Heroes Two - Alexander Fu Sheng (1974) - nr Wong Chuk Yeung, Sai Kung

Another popular filming site for Shaws, and indeed many movies throught the 1970s and 80s, was the plateau above Three Fathoms Cove in Sai Kung District. It's also been featured on the blog on multiple occasions previously, but by far the most popular post for it in the one I did for The Young Master where the only way Lung (Jackie Chan) can beat his opponent (Whang In-sik) is by getting completely stoned on bong water.

In this movie, this is the location of the final fight between the rebels, led by Fong and Hung, and the Ching general and his minions. The location is now completely overgrown now, as are many former filming sites simply because of the shift away from these outdoor locations during the 1980s.

Heroes Two - Alexander Fu Sheng (1974) - Pak Shek Au, Kwu Tung

The next up is another Shaw movie, Heroes Two, that I shall dub "Locations: Two" because that's the number of places I have been able to identify for this one. The reason being that, like many Shaw movies, much of it was shot on sound stages at Movietown.

The film stars Fu Sheng as the legendary Fong Sai Yuk, a mythical fighter from Ching Dynasty era. He gets duped by Ching officials into getting fellow rebel, Hung Hei-gun/Hung Hsi-kuan (Chen Kuan-tai), arrested and makes amends by freeing him from his subterranean dungeon prison. The film culminates in a big brawl between the rebels and the local Ching officials.

The film starts off with the burning of the Shaolin temple and the hunt for Hung. This whole sequence was shot in a place that should be very familiar to readers of the blog by now, it's the formerly-beautiful-rolling hills-but-now-a-building-site-for-the-Northern-Metropolis Pak Shek Au. So many films, particularly Shaw ones, were shot here over the years and the area is basically now ruined. Forever.
 

Hung Hing Road - Now and Then

I recently walked some of the newly minted Hong Kong Island waterfront walk and noted that it takes you along Hung Hing Road right next to the entrance to the Cross Harbour Tunnel. Having just recently covered this bit of road for She Shoots Straight I took the opportunity to grab some modern day comparisons.

Looking east towards Victoria Park

Looking southwest with the tunnel entrance in the background.

Looking at the tunnel entrance

The cars are entering the cross harbour tunnel

The Champions - Stuart Damon (1967) - Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter

The end of Stirling's memories shows us a view of Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter, and with it the end of the Hong Kong locations for this singular episode. Unsurprisingly, this footage also features in another ITC production, Jason King (follow the link to the post and you can see the same image at the bottom).

The Champions - Stuart Damon (1967) - Yee Wo Street, Causeway Bay

After Stirling gets in his rickshaw, we are treated to some passenger point of view shots of the rickshaw journey. The first image shows the rickshaw travelling up Yee Wo Street from the east, close to the junction with Pennington Street.

The next sequence from the rickshaw ride shows us being pulled around the end of Yee Wo Street close to the Causeway Bay tram terminus. You can just see the yellow walls of the old St. Paul's Convent School down Tung Lo Wan Road on the far right in the lower image.

The Champions - Stuart Damon (1967) - Star Ferry Pier, Central

In his reminiscences, Stirling recalls catching a rickshaw to Wanchai. The image we see is a rickshaw rank outside the old Star Ferry terminal in Central. The building in the background is Star House over in Tsim Sha Tsui. So at least we know the stock footage was contemporary for the show (Star House was completed in 1966).

The Champions - Stuart Damon (1967) - Bonham Strand East, Sheung Wan

More general shots of Hong Kong with this interesting image below showing what I believe to be the famous pharmacy owned and run by 唐拾義 Dr Tong Sap-yi (Tang Shi-yi) - a famous Western-educated Chinese doctor who introduced several medicines onto the Hong Kong market. My understanding is that this building was located on Bonham Strand East at the junction with Hillier Street. This image from Gwulo (it shows the two words of the good doctor's name on the right hand side) seems to confirm it was located where the Hillier Commercial Building now stands at #65-67. Funnily enough, Google Maps still has the pharmacy marked although the current business on the ground floor is a gold dealer. I would need to check in person but it could be the company still has offices there.

The Champions - Stuart Damon (1967) - Hennessy Road, Wanchai

Next up in our montage of Hong Kong establishing scenes is a view along Hennessy Road. This particular street corner is the junction with Marsh Road and you can see the same curved building in this earlier photo over on Gwulo.com. I'm still not sure when this library footage was shot but you can see that the adverts on the corner of the building were in place during the late 50s. Those with a bit of HK knowledge might be able to discern the old Tung Tak pawnshop building that was this side of the Marsh Road junction. You can see its old vertical blue sign on the left in both images below.

The Champions - Stuart Damon (1967) - Victoria Harbour

Next up is an episode of the 1967 British TV series, The Champions. It stars Stuart Damon, William Gaunt and Alexandra Bastedo as three secret agents bestowed with supernatural powers by mysterious ancient Tibetan tribe following a plane crash in the Tibetan mountains. They work for a secret service called Nemesis and undertake dangerous missions all around Elstree Studios...sorry, I mean the world.

In one episode, The Interrogation, originally broadcast in 1969, Craig Stirling (Stuart Damon) has been sent to Hong Kong for a mission but, following its successful conclusion, he is kidnapped and drugged and undergoes interrogation to find out the details of his mission. The Hong Kong footage, much like Jason King, utilises stock/library footage for the Hong Kong scenes as Stirling recalls what happened.

The opening Hong Kong shot is one of the harbour as seen from Kowloon-side. For your viewing pleasure I have also stitched the panning shot together using the very excellent Matt Brown coded, Autostitch. Click to zoom in.

Full Contact - Chow Yun Fat (1992) - Fleming Road, Wanchai

A final brief glimpse of Hong Kong's coolest modern film star driving his car south along Fleming Road with the Renaissance Harbour View Hotel in the background.