Thursday, July 5, 2012

Sunset - Paul Chin Pei (1971) - Lung Ha Wan, Sai Kung

One of the more iconic locations from the film because its seen at the very end when Paul goes to the seaside to watch the sunset. Lung Ha Wan aka Lobster Bay has two sides to it on either side of a small headland. The northern beach is a popular shore diving spot for local scuba enthusiasts and was for a long time an area where stolen luxury cars were loaded into modified speedboats and smuggled over the border to China. A concrete ramp that aided the loading of these cars was eventually blown up by British Army engineers and the fragments of it still litter the beach.

The southern side of the headland has a direct view down the coast towards Trio Rock, which can be seen amongst others on the following screen grab (in fact the larger island directly above his head in the first shot).


Now, I can't say for certain whether the shot looking back towards Paul was filmed at the same location, it certainly could've been but it's not possible to say for sure without going there myself and looking for the same rocks (which I'm not going to do any time soon).


Anyway, there is a very similar angle to this found on Panoramio courtesy of kc22jordan.

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Game of Death - Bruce Lee (1978) - State Theatre, North Point

This is one of those locations that I have only recently been made aware of, whereas at the time of my original GOD posts I had yet to venture to anywhere near this location.

It's a brief shot that shows the fake BL walking past a cinema showing a kung fu film (Edit: it turns out to be a poster for the 1978 film The Iron Fisted Monk - see comments below).


And here is that same theatre 40+ years later, looking slightly more decrepit but still with its identifiable curved front and square windows.


If you would like to know a bit more about the place then you can visit my other blog where I did a post.

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires - Peter Cushing (1974) - Silverstrand Bay, Sai Kung

Proof (if ever you needed it) that Shaw Brothers were able to convey the sense of many different sorts of landscapes and locations on film from the comfort of their own backyard. This next scene was actually filmed on the hilltop behind the Movietown studio lot - an area that was taken over by the University of Science and Technology back in 1991 for their staff quarters.

Here are some film grabs looking down into Silverstrand Bay with its small rock outcrop just jutting out into the water.


Look in the far background and you can also make out the distinctive sharp profile of High Junk Peak sticking up in the ridgeline at the back. This angle could only be gained from the hillside behind the studio.

Incidentally, I believe that the small flat location seen in the top picture (where the carriage is sitting) has since been converted into a small garden with a pavilion attached to the staff quarters - however, I'm not sure of how much public access there is here - if any. Silverstrand went on to become slightly notorious  in the early 90's when a series of fatal shark attacks occurred there.