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.

Hong Kong 73 - Yueh Hua (1974) - Castle Peak Hospital, Tuen Mun

Opened in 1961 as Hong Kong's main psychiatric hospital, it replaced the old one on Eastern Street (you will remember it from this) which was repurposed as an outpatient clinic. The hospital is still around on the same site, but has been extensively redeveloped into a much larger facility. The one we see below was quite small. One thing to note though is that despite all the change, the hospital still uses its original engraved name stone with its Chinese name (青山醫院). You can compare the name stone image below with the same one that currently sits outside the main entrance.

Hong Kong 73 - Yueh Hua (1974) - Carnarvon Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

A general shot from the film (I don't remember the context) that shows a very famous junction between Carnarvon Road and Granville Road in Tsim Sha Tsui. The Kaiser Restaurant was a long standing eatery here (between 1955 - 1977) on the NE corner of the junction. The building it was on was demolished soon after and replaced by the current Taurus Buildingh. However, on the oppiste corner, containing "Heung Bun" (on the right) is one of the buildings still around. Granville Road itself has one of the greatest concentrations of 50s era tenements along both sides of the road. However, they arec all slowly being replaced one by one. 

Hong Kong 73 - Yueh Hua (1974) - Monmouth Terrace, Kennedy Road

Chan goes to find his car after the friends borrowed it and turns up to find it is a wreck and about to get a ticket. This scene was filmed on the service/petrol station layby off Kennedy Road where Monmouth Terrace stands. The structure with the windows on the right of the top image is still there and is the service station building. Behind the policemen is a road sign that says "Monmouth Path". The path starts just behind them and goes down to Star Street area in Wanchai.

Hong Kong 73 - Yueh Hua (1974) - High Street, Sai Ying Pun

 When the whole group goes to the police station to report afew issues, Chan parks his car outside but is called back out to remove his car as it's illegally parked. He then discovers his headlights have been stolen and gets a ticket for driving with no lights. This whole scene was filmed outside the old No.8 police station on High Street and you can see the old psychiatric hospital building, of which the facade still remains, as Chan drives down the street to park again around the corner on Eastern Street.

Hong Kong 73 - Yueh Hua (1974) - View from Hotel Lisboa

The group are staying at a hotel and return to their room after hitting it big. I can't say for sure if the room is real or a set, but the view from the window is definitely the view you would have seen from the original Hotel Lisboa block back in the 1970s. It's a view that disappeared in the 1991 when the second hotel block was completed. The initial image shows a close up of the top of the St Paul's Church facade peaking out above the main block of the neighbouring "Colegio Mateus Ricci". That angle gives us a triangulation point that points all the way back to the Lisboa.

I'm not sure what the long yellow building in the second image is, but I believe it was removed to make way for the visual atrocity that is known as the Grand Lisboa. This latter construction, that I used to refer to as "Stanley Ho's catheter", is the main reason for the lack of a view today, but it was also blocked by the second, round block of the Lisboa mentioned earlier.

In the lowest image, Ching Li has the Club Militar behind her head. It's painted a pastel red colour these days and has had a bit of a facelift. Despite the mess that is the Cotai Strip, Macau in general has a bit more veneration for its built heritage.

So, is it a real hotel or just a studio set with back projection? I'm still unsure.

Hong Kong 73 - Yueh Hua (1974) - Rua das Lorchas, Ponte No.16

Another of the Macau establising shots is an oblique angle of the famous Ponte No. 16 along Rua das Lorchas. This structure was built in 1948 (by Fu Tak Iam I believe - the controller of the original gambling monopoly before he was ousted by Stanley Ho and Henry Fok et al). Thankfully it's still around, or at least was the last time I was here about 3 years ago.

Hong Kong 73 - Yueh Hua (1974) - Avenida do Dr. Oliveira Salazar, Macau

This road isn't known by this name anymore - it has since been split into Avenida Doutor Mário Soares and Avenida da Amizade, I'm just not sure what year that happened. The section youv can see below is now the Avenida da Amizade part. Anyway, the group of friends decide to head to Macau for some gambling and end up losing all their money before pawning their watches and winning it all back again, and then some. I'm not convinced how much of the Macau scenes were actualy filmed there but this image below is one of the shots in the middle of the sequence. The silhouetted building in the distance is the Hotel Lisboa. For a comparison of the same view before the hotel was built, you can see this page (second image down showing a similar aspect).

Hong Kong 73 - Yueh Hua (1974) - Fei Ngo Shan Road

The group decide the only thing for them to do is to go up Fei Ngo Shan Road. However, it's here where they suffer a double puncture and have to push the car all the way back into town. I walked this road just a few weeks ago as part of the Wilson Trail Stage 4 (which is why I was able to make this post, it's basically the same road even though the name changes at the junction with Jat's Incline).

Hong Kong 73 - Yueh Hua (1974) - Clearwater Bay Road

Now unable to go to either Stanley, or back to Fanling, the group instead decide to head into Sai Kung Tai Au Mun. This is basically the area where all the Clearwater Bay beaches are located. To get there they have to drive back into Kowloon and get on Clearwater Bay road. The images below show the section where it joins Fei Ngo Shan Road (you can see the signpost for Gilwell's Camp). In the film, they are stopped once again, this time by the police who tell them the road ahead is blocked by a truck.