Friday, February 22, 2013

Double Impact - Jean Claude Van Damme (1991) - Chi Ma Wan, Lantau

A small secluded bay on the south coast of Lantau Island served as the intrepid heroes base. The Chi Ma Wan peninsular is home to several bays, one is called Tai Long Wan, another houses the Sea Ranch development (some weird ghost town that was promoted as a seaside getaway) and another just around the headland is called Mong Tung Wan. It was this latter one that was used for JCVD's hidden lair.

 
Since I posted this particular location, my friend Andi from Germany (of the Hong Kong Movie Tours blog) has been along and taken a bunch of photos around the area. As usual he has done a great job at matching camera angles almost perfectly and he has also included many shots from the beach which are seen during the battle scene. Anyway, here is that post.


Sadly there is no public transport here, but you can potentially reach it via Lantau proper and hike as Andi did or get a ferry to nearby Cheung Chau and then pay someone with a kaito to take you there. There is a very sporadic ferry service to the nearby Sea Ranch development which sits in the next part of the bay (called Yi Long Wan).

18 comments:

AP said...

Great work again Phil. Always wondered where this location was. Now I know. The beach invasion is my favourite scene in the movie. Hope you're gonna cover the bat shit crazy movie which is 'Knock Off' at some point.

All the best,

Antony

JC said...

Good work Phil! I've been looking for the filming location of Double Impact for a long time! Sadly, there isn't much info about that on the Internet compared to other movies...

By the way, I was recently able to contact Alonna Shaw through email who played Alex's girlfriend, Danielle. She told me that the abandoned hotel on the island wasn't real and that the interiors were shot in California. Unfortunately, she couldn't remember much of the other filming locations....

Phil said...

Thanks JC. It was just something that was begging to be done.

I figured the interiors were in a studio, they just had that look to them. I'm pretty sure the houses (exteriors) you see on film though were the real deal at the time though.

Wow!! great stuff contacting her, I did a bit of looking up of what she has done since and it looks as though she dropped out of the acting world?

JC said...

Yes it seems that she has now become an author. On her Facebook page, someone actually asked her why she doesn't act anymore. Here was her answer: ''...acting was a past career which contributed to writing. Writing has been a passion of mine since I was a little kid scribbling poems on scrap paper.'' A big lost for Hollywood in my mind!

I never thought she would answer my email when I wrote her about the Double Impact filming locations. I found it very nice from her to take the time to reply even though she couldn't provide much information. She is still a pretty woman in my opinion. ;-)

Phil said...

Maybe she was just cheesed off with having to get her boobies out all the time...:-)

Anyway, I still have a few Double Impact locations left but they are proving difficult to pinpoint. I'll stick them up when I have them nailed.

JC said...

Lol! I will ask her if she left Hollywood for that reason. ;-)

Honestly man, I am really grateful for all the efforts you have made to find those filming locations! I am supporting you %100 in your research. Keep up the good work!

JC said...

When I looked up Chi Ma Wan on Googlemaps myself and saw the concrete jetty I got so excited! This filming location is among those locations I really wanted to visit someday...

May I ask you how the heck you were able to find the heroes base???

Phil said...

Hi JC - same way as many other places - small clues in the surroundings and backgrounds can narrow down a search, but ultimately it comes from trawling through Googleearth to hunt out all the possibilities.

Phil

Phil said...

cheers. I'll get round to doing Knock off and Bloodsport at some point...

JC said...

I'm very impressed. You must have put a lot of efforts to be able to find all those locations. I assume that living in Hong Kong might be very helpful to recognize the surroundings.

Is Googleearth a lot better than Googlemaps? I am asking cause now with Googlempas you can have a street view pretty much anywhere in the world...

Phil said...

Hi JC - living in HK certainly helps but it's not essential now that Streetview is available. Googlemaps (which uses Streetview) is excellent for shots where the Google car has been able to drive, but places like Chi Ma Wan are too far away from main roads for it to be any help. GoogleEarth is good for those kinds of places.

Cheers
Phil

Unknown said...

Looks like someone did what I've been wanting to do for years:

http://hongkongmovietours.blogspot.ca/2015/03/double-impact-mong-tung-wan.html?showComment=1429974082926

Phil said...

Hi JC, long time no hear. Yes, I met up with Andi when he came over to HK and saw all the pictures he had been snapping. He has a great eye for matching the angles.
Cheers
Phil

Anonymous said...

Thats how i found the John Matrix house from Commando.... Google Maps of an area and emailed a local real estate agent..the result? The closest anyone has got to it! Dan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvVwA0VtzNo

Unknown said...

hi. i was woundering can you find any of the filming locations for the movies invisable target and Push ????? Double impact is another of my favorites and what about bloodsport,black mask and naked weapon filming locations

Phil said...

Hi Gary, thanks for the comment.

I mainly concentrate on foreign-made films on this blog and only venture into local HK cinema if there is something particularly interesting for me. For local films you can look at some of the links in my Blog list: Hong Kong Movie Tours, Hong Kong in Film and Film Pilgrimage are all excellent.

Also on the right is my list of "Film and TV shows" links that I have already covered in various posts. "Push" is on there as is "Bloodsport". Happy reading and let me know if I have missed anywhere off.

Cheers, Phil

Unknown said...

Hello n good day! Is this the same location where Enter the dragon was filmed?!

Phil said...

Hi Bill, no, Enter the Dragon was largely filmed around Tai Tam bay on the south side of HK Island. You can find a link to all of EtD locations in my film list on the right side of the blog. Cheers, Phil

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