Le Monocle Rit Jaune - Paul Meurisse (1964) - Shatin Floating Restaurant, Shatin

Well, I mentioned a floating restaurant the other day when we were looking at Aberdeen, but for some reason (perhaps because they needed to film inside as you will see) none of the Aberdeen based (or the Tai Pak at Castle Peak Bay) were used. Instead the film makers moved to Shatin and utilised the floating restaurant there that was once moored on the banks of the Shatin Sea.

Shatin's transformation from small market village into a massive modern New Town involved a significant amount of reclamation work and the once sea inlet was shrunk down by man made banks and turned into the modern day nullah that goes by the misleading name of the Shing Mun River.

Anyway, not only is this the first time I have seen this place used as a filming location (at least in terms of foreign films) there are a few famous faces to spot in the group of kung fu thugs who turn up to attack the French detectives.

The restaurant was moored approximately where the modern day swimming pool centre stands on the opposite side of the Lek Yuen estate. It's unclear when the restaurant was removed (or indeed, where it went) but the reclamation of the sea started in the 1970's. Anyone who has been to Shatin will know that there is a modern day replacement on the opposite side of the nullah. It's currently run by the Ming Sing restaurant chain and although modeled to look like a floating restaurant, is actually made of concrete. Well, I guess at least it's typhoon proof.

Gwan Jing-leung leads his motley crew across the gangway

Restaurant entrance

And finally a closeup of the thugs. Bruce Lee fans might recognise the chap on the centre right. It's Unicorn Chan, Lee's childhood friend who helped Lee contact the various HK studios on his return to HK. He was also the star of Fist of Unicorn - some information about that can be seen here.