The Lady Professional - Lily Ho Li-li (1971) - The Peak Cafe

Following another attempt on her life, Tian-li goes to the Peak cafe to make a call to the man she believes is pulling all the strings. The sequence starts with a view to the north, looking over Victoria Harbour, before panning south to focus on the Peak Cafe. The scene then moves to the cafe garden where Tian-li makes her call. As you can see from the images, the Peak Cafe hasn't changed very much since then.

The opening shot shows a nice view of Victoria Harbour

The camera turns anti-clockwise and we catch a brief glimpse west

The Peak Cafe. Upper tram terminus building on the right

The Lady Professional - Lily Ho Li-li (1971) - View of the Harbour

Tian-li's friend, Huang, lives in an apartment bought by her sugar daddy boyfriend, who also happens to be the guy tasked to kill Tain-li. In one scene as she is driving home with her friends we see some in-car point of view shots looking over the harbour from the Peak area. Sadly they're a bit blurry, but it's a nice view.

The Lady Professional - Lily Ho Li-li (1971) - Kowloon Wharves

The contract to kill Shi is subcontracted out to the boss of the guy who is blackmailing Tian-li. They are based in a warehouse at some wharves somewhere. The establishing shot shows us the Kowloon Wharves but in the close ups of the warehouses/godowns, it looks like that was filmed elsewhere (possibly even Movietown). This image is a stitch from a panning shot of the area. This area is now all part of the Harbour City mall complex.

The Lady Professional - Lily Ho Li-li (1971) - HSBC Building Mongkok

The establishing shot for the company run by the gold smuggling gang is the HSBC building in Mongkok. It had only been open a couple of years when the film was shot so was still quite modern for the time. The curved concrete shades above each of the window apertures make it quite distinctive. It's still there. In fact I was in there just the other day withdrawing some dosh.

The Lady Professional - Lily Ho Li-li (1971) - Gloucester Road, Wanchai

The two main nefarious antagonists discuss the need to kill Shi as they drive along Gloucester Road in their Rolls Royce. In the background you can see a building site with Far East Motors Ltd on the front hoarding. This was the location of the former Far East Motors car showroom that can be seen in the back of a shot from The World of Suzie Wong. Behind it is the large B.A.T factory that stood along the waterfront until the mid-70s when it was replaced by Elizabeth House. The in-car scenes were obviously shot over a long period as the background outside changes from Harcourt Road to Queen's Road Central. This shot below was the establishing shot for the sequence.

The Lady Professional - Lily Ho Li-li (1971) - Shatin

Once out of prison, Shi is being driven away when a group of killers attack him. Most of this scene was filmed on the new reclamation for Shatin Town. There is the odd glimpse of the old Shatin Floating Restaurant in the background of some shots when it was moored on the river in front of Wo Che Village. The area where the restaurant was berthed is now the Wo Che Estate which makes the location where this sequence was filmed around where the Wo Che and Lek Yuen Estates now stand. In one scene there is a prominent building in the background which can still be seen today. It's the "Siu Tin Toa Home for the Aged" in Sheung Wo Che Village (see bottom image).

This section above was right next to the restaurant (off camera left)

You can see the floating restaurant in the background of both these shots

Siu Tin Toa Home for the Aged with the red paint.

The Lady Professional - Lily Ho Li-li (1971) - Stanley Prison

Chan Shen plays Shi Yun Pu, the recently released prisoner who is now the target of the criminal gang because he is about to testify against them in court. He is released from Stanley prison and is given a couple of police officers for protection. It looks as though the film makers used the real prison interior -  confirmed when the actors walk towards the main front wall through a courtyard area (image 6). The courtyard is still around according the GoogleEarth, but the surrounding buildings have been expanded to encroach on it a bit over the years.

