Thursday, April 24, 2014

Noble House (Mini series) - Pierce Brosnan (1988) - Central Police Station, Hong Kong

In this post we see the Central Police Station which was recently undergoing a major refurbishment and was supposed to be open full time last year (2015). However, just yesterday (29 May 2016) it seems that a major part of the building has collapsed. Time will tell the cause but I wouldn't rule out human stupidity at this point, HK seems to be infected with it of late.

Anyway, in case you wanted to remember how it all looked 30 years ago, here are the grabs from Noble House.
Southern building facade
Apparently, this is the real Interior
Driveway to central courtyard

The Protector - Jackie Chan (1985) - Victoria Harbour

No film in HK is complete without at least one shot of its famous harbour, so here it is, albeit at night (arguably the best time because the smog gets hidden). The harbour is probably at least 100 metres narrower now than it was back in 1985. The brightly lit building centre-screen is Jardine House.

The Protector - Jackie Chan (1985) - Kai Tak Airport, Kowloon

It's been a while since I did a The Protector post because I thought I had finished it, however, looking back at the original post from 2010 over at my now defunct Wordpress blog, I realised I had included a couple of extra easy ones for the sake of completeness. So here they are so I can finish this one good a proper. It's a quick nighttime shot of a plane (supposedly the one carrying JC and Danny Aiello) landing at Kai Tak airport. Worthy of inclusion here simply for the fact that we all love Kai Tak.

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

I Spy (TV Series) - Robert Culp (1965) - Prince Edward Road East, Kowloon City

A similar shot (probably reused) from No Exchange on Damaged Merchandise, showing the view from Kai Tak airport looking over Prince Edward Road East towards Kowloon City. This was filmed at a time before the Regal Airport Kowloon Hotel was built and also before the single lane exit/entrance ramps were built.

This one is another one of AP's rather excellent panorama stitches which show a nice wide angle from the end of Nga Tsin Wai Road on the left to the buildings lining Sa Po Road on the right. The car park at the front of the terminal building can be seen in the bottom of the picture.


It seems that the only building that has survived the past 50+ years is the one on the far right (between the orange/red  and blue signs). It's a nameless building that occupies 43 - 49 Sa Po Road. Everything else has been demolished and redeveloped. Here's an approximation of the same angle using Streetview. 


Yep, lots of changes road-side as well. The flyover is the aforementioned single lane exit ramp from the airport carpark which pretty much blocks any kind of useful view. I have no idea if the flyovers will remains once the former airport area is finally redeveloped.