So-called 'white washing' and 'yellow face' has been in the movie news of late (just look up any of the criticisms - valid or otherwise - of Birth of the Dragon, The Great Wall and Ghosts in the Shell), so what better time than now to break out one of the earlier offenders of this by looking at The Vengeance of Fu Manchu. The titular character being played by a 'yellow face' Christopher Lee.
In this film (made in 1966/67 at the same time as the other Harry Alan Towers-produced films Five Golden Dragons and The Million Eyes of Sumuru) Fu Manchu dreams up an evil scheme to kidnap his arch enemy and frame him for a murder.
The film crew did a great job at portraying Hong Kong as an isolated area of the Chinese hinterland by using some rarely used locations around the slopes of Tai Mo Shan - Hong Kong's largest peak. The seeming remoteness of the locations is cleverly achieved by wandering a short distance up and down the hillside from Route Twisk. In this particular location, which happens to be the opening scene, the film crew had to walk about 2 km along a dust track that went on to become part of Stage 9 of the Maclehose Trail.
If you are wondering about the exact location then you should enter these coordinates (2°24'0.31"N 114° 5'23.07"E) to get a good idea of where it is. It's about 2km from Route Twisk (heading east) just past where the trail splits inside Tai Lam Country Park as Stage 9 continues northeast (the other section heads south east towards a place called Lin Fa Shan). I did cobble together a nicely stitched panorama which you can click on to view in better detail.
Sadly, no Streetview here because it's all trail and no car access. But looking at the odd photo I have seen the whole place is now verdant with tree growth so the views are no longer open. I'll try and get up there to grab some pictures for comparison over the coming weeks.
If you are wondering about the exact location then you should enter these coordinates (2°24'0.31"N 114° 5'23.07"E) to get a good idea of where it is. It's about 2km from Route Twisk (heading east) just past where the trail splits inside Tai Lam Country Park as Stage 9 continues northeast (the other section heads south east towards a place called Lin Fa Shan). I did cobble together a nicely stitched panorama which you can click on to view in better detail.
Sadly, no Streetview here because it's all trail and no car access. But looking at the odd photo I have seen the whole place is now verdant with tree growth so the views are no longer open. I'll try and get up there to grab some pictures for comparison over the coming weeks.
3 comments:
Hi Phil,
Actually most of the major local hiking paths had been covered by the backpack version of Street View (https://goo.gl/maps/mF9HBFtzxP52) The shared link here is just a few steps down from Route TWSK along stage line of the Mac.
T
Nice find Thomas. I wondered if it had been done but couldn't find it...many thanks. I'll try and get to the location and post the link below.
Here's the spot where the road comes up to the camera position. Shame there's now view but it's nice to know HK has so much tree growth...:
https://www.google.com.hk/maps/@22.4006372,114.0894087,3a,75y,344.72h,83.43t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s6BAAlSwZMprmrCflAaC6MA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en
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