Saturday, November 12, 2016

Les Tribulations d'un Chinois en Chine - Jean-Paul Belmondo (1965) - Cape Collinson Road, Hong Kong

Back to the 1960's again for this next film starring Jean-Paul Belmondo and Ursula Andress. The English name for the film is Up to His Ears for some strange reason. Based on a book by Jules Verne it is a rather entertaining comedy about a young millionaire who wants to kill himself but then has a change of heart. The film looks like it went all over Hong Kong and there are some new (and as of yet, undetermined) locations to see.

We'll start off with this one over on Cape Collinson Road on the very eastern edge of Hong Kong Island. It's the beginning of the film when Belmondo deliberately cuts his own car brakes so that he will crash and burn. The scene looks to have used two (or more) separate locations but one of them is most definitely Cape Collinson as we can see from the views. The opening shot shows Belmondo looking out across a vista. The islands at the back are actually the Clearwater Bay peninsula and Tung Lung Chau (the tip can be seen on the right hand side).


Where the car actually crashes down the cliff and bursts into flames is a part of the cliff side that is close to where the "Correctional Institute" (HK's euphemism for a prison) now stands. Sadly the Google car doesn't go there due to the entrance of the prison but here is the screen shot anyway. The cameraman would've been inside the prison's grounds.


The next shot shows Belmondo's benefactors turning up in a car. We get a very brief glimpse up the road to a building. The building has since been replaced by a structure that holds a Fire Services reservoir water tank, but look to the far right in the screen grab and you will see a flat wall (purpose unknown) that is still there (centre screen up the road in the Streetview picture).


Finally, as they get out of the car we catch another view down the road to the terrain at the back which is actually Shek O and the D'Aguilar peninsula - including D'Aguilar Peak (Hok Tsui Shan) which is the big hill above the woman's head.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is a great blog and great posts for movie location lovers.
I have to add that the topmost picture of this post, which is the very first shot in the film, is actually a bit off from Cape Collinson. It was shot from the south side of the former Sai Wan Battery hill, looking East. One can see from Google Earth the extent of land reclamation the bay, especially Fat Tong O. Belmondo cuts the car's breaks by the curve, and the following tracking shot uncovers the Chai Wan area.
Nicolas P.

Phil said...

Many thanks Nicolas. I shall leave the photo in anyway so that your comment can be viewed by other readers and make sense. Cheers, Phil

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