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

Sara wanders around looking a bit lost. She stops on a corner looking bewildered. This was filmed on the north east corner of Nelson Street and Sai Yeung Choi Street South.

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).

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.

Guia Fort - Now and Then

The last comparison images from my brief sojourn in July into Macau is from Guia Fort. One of the best value things to do is to ride up Guia hill in the little cable car. It's dirt cheap and is a welcome relief from the summer heat (it was sweltering when we were there). Make sure you check out the small tunnels under the fort as well. The comprison shots I'm using here are from Challenge of the Tiger, filmed in 1982.

This is the front of the chapel

One of the buildings below the lighthouse

Daddy Cool - Mammootty (2009) - Lung Cheung Road, Wong Tai Sin

Okay, so we will finish on this film with a view along Lung Cheung Road in front of Wong Tai Sin Temple. This shot was taken right in front of the large ornate gate that fronts onto the main road. there's been a bit of change here in the intervening years but the fire hydrant he's sitting on is still around in case there are any Indian film fans wishing to recreate the image.

Daddy Cool - Mammootty (2009) - Park Lane Shopper Boulevard, Tsim Sha Tsui

Every tourist to Hong Kong comes here at some point - the Park Lane Shoppers Boulevard. It's well past its sell-by-date if you ask me, but almost unavoidable if you are in this part of TST. I'm surprised I haven't really featured it that much on the blog. It was seen in The Dragon from Russia though.

Daddy Cool - Mammootty (2009) - Tai Mei Tuk, Tai Po

For anyone who has bothered making the trip out to the Plover Cove reservoir in north Tai Po, then you would have passed through the village of Tai Mei Tuk on your way there. All public transport here stops at the carpark next to the entrance to the reservoir dam wall. In this film they shot a few brief scenes of the actors riding the rental bikes along the road. The same area can be seen when Antony's wife (Richa Pallod) turns up dressed like a traffic cop. That scene was filmed in the south east corner of the carpark.

The lower images are from a car drive filmed along Ting Kok Road in front of the village.

Pataya, seen in the background, still operates

Daddy Cool - Mammootty (2009) - Nathan Road, Kowloon

Another highly featured location is Nathan Road. It looks like the film company hired one of the open top tour buses and just drove up and down Nathan Road capturing a variety of snippets. The first image below shows Nathan Road at the junction with Ning Po Street. The second one was further north between Shantung Street and Nelson Street. The third one was outside New Lucky House on the corner of Jordan Road.

All the neon signs have since been removed

California Fitness was in Grand Tower

New Lucky House (with the green triangular pattern) on the right

Daddy Cool - Mammootty (2009) - Avenue of Stars

A significant proportion of the musical set piece was filmed along the (old) Avenue of Stars along the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront in Kowloon. For those who never got the chance to experience the original AoS, you didn't miss much. It was a bit of poorly-managed tourist tat, full of spelling mistakes and overpriced film memorabilia. It underwent a renovation a few years back when New World Development (the owners of the land) decided to knock down the New World Centre and rebuild it into the current K11 Atelier monstrosity. When reopened, the "new" Avenue was just as disappointing as the old one, and the old centrepiece - a life size bronze sculpture of Bruce Lee in a fighting stance, paid for and provided by fans - was relegated to one side as some sort of coffee shop ornament for the local Starbucks.

Daddy Cool - Mammootty (2009) - Central Waterfront

Some scenes were also shot in front of the IFC mall on the Central Waterfront.