Enter the Dragon - Bruce Lee (1973) - View over Central, HK Island

In all honesty, it wasn't until I was looking at Golden Needle's sites that I realised I had never included this sequence from Enter the Dragon on my blog (or if I did it has gone mysteriously AWOL). Anyway, seeing as I just posted scenes from exactly the same location I figured now was the time.

So, yes, here it is the famous panning shot from the opening titles, and there is that same tree we just saw in Golden Needles. Of course in the ETD version we get to see a lot more.such as the newly completed Furama Hotel building at the right of the top picture (the official history says this place wasn't opened until 1977, but there it is in 1973/74, a fact confirmed by David over at Gwulo.com).

You can also see the former Royal Naval Dockyard and grab a quick glimpse of some of the now-demolished barrack buildings from Victoria Barracks (now Hong Kong Park and Pacific Place).

The bottom picture with the film title shows the big open area that was the 1970's reclamation in Wanchai. It's basically the project that extended the shoreline out from Gloucester Road a couple of hundred metres and the space is now largely filled by the Convention centre, some Govt offices, Central Plaza and of course the exit/entry for the original cross-harbour tunnel.

Now for a direct comparison and feel free to chip in as to whether or not Bob Clouse, the director of both Golden Needles and Enter the Dragon, and Warners, the company who made the films, used the same footage for both films.

Golden Needles

Enter the Dragon

Okay, the colour is slightly better in the first one but that is just going to be down to my copies of the films. But the angles match EXACTLY as do the shadows. Whaddaya reckon? Mr Clouse saving some cash?