Chan Shen may be familiar to anyone who has seen Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold, as he plays Soo Da Chen (sounds like a made up name) and was the subject of the long foot chase in the middle of the film that starts off in Tsim Sha Tsui and ends on Hollywood Road in front of Man Mo Temple. He died at a very young age of 44 when he suffered a heart attack in the showers of the Shaw Dormitories at Movietown.

This courtyard still exists but the surrounding buildings have grown

The Lady Professional - Lily Ho Li-li (1971) - Kai Tak Amusement Park, Kowloon

In The Lady Professional Lily Ho stars as Ge Tian-li, a cafe owner who is coerced into a contract kill. It turns out later that Tian-li took revenge on the man that killed her father but was recognised by someone (Chang Pei-shan) and he has been blackmailing her ever since. He finally takes it further and uses his leverage to convince her to kill again. The target is a recently released criminal (Chan Shen) who is about to turn key witness in a court case against a criminal gold smuggling syndicate involving a high level businessman.

It looks as though some of the scenes were filmed in Japan - specifically a mid-film sequence when Tian-li follows Shi to a bowling alley. The scenery, as she drives up the hill to "Hotel Paradise", is not Hong Kong and production notes mention Japan, but not exactly where. The same hotel building and its exterior spiral staircase are also seen in other brief scenes. If anyone knows the location, please feel free to share.

The film starts with what we later find out is Tian-li's first kill, where she takes out her target on a rollercoaster using a specially adapted makeup compact. The sequence was filmed at the former Kai Tak Amusement Park in San Po Kong. The old terraces that formed the park are still there but are now part of the Choi Hung Road Playground. Old readers may recall the park appeared on the blog many years ago as part of my Sunset deep dive (one of the first local films I ever covered on the previous version of the blog in 2012).
 

Heisser Hafen Hongkong - Horst Frank (1962) - Nathan Road, Mongkok

Here is a shot from Heisser Hafen Hongkong showing the stretch of Nathan Road close to the junction with Mongkok Road. The building in the distance centre frame was the old Pioneer Building which contained the Royal Theatre. The red/blue glass windowed Pioneer Centre now stands there. Michael Hui shot the cinema heist scene at the Royal Theatre for The Private Eyes. This movie was shot in 1962, so only about two years after the building was opened.

Cornwall Street - Now and Then

After recently covering The Angel Strikes Again, I thought a modern day comparison for the Cornwall Street shots might be interesting. It's a good way of showing just how cluttered Hong Kong is these days compared to back in the 1960s before mass redevelopment took hold (and never let go).

This initial shot shows the view looking towards Waterloo Road and Baptist Hospital from just near to the Cornwall Street Children's Playground. The building in the background is the original block of Baptist Hospital that was demolished just recently (at the end of 2025). The multi-port hydrant was part of the emergency infrastructure for Kai Tak airport in case of a crash in the vicinity. The hill on the left hand side is where the original Baptist College and sports ground were located, and just visible in the background, barely discernable, is the further hill where Broadcast Drive is located. Let's just say there have been some changes.

In my lower image above (taken on 7th May 2026), you can see the sole remaining item from the original film capture is the multi-port fire hydrant. As mentioned, the original block (later renamed Block A) of the Baptist Hospital has now gone. The slope contained the Baptist College is now taken up by more buildings belonging to what is now called Baptist University. Notice that the hydrant is still at the edge of the pavement, however, there is now a second kerb further to the left and the space inbetween is filled with planters and trees. This is the same along this whole stretch of road. Perhaps the biggest change though is the flyover above Waterloo Road which allows traffic to skip the lights at the intersections with Cornwall Street and Junction Road.

Here's the view looking the other way. The current development here is more obvious because there is now a row of mid-rise apartment buildings along the opposite side of the road in the distance. A comparison shot is underneath. You can just make out the old property located at #2 Cornwall Street that was replaced by the rather unsubtle Mormon Church building. I do like the fact that the current view has a lot of trees though. You can see in the lower image where the extended section of the pavement, filled withtaxis in the film capture, now has trees and other plants.