The Angel Strikes Again - Lily Ho (1968) - Lam Kam Road, Lam Tsuen

We're all over the place for this sequence, because the junction where Deng Lei puts up the road works sign is actually several miles away from Route TWISK. The junction in question was the old service road running behind Hang Ha Po village in Lam Tsuen. Anyone who ever made the trip tio the Wishing Tree will have either gone into here or the next entrance along. Since the film was shot the sloped entrance has been removed and a flatter access point created further along. However, traces of the sloped road still remain as a footpath. The road is called Ngau Kwu Leng Lane or Lam Tsuen Heung Kung Sho Road  depending on which map you read. It terminates on the lower slopes of Pak Tai To Yan.

In the images below, the car is driving south along Lam Kam Road with Cloudy Hill in the background. Deng Lei hops out of the service road entrance and blocks the road with the signs forcing the car to turn up the village road.

The Angel Strikes Again - Lily Ho (1968) - Route TWISK

Agent 009 and Deng Lei plan to trap the gang leader by creating a road diversion. They observe from the memorial pavilion on Route TWISK (still there) as the car approaches from the direction of Tai Kiu Tsuen. You may recall this is the same location we saw at the end of Inter-Pol (second image down in that link).

Deng Lei then runs off to set his trap. This sequence actually utilises several separate locations as you will see in the next posts.

The Angel Strikes Again - Lily Ho (1968) - Lung Ha Wan, Clearwater Bay

Lung Ha Wan a.k.a Lobster Bay has long been a popular filming location for local (and overseas) movie productions. In this film it is where 009 and Deng Lei (Tang Ching) finally catch up with the female gang boss. This whole area seen below has changed significantly with the constrcution of the riding school as well as the general growth of trees and other vegetation. You can see the same area from the other side at the beginning of Weiße Fracht für Hongkong. This area (top three images below) is now all part of the riding school. In the fourth image we see the path up to what is now the kite flying area.

Sticking with Lobster Bay and the following captures are from later in the film as the gang pick up their ransom money via scuba diver. The diver exits Port Shelter via the first beach at Lobster Bay (where the concrete ramp was later constructed by smugglers before being destroyed by the British Army). The diver gets into the car and it drives back up Lung Ha Wan Road.

The Angel Strikes Again - Lily Ho (1968) - Tai Woh Ping Interchange

Until relatively recently (circa late 90s, which I consider "recent") the Tai Woh Ping Interchange allowed cars to join the Tai Po Road from Lung Cheung Road near to the Chak On Estate. It has since been replaced by a higher capacity (i.e. multi-lane) alternative constructed a hundred or so meters to the east, but for many years this simple interchange was the way to access both directions of the Tai Po Road from Lung Cheung Road. We see it during the sequence where 009 is following the gang leader in her car.

The image below is an old Govt image of the interchange but seen from the other side.

The Angel Strikes Again - Lily Ho (1968) - Cornwall Street, Kowloon Tong

We've seen Cornwall Street a few times in the past few months (e.g Inter-pol, The Young Rebel) but in this film we get to see the Baptist Hospital from a closer angle. Believe it or not the multi-port hydrant is still there, at least for the time being. These "heavy draw off" hydrants were placed strategically underneath the old Kai Tak flight path so that in the event of a plane crash there would be enough water and hoses to deal with any subsequent fire. They're a bit of a dying breed these days and are slowly but surely being removed. Gwulo has an (old) list of the remaining ones here.

The Angel Strikes Again - Lily Ho (1968) - Waterloo Road, Kowloon Tong

Agent 009 has a special device that irradiates people so they can be tracked. She uses it to mark the gang boss and then follows her out of the cinema. The first place we see them drive is along Waterloo Road. The first image shows the section outside the Maryknoll school near Boundary Street (you can see the dark brown brick of the school on the left). The remaining images shows the junction with Rutland Quadrant furthr to the north. There used to be an open nullah running right up the middle of Waterloo Road and you can see its low brick wall surround in the top three images.

The Angel Strikes Again - Lily Ho (1968) - Hollywood Theatre, Mongkok

Someone posted online somewhere (can't remember where) that they were really impressed with the street mockup used for the cinema sequence in this film. Granted, much of the on street sequences were filmed on the (very obviously) fake Movietown lots, however, the cinema sequence was shot at a real place. It was the Hollywood Theatre on the corner of Sai Yeung Choi Street South and Soy Street. The cinema is long gone (it closed in 1980) but note that at the time of filming it was showing the 1967 Shaw film, Susanna (Chinese title: 珊珊). Hollywood Plaza stands on the site now (not to be confused with "Plaza Hollywood" above Diamond Hill MTR station).

This is where agent 009, posing as a buyer, agrees to meet the gang to pay for some explosives. 

This last image is great because it shows the view looking south down Sai Yeung Choi Street South, with Soy Street crossing in front. In the distance is part of the old Kwong Wah Hospital site.

The Angel Strikes Again - Lily Ho (1968) - Fei Ngo Shan Road

After succesfully planting explosives on board the plane, Fan Mei-sheng calmy smokes a ciggie on Fei Ngo Shan Road as he watches the (very fake) plane blow up in the sky. In the left background is the split peak of Lion Rock.

The Angel Strikes Again - Lily Ho (1968) - Kai Tak Airport

Some more Shaw nostalgia for this next film, The Angel Strikes Again, released on 30th May 1968. I believe it's a sequel to Angel with the Iron Fists released the previous year and features Lily Ho Li-li returning as agent 009, an Interpol agent who has been tasked with tracking down a gang who specialise in extorting money from companies in return for not blowing up their stuff. The movie sets the scene with some of the gang members placing their miniature explosives on a plane so we see a very nice panning shot of the area around the airport as the scene is established.

A young Fan Mei-sheng smokin' a fag

Here's a stitched panorama of the opening panning shoot. Click to zoom.

Victoria Park Road Layby - Now and Then

Whilst doing the newly extended HK Island waetrfront walk, I also went past this small layby off Victoria Park Road. This is where Dr Orantes (Marion Cotillard) is kidnapped by the villagers in their attempts to get hold of vaccinations.