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.

Hong Kong 73 - Yueh Hua (1974) - Lion Rock Tunnel Road, Shatin

After turning back on their journey to Stanley, the group then head back through the Lion Rock Tunnel towards Fanling. It's here where they are told there is also congestion in that direction as well!

The initial image below shows Lion Rock, but it's a view not many people are familiar with because it's from the Shatin-side of the hills. As the camera zooms out, you can see that we are at the tunnel toll booths. The booths are still marked on Google Maps but were removed circa 2023 when the Govt implemented a fully comprehensive electronic tagging system for vehicles entering/leaving the tunnel. The same system has been applied across Hong Kong which is why you no longer have to stop to pay a toll on the way to/from the airport.

This last image was taken on the Shatin-end of Lion Rock Tunnel Road where it intersected with Tai Po Road. Turn left and you head back to Kowloon, turn right and the road takes you past Shatin. The cars in the backgrpund are on the Tai Po Road, but behind them would be where the KCR rail line ran alongside the road. For modern context, this area is more or less the same one where Lion Rock Tunnel Road ends today, at the junction with Tai Po Road - Tai Wai section, but closer to the "Scenery Court" development. 

Hong Kong 73 - Yueh Hua (1974) - Cross Harbour Tunnel Road

The group of friends decide to go to Stanley for the day, only to have to turn back due to congestion. This image is interesting because it shows the beginning of the construction work that would become Hung Hom Station. The ramp on the right is the ramp that connects Hong Chong Road with the podium/bus terminus area of the current station. So this 1973/74 image fits nicely with the 1975 opening of the new station. The camera is located on a pedestrian bridge. The bridge is still there but has been heavily developed since then. It's the one that connects the station to the PolyU site.

Hong Kong 73 - Yueh Hua (1974) - Tai Lin, Nathan Road

Chan's (Yueh Hua) dad is the manager at the Tai Lin Radios store on Nathan Road. This was a real place and a real business that sadly went into administration following the 2008 financial crisis. Despite this the large Chinese sign outside the shop stayed in place for many years and was a sort of local landmark - knowing its location (at #310) has certainly helped me locate a few places on the blog in the past.

Hong Kong 73 - Yueh Hua (1974) - Star Ferry Pier, Tsim Sha Tsui

Following on from his huge success with The House of 72 Tenants, Chor Yuen (perhaps known better to people who come here as the head bad guy in Police Story), Hong Kong 73 was a follow up that includes one of the biggest ensemble cast I have ever seen in a movie. The roll call is so large the film is still introducing them (via on screen titles of their names) right up until the end. The film is a satire  and the plot follows a closeknit group of residents along "Hong Kong Street" and sees them dealing with a variety of issues in Hong Kong at the time: gambling, the stock market, poverty, success, hospital queues, poor housing, suicide, typhoons etc. As a current Hong Kong resident, a lot of these problems resonate with modern Hong Kong as well, so they are not really things that have ever gone away. A film like this could never be made today. If it was the cast would be blacklisted, the director would be tried for endangering National Security and the film would never get through the current censorship regime.  

Yueh Hua and Ching Li star as the main characters. A couple who work as a security guard and high school teacher respectively, and the story revolves around them and their various family members and acquaintances. The film starts off with some nice views of the Kowloon Star Ferry pier in Tsim Sha Tsui as seen from the rooftop carpark of Ocean Terminal.

The Brain Stealers - Lily Ho Li-li (1968) - Diamond Hill Cemetery, Kowloon

Pretending that their father has been killed, the siblings go through a mock funeral for him to throw the kidnappers off his scent. This scene was filmed at the Diamond Hill Cemetery.

Tsz Wan Shan Estate (Blks 51 & 52) in the background

The Brain Stealers - Lily Ho Li-li (1968) - Kai Tak Airport

Whilst the family pretend to bury their deceased father, instead he is slipping away to Japan to hide via a plane from Kai Tak Airport.

The Brain Stealers - Lily Ho Li-li (1968) - Port Shelter, Sai Kung

Jia-wen is trying to woo Chiu-lan and takes her out on a boat for the day whilst they are being watched by the agents from the UN. This scene was shot at the Tai Mong Tsai-end of the harbour.

The Brain Stealers - Lily Ho Li-li (1968) - Shaws Movietown

I seem to have lost count how many times Shaw House has been used as a nightclub in one of its productions. In this film it is called Queen Bee and is supposed to be located in Tokyo. In the film it is owned by Chiu-lan's fiance, Jia-wen (Peter Chen Ho) and is where her brother is kidnapped from.

This isn't the only appearance of Movietown in the film though and a few more shots were used for a variety of scenes. The following ones are when the UN are showing agent 009 (Lin Chih-yung) footage of the scientist's laboratory.

The famous yellow gates (Shaw fans know)

There are also some other lab vicinity scenes later that were also filmed inside Movietown. IN fact, I believe the buildings you see below are ones that have been left intact at the very front of the plot (including the old Shaw House). The first building below was the old colour lab located at the south tip of Movietown.

The Colour Lab

You can see the Colour Lab in the distance

The Yellow Gates