We've already seen some scenes from this sequence because I have already covered the southern end of Nathan Road and Peking Road, and the next part of the scene we see our heroes walking along Mody Road - but this time back towards Nathan Road!! If you ask me Victor is a pretty crap guide and I'm surprised old Frank even made it to the venue in the first place.
To be honest, this was a toughy because the whole area has seen MASSIVE redevelopment since this film was made. The URA took over the place (that's the Urban Redevelopment Authority to you and me) and several surrounding roads to build the K11 mall and the so-called 'Masterpiece' skyscraper that houses the mall in its lower floors.
The sole remnants from 1987 are the Union Travel Company (seen on the sign above JCVD's head) and just far right you can catch a glimpse of the Mody Road electricity substation (that's the bit behind the grey-haired dude on the right). Here is a rough approximation of the same view using Streetview (sub station on the right).
13 comments:
You're in my neck of the woods now. I'm going to have to watch this flick -- I lived on Mody Road for a year or so at the start of the 90s. In fact, my home was on I think the second floor of one of the buildings that was replaced by K11. My bedroom would've been right in front of (and above) the Illy Espressamente shop, in the open atrium.
I have some photos of it somewhere, post-shuttering of the building, but before they demolished it. If I go back to my old film (I need to scan it), I probably have some from when I lived there, too.
would love to see some photos of the place. I have vague memories of a pub around there somewhere where I got drunk one night with a friend during a guinness promotion. Still have the free pen somewhere...
Just remembered I have four of the photos (from when the place was being prepared to be demolished) in an album on Facebook. Are you on there? Be happy to share them, but not sure how best to do so otherwise. You can see the Nita Fashions sign (with another larger sign for Nita beneath it) in one shot. Another has the end of a sign for Carnarvon Centre peeking in the corner. (Both places are in your images here.)
Somewhere I have a receipt for a Canon DSLR bought at a camera shop right around there, as well. (The only place that *wasn't* a tourist ripoff, their prices were good even if they did the whole "hand you an ice-cold can of Coke the moment you show the least interest in a camera" thing!) I'm wondering if it was Sunshine Camera, another sign that appears in your frame grabs -- it's in about the right place, from memory.
I don't remember too many pubs on Mody Road itself, but there was one which I think was called something like "The Watering Hole". Went in there a few times. It was a basement place in the bottom of Mirador Mansions, right where Japan Home Centre is now I believe.
If you don't mind sharing you can scan them in and email to me at, I'd be happy to use them on my other blog when that starts going again (later in the year):
oriental_sweetlips 'at' hotmail 'dot' com (obviously replacing the words with the symbols).
I seem to remember this pub I went to had some sort of mock tudor exterior and was reached via going up some steps?
Mock Tudor? Hmm, the only places I knew nearby that might qualify were the Jouster Pub (I think located at the corner of Cameron Road and Chatham Road South), and it's more gweilo-friendly sibling, The Jouster II (on Hart Avenue). Both were faux-castle on the exterior, but could maybe be called mock Tudor on the interior, from what I remember. Only went in the former a few times, but the latter was for a long time my haunt. A lady called Stella ran the place, and the manager was called Eric I believe. Would love to know where they are now. Place had an upstairs with a suit of armor halfway up the stairs and a DJ booth at the top, downstairs there was a faux-moat with draw bridge at the entrance. Jousters II makes a brief appearance in an episode of a UK military soap drama called Soldier Soldier.
I'll try to get some Mody Road pics to you soon.
it was a long time ago (maybe '96) and to be perfectly honest I was totally sloshed when I left the place so my memories are not that great. I just remember heading up some steep steps to the entrance, a dark wood interior and the hot Guinness promotion girl...;-)
Hey guys, The Jouster II on Hart Avenue was also used in the film 'Full Contact'
Hi AP - do I take it that you have partaken in the liquid refreshments held within?
Interesting, AP. I'll have to go dig that out! (Looks like Netflix has it, for anybody in the US.)
Thanks again for this, AP! Just got a copy of the movie and while I don't have time to watch it right now, couldn't resist cuing forwards until I found the Jouster II bit.
MAN, that takes me back. Just as brilliantly tacky as I remembered it, perhaps more so! It's a surprisingly long scene, you can see the entrance, both upstairs and downstairs bars, the DJ booth, some of the seating booths, and even a little of the bridge over the bizarre indoor moat / fish pond just inside the entrance. (Which if I'd been thinking about it, Phil would certainly have remembered if he'd ever been there.)
Looks like they hadn't gotten the coat of armor yet, or they took it down. (The film predates my first going there by probably 3-4 years or so.) Soldier Soldier shot there later, and the coat of armor was around for them...
That place was my second home for a year or so at the start of the 90s. At one point I was probably there three or four nights a week; it was three minutes walk from work on Peking Road to my place on Mody, then about the same to get me to Hart Avenue after I'd gotten changed. ;-)
I'm going to say it definitely wasn't Jouster II you went to. (Watch Full Contact, and you'll be able to confirm for yourself, though.)
I'd misremembered the interior being mock Tudor, it was faux-castle inside as well. And there was a moat with a bridge right inside the door, which you'd certainly have remembered.
Maybe the original Jouster was the one. I did some more Googling and now I'm 99% sure it was a few streets further north, at 9-9A Chatham Court. And I do seem to remember that being faux Tudor, inside and out. But then I said Jouster II was, as well, despite spending countless hours in there. This one I visited only once or twice. ;-)
Realized right after posting that I confused the release dates for Bloodsport and Full Contact. This was 1992, so actually right around the time I was going there regularly. They must've taken the suit of armor down, for whatever reason.
I thought I would provide an update on this long-standing mystery. I recently returned home and was given some photo albums that I had left with my parents many years before. Lo-and-behold in one of them were some photos from that drunken night I mentioned. Guess what? One photo of the bar area shows an advert for the place we were in and it was...."The Watering Hole". In some bizarre twist I though I remembered going up some staits to enter but I think it must have been when we left! It's only taken me nearly 9 years to solve!!
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