Push - Chris Evans (2009) - Soy Street, Mongkok

One of the group's safe houses (whilst Kira is being "shadowed" to keep her under the radar of the sniffers etc) is what looks to be a love hotel room on the corner of Reclamation Street and Soy Street. I didn't have much to go on other than the presence of a sign for a metal works shop down on the street, but after a bit of digging around I found the right spot. 

You can see the street signs seen on film are also on the Streetview capture as well as the 7-11 on the corner (which is the corner with Shanghai Street). The red/yellow one is for an estate agency called Hui Hing (惠興地産) and the red/white one in front provided the small clue to where this location was. The shop is called Kam Yuen Hardware shop (錦源五金). This area around Reclamation street is well known for its hardware stores (which all go by the title of 五金) so it didn't take long to narrow it down.

Anyway, as for the room used in the film, it looks like it was the first floor room of this dodgy looking place (the part with the pink paint job on the exterior wall) at 331 Reclamation Street.

In the film the room has been decorated to look like a love hotel but whether it is or not I have no idea. Given that Streetview was snapped after the film was made, the room seems to have been decorated just for the film but if anyone knows different please let me know - I really don't feel the urge to go and explore this one...

Push - Chris Evans (2009) - Wanchai Star Ferry Pier, Wanchai

While we're on the subject of piers (as we were a couple of posts ago) here is one on the opposite side of the harbour. It's the old Star Ferry pier in Wanchai that has now become another piece of old Hong Kong that has gone for good.

Actually, the scene also involves a quick glimpse of the ferry they use to cross the harbour, it's the World Star that went out of service in 2011 (soon after this film was made). The pier itself was decommissioned and demolished in 2014 and a replacement built at the front of the new Central <> Wanchai reclamation waterfront i.e. about a hundred metres further into the harbour.

Despite it being demolished, we can still see the old pier courtesy of the 5 year old Google Streetview captures.

Push - Chris Evans (2009) - Club BBoss, Tsim Sha Tsui

One of the indoor locations used in the film is the now defunct Club BBoss. Once a popular hostess club in the heart of East TST, the space has now been given over to shops. We last (and first) saw it on this blog when Jeremy Irons and Gong Li go there in Chinese Box. In Push, it's where another of the "gifted", an ex-Division agent called Hook (played by Cliff Curtis), uses his mind tricks for the benefit of his wallet and personal enjoyment.

Push - Chris Evans (2009) - Kwun Tong Public Pier, Kwun Tong

There are three piers along the Kwun Tong harbourfront. One is the ferry pier where the supermarket crash scene in Knock Off was filmed. Another is the vehicular ferry pier still used for transporting dangerous items across the harbour (the drivers are banned fro using the tunnels for obvious reasons) and finally there is the public pier which is basically free for anyone with a boat to stop and pick up/drop off.

This scene in Push was filmed around the latter, smaller pier. It's when Nick and Cassie (Evans and Dakota Fanning, respectively) stumble across a recently memory wiped Kira. In the background of the lower picture you can see the entrance ramp for the vehicular pier.

Look at the Streetview picture below and you can see that the graffiti on the pier column was still visible when the Google car drove by.

Push - Chris Evans (2009) - Wanchai Road, Wanchai

Before Kira is picked up by the sniffers, she is first followed around by them and one of the streets they go down is Wanchai Road in...Wanchai!

This was a toughy to pin down but I managed to guess the location courtesy of the "Lee Comic" sign that is visible in the right of the lower picture. You can vaguely make out the Chinese name for Wanchai Road if you look closely enough. Looking at Streetview below I have tried to recreate the angle in the first picture. This section of the road runs diagonally from SW to NE and this is looking towards the northern end.

Looking at the various tarpaulin awnings along the road, and assuming that these Streetview pictures are from 2010 (the last time they did a run through HK as far as I know) then I would say it didn't take long for them to turn from bright red to the dirty covered stuff you can see in the Streetview picture. It's a good example of HK's roadside pollution at work.

Anyway, this second Streetview picture shows view after swiveling about 180 degrees from the first one. The Lee Comic sign can be seen centre screen and gives an approximate position of where the camera crew must have stuck their camera.

Push - Chris Evans (2009) - Lantau Link Visitors Centre, Tsing Yi

Kira makes her bid for escape in the toilet at the Lantau Link Visitors Centre. I've not actually been here yet, its location is very much biased towards people with cars (the only public bus service is an hourly green minibus - limited to 16 seats - caught from Maritime Square) but will make the effort at some point to see what is on show. Until then we will have to make do with some screen grabs from Push. I must admit to being most curious about whether or not these are the real toilets at the centre.

Ting Kau Bridge in the background

The Million Eyes of Sumuru - George Nader (1967) - Kennedy Road, Central

A quick one here that had me stumped for some time but after revisiting the film and paying a bit more attention to the surrounding frames of film I can confirm the location of the old mansion (it stands in for an Italian hospital in the film) was at 32 Kennedy Road on he site now occupied by a residential building called "Kenville".

Pay close attention to the building in the right hand side background because that is the rather modern (for 1966/7 anyway) looking side of St Joseph's College on the north side of Kennedy Road (#7).

