The Taxi Driver - David Chiang (1975) - Hyatt Regency Hotel

To Fat's obnoxious foreign passenger is dropped off at the old Hyatt Regency (formerly The President) Hotel on the Lock Road side where the vehicular ramp was located. This has since been replaced by iSore...sorry, I mean iSquare - a vapid, glass mall whose only attraction to me at the moment (until it closes) is a branch of Marugame Seimen. I'll be back to update this post after its inevitable closure (because...Hong Kong) to say that there is no longer anything in the mall worth visiting.

The Taxi Driver - David Chiang (1975) - Cornwall Street, Kowloon Tong

To Fat is supposed to be parked at the junction with Waterloo Road and Cornwall Street but as you can see, this stationary shot was filmed after they had already turned onto Cornwall Street because that's Hillsea Court at #10 in the background.

This isn't the only time we see Cornwall Street though as there are shots later in the film that were also filmed there. This one below was also shot whilst driving past Hillsea Court. The place stills looks the same, even down to the red trim.

These next few shots were filmed riving back the other direction and show a building on the south side of Cornwall Street. It's #22 Kent Road and at one point in its like was the location for the famous "Take One" nightclub where Anita Mui was slapped by a gangster for not singing. He was then attacked and killed in his hospital bed. It was a very famous story in Hong Kong at the time. It was a private temple for a while but has stood empty for most of the time I have been in Hong Kong, but has recently been sold and is undergoing some renovation right now.

The Taxi Driver - David Chiang (1975) - Waterloo Road, Kowloon Tong

In another scene, Chen and his friend, To Fat (Wang Chung), are stopped at the lights on the junction of Waterloo Road and Cornwall Street. The wall on the right is still there, looks the same and even is still painted the same colours. In the background you can see the former Osborn Barracks (now P.L.A Kowloon East Barracks) and just tucked away on the left is HKT Telephone exchange building on the corner of Junction Road.

The Taxi Driver - David Chiang (1975) - Devon Road, Kowloon Tong

 Chen's first fare for the day is a couple who flag him down as he is driving up Devon Road. All the properties on the right hand side have been demolished and replaced by the offices of the Mormon Church.

The Taxi Driver - David Chiang (1975) - Tsan Yung Mansions, Homantin

The film uses a real life company, The Blue Taxicabs Ltd, as the company for who Chen works for. Formerly based on Nathan Road, the company built and then moved into the Tsan Yung Mansion building in the mid-1960s. The building is still around but the company has long departed - like many other companies in Hong Kong, property development and the vast amount of money to be made doing it lured many away from their traditional industries. Anyway, if you want to read more, Huw Farmer's excellent Industrial History website has an article or two.

The Taxi Driver - David Chiang (1975) - Diocesan Boys' School Sports Ground

Going back many years and I have Neil MacDonald to thank for this identification. When I first did this movie I put this place on my help me page and Neil responded saying that he immediately recognised it thanks to his many years playing cricket on the very same ground. So, another somewhat belated (10+ years) thanks to Neil again for saving me some time.

This is the park where Chen Guang goes to practise his kung fu in the morning before his shift starts. If you are wondering what is in the background now, wonder no more (trigger warning).

The Taxi Driver - David Chiang (1975) - Shek Kip Mei Estate

This next shot, also part of the opening sequence, is a shot between several of the Shek Kip Mei Resttlement Estate blocks. I can even tell you exactly which ones because there is a key location in these images that still exists. At the far distance is a building with what looks to elongated window apertures. They're not windows in fact but just the concrete patterns on the side of St Thomas' Church on Berwick Street. This means we are looking down the gap between Blocks 7,8,9 and 10 of the old estate. This same gap these days is now blocked at either end by newer (circa 80s) buildings.

l-r Block 8, Block 7

St Thomas's Church in the far centre

l-r Block 9, Block 10

The Taxi Driver - David Chiang (1975) - View of Northern Kowloon

I've been waiting a while for the Celestial Shaw Youtube channel to upload this because it was one of the first "local" films I covered on my blog many years ago. Sadly, at the time I only had a VCD version and those things are not very good for decent screen captures. Also, it was at a time when I decided to concentrate on foreign movies only and so, regrettably in hindsight, the posts were deleted (along with some for Shaolin Temple I think).

Well, now that local films are becoming the bread and butter of the blog, it's nice to be able to look at this movie again and perhaps get some locations that I missed the first time around.

The film centres around Chen Guang (David Chiang) a humble taxi driver who is just an honest guy wanting to make some money so he can marry his girlfriend, Lai-ching (Lin Chen-chi). The film has a variety of small stories about the shenanigans that drivers and their passengers get up to, but the main story is how some criminals have decided to rob a bank and intend to kidnap Chen Guang and make him drive his taxi as their getaway vehicle.

The film starts with some scenic establishing shots of various points around the territory. This initial image is a view looking east across northern Kowloon's shanty villages. The "higher" rise on the far left is the old Shatin Pass Estate. The estate it still around but those old buildings have been replaced by taller ones. The other high rise on the right is the Manning Theatre building on Yuk Wah Street. Back then it was the tallest building, these days it's just a baby compared to how the area now looks. The squatter huts between them and the camera correspond to what is now largely the Chuk Yuen Estate and Ma Chai Hang.

Hong Kong 73 - Yueh Hua (1974) - Hollywood Road, Sheung Wan

The last location from this film is Hollywood Road in front of Man Mo Temple as Chan's father returns home from work and learns that his neighbour has committed suicide by jumping off a building. He was a stock broker and suffered a huge loss when he mistakenly bought fake shares. It's one of the weirder subplots for a "comedy" but I guess satire comes in manay forms. Anyway, the scene shows a red minibus driving along Hollywood Road and stopping outside the temple where Mr Chan alights.

Hong Kong 73 - Yueh Hua (1974) - Statue Square, Central

While Chan's dad and his buddy are walking around town they come across what looks to be a share certificate, only to realise it is fake. Sadly, this is another of the issues that apparently faced investors in the early 1970s. This takes place in Statue Square as you can tell by the concrete canopy. The place is currently undergoing some "renovation" due to the nearby Central Yards development. Who knows what it will look like afterwards. Watch this space.