Monday, May 11, 2015

Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold - Tamara Dobson (1975) - Waterloo Road, Kowloon

This one was a bit of a head scratcher until I realised the bridge in the back of this shot was actually the previous version of the KCR railway bridge where it crosses Waterloo Road near Wylie Road.

This is the Honda motorcycle shop where John Cheung's character works and where the Chinese agents have their training room.


I don't think the section of building we can see above containing the Honda dealership is still around, I have a sneaky feeling it has already been replaced by a newer building called Nelson Court (built 2001). Of course, the camera angle may be deceiving my eyes because the section of store front does look very similar to Tsui Yuen Mansion which is still around today. Anyway, feel free to offer opinions on how far down the road the camera is positioned. There are some other things still around including some of the buildings at the background behind the track/bridge. The nearest one (yellow, on the right) is Gay Mansion (built 1966), and just behind that is the Tsan Yung Mansion (built 1964) - this was the same building that used to house the Blue Taxi Cab Company Limited seen in David Chiang's The Taxi Driver. It's the one with the curved lower floor facade and small red balconies. Following that, just behind the red balconies is the slightly older Liberty Mansion (built 1962). There is another older building still standing but it is hidden on the far side of Liberty mansion in this screen shot. Here is the modern Streetview for a reasonable comparison.


The KCR track has been upgraded to a double track in the late 70's and I suspect it was this event that saw the replacement of the bridge with its current much larger version.

In the film we get a brief glimpse of the view from the shop and the greenery on the other side of the road. This is the grounds of the Wylie Road garden and that space currently has a basketball court on it.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Phil,

The location is much much closer to Yim Po Fong Street. In the photo there is a red light. That's the junction. On the other hand, there was a very small signate of the Luen Fat Restaurant at the corner of Yim Po Fong Street. That restaurant was still there in the late 1980's. It had been ousted by the landlord to make way for the Big Mac. The Mac is still there today.

On the other side of Waterloo Road was (and still is) Wah Yan College Kowloon.

T

Phil said...

Hi Thomas.
Yes, I'm inclined to agree. I think this is likely in front of where Block B of Nelson Court now stands.

Is the basketball court part of Wah Yan College? I had thought it was separate.
Cheers
Phil

Anonymous said...

Hi Phil,

I have to ask around. But from street view the basketball court has a street side fence which looked very much the same. So I guess it is likely a private basketball court.

T

Unknown said...

Yes, it's still the very same private basketball court of Wah Yan College.

gweilo8888 said...

Yep, I'd say the Honda dealership was right about where Street View now shows there being Dream Hair Salon (as of the last imagery update in 2011).

As well as the greenery across the road (which, btw, the HK Gov't GeoInfo map says the basketball courts are part of Wah Yan College), another subtle tip is the bunch of metal grates in the gutter at the edge of the road.

Infrastructure stuff tends to hang around unless there's a good reason to move it, and there's still a cluster of metal grates right outside of the entrance to Nelson Court; there aren't as many clustered together anywhere else on the rest of that block.

Phil said...

good call, yes the drain covers put the camera on the southern side of the entrance to Nelson Court. well spotted gweilo8888!

Phil said...

thanks Arthur.

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