The problem I had in identifying this location is that the road shows a distinct large curve (see third picture) around the front of the property. This curve has gone and the road it leads to can actually be seen in this post. It's the small driveway that leads around the back of Kennedy Apartments. All the other buildings along this strip of Kennedy Road date back to before the film was made which only left #32 as the potential and it was also confirmed to me in a brief shot (taken from that last scene I just linked to) as the guys are running down the steps to escape arrest at their hotel. I didn't include the shot here (because at the time it didn't seem important) but it shows a car waiting foir them at the bottom of the steps and lo-and-behold in the background is the same crumbly wall also seen in picture 3 above.

So there you go, another mystery solved and a brief glimpse at the old mansion that used to sit at #32 Kennedy Road.

Unfortunately I can't find anymore information about it, so if anyone can remember the place from pre-1973 (i.e. before Kenville was built) I would love to hear about it.

Push - Chris Evans (2009) - Ting Kau Bridge, Tsuen Wan

When Kira (Camilla Belle) is finally tracked down, she is bundled into a car by the sniffers and driven to the Lantau Link Visitors Centre. Both to and from this location the car can be seen driving over the nearby Ting Kau Bridge - identifiable by its yellow trim.

Push - Chris Evans (2009) - Aberdeen Harbour, Aberdeen

I've almost lost count of the number of films that feature Aberdeen and its harbour (I recently penned a two-part article for a local club magazine about the various international movies that have been filmed there) and Push also filmed some scenes there. It's the location of another 'gifted' person who has the ability to erase parts of peoples' memories. It's a location they return to later in the film as well.

The building in the background of the lower picture is the Municipal Services building on Ap Lei Chau.

Push - Chris Evans (2009) - Lau Fau Shan, Yuen Long

The next location was a bit tricky to nail until I did a search on one of the shops signs in the background. The scene is when Nick (Evans) first meets with Cassie (Dakota Fanning) and she tries to convince him of her sincerity. They pop out for some noodles, but actually the scene was shot all the way up in the most north westerly point of the New Territories in Lau Fau Shan. Regular readers may recognise the name from when I was doing all the Shatter posts last year. The area was once famous for its local oysters but these days the pollution in Shenzhen Bay makes tasting them a slightly risky activity. It also explains again why Yuen Long District Office was thanked in the end credits.

Anyway, I wouldn't have found this place if it wasn't for the white sign at the back of the middle picture. The Chinese says 牛記海味 (Ngau Gei Hoi Mei) which is the name for a Chinese marine products shop (Anglicised as Ngau Kee). A quick Google search using the Chinese name brings up quite a bit of info including the address in Lau Fau Shan village. One of the results was also a Youtube video about the place. If you forward to 2:50 you'll see exactly the same view as in the lower screen capture. So it's quite obvious that these scenes were filmed at night (initially giving me the impression that it was filmed indoors).

Push - Chris Evans (2009) - Blake Garden, Sheung Wan

Evans goes to a nearby sports ground to partake in some illegal dice rolling so he can practice his dice controlling mind powers. It doesn't work. The sports ground isn't really nearby at all, it's Blake Garden all the way over in Sheung Wan on Hong Kong Island.

The blue building at the back of the top photo is yet another Primary School with a long name (in this case the "King's College Old Boy's Association Primary School Number Two") and the older low rise buildings in the lower pictures actually fronting Tai Ping Shan Street. The small alleyways between the blocks have been seen on this blog before - they were a favoured location for the Yellowthread Street crew.

Push - Chris Evans (2009) - I-Feng Mansion, To Kwa Wan

The residents of I-Feng Mansion in To Kwa Wan must be rubbing their hands together in anticipation whenever an overseas film company announces it will be filming in Hong Kong. We've seen this building twice before on this blog courtesy of Contagion and then Transformers. In Push, this is the building where Chris Evans' character is in hiding from "the department".

Push - Chris Evans (2009) - Yuen Long Public Middle School Alumni Association Primary School, Yuen Long

Around the same time that the Batman: The Dark Knight crew were in town, another film production team was around filming a sort of science fiction movie starring (a pre-Captain America) Chris Evans (though after he played the Human Torch in the Fantastic 4 films).

There's a real mixture of locations seen here, some of them not really seen on international film productions before, one of which is a brief snippet during the explanatory introduction when an image of a local school is flashed up. You can't necessarily tell from the image but it's the Yuen Long Public Middle School Alumni Association Primary School. As you can see, it's keeping in the Hong Kong tradition of having an unnecessarily long English name.

It's irrelevant to the film really but I was intrigued to track it down. Finding it goes some way to explain why Yuen Long District Office gets a special thanks in the end credits.

Bruce Lee in G.O.D: Shibôteki yûgi - David Lee (2000) - View from The Peak

I shall finish off this brief trip into Brucey land with the last Hong Kong location from the film, it's a nice clear 2000 view from the Peak.

It looks better stitched together though courtesy of the trusty Autostitch program.

Bruce Lee in G.O.D: Shibôteki yûgi - David Lee (2000) - Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter, Causeway Bay

There's really not much to see of HK in this film but the film makers have tried to add a bit of "local  colour" by showing the odd snippet of a section of the Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter. I have no idea of the significance of the scene other than the fact that it may have been the most convenient to film at the time. Anyway, it's a brief glimpse looking from the middle of the shelter (it's a sturdy shot indicating it was most likely filmed from the end of the breakwater rather than from a boat) towards the Island Eastern Corridor flyover. In fact, it's pretty much the same place where Jackie Chan filmed part of Rush Hour 2 not so long ago.