sect's members as they undergo training in the hills was filmed close to a small hamlet called Kai Ham near Ho Chung. Although not shot in the hamlet itself, just up the main road was a flat area marked as a dumping ground on maps from the late 1970s that more or less corresponds to the location so I believe this is what we can see in the images below. The view in the distance is towards the north slope of Razor Hill and just nestled on the left are the smaller hillocks that mark the area where Clearwater Bay Road joins with Hiram's Highway.

Suffice to say the Ho Chung area, including Kai Ham, is much more developed these days and this area we can see below looks to have been abandoned and left for nature to reclaim. Still, it's a new location for the blog that I haven't seen before.

Razor Hill on the right behind Lau Hok-nin's head

Dragon's Claws - Lau Kar-yung (1979) - nr Wong Chuk Yeung, Sai Kung

The next film comes courtesy of a Youtube channel called Cinema No. 8 - HK Movie which has a ton of HK movies in HD to watch. I have no idea if it's a legitimate outlet for these movies but these channels appear to have better luck in avoiding the YT copyright algorythms than my own (I've had about 5 movies removed in the last couple of months, some of which have been up for several months). You can watch it here.

Anyway, this is a sort of cash-in on the style of movie made popular by Jackie Chan in the late 1970s, similar down to the use of Wang Jang Lee as the main antagonist. The main role is played by Lau Kar-yung - nephew of Lau Ka-leung - who actually does a fairly decent job in his role as a cocky son of a kung fu master who learns a new style of kung fu (from a beggar - sound familiar?) in order to defeat his family's mortal enemy. The best thing in this film, for me, was seeing a young Yuen Qiu do her stuff. She's really underrated and it's a shame it took until Kung Fu Hustle for wider recognition.

Also similar to those other films is the film's opening scene as Wang Jang Lee takes on an opponent at the familiar location near Wong Chuk Yeung in Sai Kung. It's been featured in so many films already and I am sure many more I will cover in the future. As I explained on other posts, I have been up to investigate this area but it is now completely overgrown and unrecognisable. In this film we see it for the opening and finale fight scenes as well as a mid-film scene where Lung saves a woman from being robbed and attacked by a couple of bandits.

Flight to Hong Kong - Rory Calhoun (1956) - Haven of Hope Jetty, Junk Bay

Here's another one I forgot to post back in the day despite including it in my Gwulo rundown a couple of years back. I scratched my head for quite sometime before being able to recognise some of the background hills and pinpointing the location of this small pier. There's a little bit more information here, but essentially this wooden jetty/pier was constructed to facilitate access to and from the Haven of Hope Hospital on the west side of Junk Bay back in the 1950s. The hospital was built for the purpose of treating those with TB so the remote location was intentional. Even today, HK sometimes suffers from an outbreak of this disease, largely from being imported from nearby territories where it has yet to be eradicated. The lack of roads meant the only access to the hospital was by sea, hence the pier.

In the movie, this is the undisclosed remote island where the diamond thieves/hijackers force the passenger plane to land before making off on a small motorboat with their haul. The only thing we know is that it is not supposed to be in Hong Kong but somewhere between Hawai'i and the Asian mainland.

The hospital is still around, but the amount of reclamation in Junk Bay and subsequent development means that it is now a major urban area to the west of Kowloon (officially it's part of the New Territories, not Kowloon). The pier is long gone, replaced by Ling Hong Road and I could probably get there in about 30 minutes if I still had my motorbike. In 1956, this was a major outing for the film crew so I suspect this pier scene and the subsequent boat raid sequence were shot on the same day/shoot. The fact that Tony (Rory Calhoun) rides around in the same boat used by the diamond hijackers in this scene seems to confirm that.

Just Heroes - David Chiang (1989) - Diamond Hill Columbarium

I've only recently worked out where the funeral for the murdered gang boss takes place. It's been completely changed since this movie was made (you can see how it looks today here) but this is the Diamond Hill Columbarium on Po Kong Village Road. About the only things that remain today are the triangular roofed niche pavilions that can be seen in the background and the looped service road that can be seen in the top two images.

Aegan - Ajith Kumar (2008) - Cyberport Waterfront Park

Shiva catches up with Iqbal at the waterfront near Cyberport. According to images on GoogleEarth, the two benches and gazebos where their interaction takes place are part of the local furniture and not film props as I thought they might be. Anyway, that's the last post for this film, but I expect to cover more Indian  films in the future.
 

Aegan - Ajith Kumar (2008) - West Kowloon

Shiva manages to waylay the kidnap vehicle at the waterfront on the then undeveloped West Kowloon Reclamation. The weird shaped building with the yellow fins is actually part of the ventilation infrastructure for the West Kowloon Harbour Tunnel that passes underneath. Note the yet-to-be-completed ICC building at the back. Wiki tells me these Hong Kong scenes were done between 14th-24th January 2008.

Aegan - Ajith Kumar (2008) - Information Crescent, Cyberport

The immediate shot after the kidnapping is of the getaway van driving along Information Crescent (I challenge you to find a shittier named road in Hong Kong - answers in the comments please) near the junction with Cyberport Road. We'll be back this way later for the sequence's finale.

Aegan - Ajith Kumar (2008) - Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

Much of the next minute or so is flashing shots of the van driving along a couple of roads, but the different angles and quick edits makes it feel like they shot in many more places. In reality it was just two locations: Information Crescent in Cyberport and Salisbury Road in Tsim Sha Tsui.

Aegan - Ajith Kumar (2008) - East Tsim Sha Tsui Podium Garden

In a first for the blog I have finally tracked down a copy of the Indian film, Aegan, which has been on my to do list for quite some time, and then subsequently forgotten about. Luckily someone has uploaded it to Youtube in HD and I can now look at the Hong Kong-shot scenes that occur at the beginning of the movie. Don't ask me to explain the plot, I'm not a big fan of Indian cinema - there's just too much singing and dancing for my liking - but in general it's about some sort of supercop called Shiva (Ajith Kumar) who is sent back to school to protect a VIP whilst also looking for a wanted criminal (I think). I have no idea what the Hong Kong scene has to do with the main plot other than to showcase Shiva's expert fighting skills as he takes out a HK-based Indian gangster called Iqbal.

Anyway, the sequence kicks off with the kidnapping of a Chinese businessman at the podium garden in East TST. This place was repurposed as the "Garden of Stars" whilst the "Avenue of Stars" was being refurbished, but has since returned to just a normal ornamental HK-style open space (garden is always a very generous term for these places in HK).

Bullet in the Head - Tony Leung Chiu-wai (1990) - Kennedy Town Praya

The last post for this film shows the continuation of the car chase along the waterfront. If you ever wondered what Kennedy Town Praya looked like when it was a proper "praya" (i.e. along the waterfront) then look no further. This shows the road before reclamation and the creation of what is now Belcher Bay Park. The green-tinged building centre frame was demolished not long after filming and replaced by the  "Kennedy Town Centre" development.