Friday, September 18, 2026

No culpes al karma de lo que te pasa por gilipollas - Verónica Echegui (2016) - Chun Yeung Street, North Point

After feeling ill on the minbus (anyone who has ridden on a red minibus in Hong Kong can empathise), Sara gets off and the pair walk along the street as she feels increasingly ill. She then collapses. This was all filmed along Chun Yeung Street (春秧街) in North Point. It's one of those streets pushed by the HK Tourism Board for being a bit quaint. The street has a local wet market whose stalls are located right next to the North Point tram terminus. I think the tourism board wants to pretend this street market is like those ones you see in Vietnam or Thailand where everyone has to move their stalls when the train breezes through (Narrator: it's not).

Thursday, September 17, 2026

Unicorn Fist – another ‘lost’ Bruce Lee location rediscovered (repost from 2011)

Originally posted on my old Wordpress blog (back in 2011), I noticed that one of my old posts pointed to this article, so, rather than just delete the link why not just republish the original post..and of course add a few updates where relevant (and removed quite a bit of my irrelevant ramblings). I was reminded as well by a recent video on the Stripey Rambles channel detailing a new magazine about the film and it mentions Pak Tam Chung. Seeing as I was the one who rediscovered the location, I thought a repost wouldn't go amiss. I also made it into the papers at the time for my nerdiness (see the SCMP article at the end).

Bruce Lee and I - one of the alternative titles of this movie

No culpes al karma de lo que te pasa por gilipollas - Verónica Echegui (2016) - Shanghai Street, Mongkok

After emerging from Mongkok station and meeting her beau all the way over in Causeway Bay, the pair zoom back to Mongkok to catch a red minibus. I reckon at that speed they didn't need the bus. The building in the background is the Shantung Street-end of the Langham Place Mall. The minibus is driving south down Shanghai Street.

Wednesday, September 16, 2026

No culpes al karma de lo que te pasa por gilipollas - Verónica Echegui (2016) - Statue Square, Central

As the pair make their way across town, we get a brief glimpse of the skyscrapers around Statue Square in Central. From left to right we have the Bank of China Tower, Cheung Kong Centre, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank and on the far right, the Prince's Building. 
 

Friday, September 11, 2026

No culpes al karma de lo que te pasa por gilipollas - Verónica Echegui (2016) - Nelson Street, Mongkok

As Sara (Verónica Echegui) arrives in Hong Kong, we see her emerge from the Nelson Street Mongkok MTR station on the east side of Nathan Road (Exit E2). I'm impressed they managed to film here given how busy it is at all times. The initial shot shows the view across Nathan Road towards the Langham Mall in the background. The taller building is now the Cordis Hotel (it may still have been the Langham at the time of filming in 2016, I'm not sure).

Thursday, September 10, 2026

No culpes al karma de lo que te pasa por gilipollas - Verónica Echegui (2016) - View from the Peak Viewing Tower

The first Spanish entry for the blog comes in the form of No culpes al karma de lo que te pasa por gilipollas (Eng: Don't Blame it on your Karma), a romantic comedy starring Verónica Echegui as Sara, a girl whose world gets very complicated when a horde of people suddenly descend on her apartment in Madrid. I am familar with some of the actors courtesy of recently watching some Spanish language dramas on Netflix. Echegui was in Ciudad de sombras (City of Shadows) a murder mystery set in Barcelona and her co-star (and partner at the time) Álex García is in the excellent The Glass Cuckoo (El cuco de cristal). The only sad thing about all this is the fact that Echegui passed away last August (2025) from cancer at the very young age of 42.

Most of the film was shot in Madrid, but during the last third she goes to visit her boyfriend in Hong Kong and the establishing shots are some views from Victoria Peak, most likely from the Peak Viewing Tower given the angle. You can compare the angle with this one in The Gray Man. It's exactly the same. The second image is a close up (of Wanchai area) of the section on the right in the first image.