Vengeance - Johnny Hallyday (2009) - Western District Community Centre, Sai Ying Pun

After the hit, one of the assassins is put into a line up for Hallyday to identify, but he has other ideas and the man goes free. Hallyday intends to make him an offer and waits outside the police station for him to leave so he can follow. Although still supposedly in Macau, the "police station" is one we have seen before on the blog and, coincidentally, it was used as a police station then as well. Here's the reminder. The first screengrab is the view up Western Street. The second grab is at the end of the building along Third Street where Hallyday is waiting. Interestingly, it looks like the film makers tried to keep the illusion of it being in Macau by putting a fake Macau-style street sign on the wall. 

Vengeance - Johnny Hallyday (2009) - Royal View Hotel, Ting Kau

The scene when the hitmen (led by Anthony Wong Chau-sang) follow their target to a hotel: the Royal View Hotel in Ting Kau. Of course in the film this is still supposed to be Macau. I'd never heard of this place until today and had no idea there was even a hotel there! It's located on the mainland side of the Ting Kau bridge that connects Tsing Yi with Tsuen Wan side.

Vengeance - Johnny Hallyday (2009) - Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro, Macau

The next scene shows Johnny crossing Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro - the main drag in Macau lined by columned shophouse buildings. Actually, it pops up a couple of times in the film both here and during the finale as he pursues his enemies during the final stages of the shootout. The first pictures are from earlier in the film and show us looking west down the road towards the inner harbour area.

The second visit to the road is at the end of the film and Johnny is hit by a car as he chases the bad guys. The spot s actually just a few metres behind the one above (so probably filmed at the same time). The patterned columns in the background belong to the old landmark, the Hotel Central.

Vengeance - Johnny Hallyday (2009) - Rua de Cantão, Macau

As Hallyday stumbles about trying to find leads in his family's murder case, we see him outside the Hotel Fortuna along Rua de Cantão. He then crosses the road and heads down the nameless shopping lane opposite the hotel.

Vengeance - Johnny Hallyday (2009) - Island Tang Restaurant, Central

I don't usually do interiors because more often than not they turn out to be studio sets, however, I think the budget for this film didn't extend to expensive sets and instead real locations have been used including this rather swish looking restaurant - supposedly in Macau - where we are first introduced to Simon Yam's rather unhinged Triad boss character.

Courtesy of the acknowledgments at the end of the movie credits, we know that this place is in fact Island Tang restaurant that sits inside The Galleria at #9 Queen's Road Central. I've walked past this building on countless occasions but never ventured in - not really my type of place - but stopped a few times to watch the little hourly chime outside the front entrance. Anyway, if you want to visit this place properly, you can always go along and eat there. Here's the website.

Vengeance - Johnny Hallyday (2009) - Casino Lisboa, Macau

The eagle-eyed will have spotted a quick glimpse of the Lisboa casinos (both of them) in the last post, and soon the scene moves to a night time shot of the same area. Although the old Lisboa has a sort of appealing retro tack, the Grand Lisboa (in my opinion) is a massive blot on the Macau landscape. I just hate that thing.

Vengeance - Johnny Hallyday (2009) - Ponte Governador Nobre de Carvalho, Macau

The next film is Vengeance - a joint French/HK production directed by famed HK director, Johnnie To. It stars the French superstar, Johnny Hallyday (who just recently passed away in December 2017), as a former hitman who has come to Macau to exact revenge on the people that assassinated his daughter's family. It's a bit slow in places and slightly preposterous in others but overall a good story with lots of locations in both HK and Macau. It opens with a shot of a taxi driving over the Governador Nobre de Carvalho bridge towards the peninsula.

Challenge of the Tiger - Bruce Le (1982) - Fei Ngo Shan Road, Kowloon

The final part of the finale (the finale the finale?) was shot up on Fei Ngo Shan Road. 

Challenge of the Tiger - Bruce Le (1982) - Disused Battery, Chung Hom Kok

The fight with Wang Jang Lee quickly moves from Guia in Macau over to Chung Hom Kok in Hong Kong. Wang Jang Lee fans (and let's face it, who isn't a fan of that bad ass dude?) will instantly recognise this place - the disused battery at Chung Hom Kok - as the exact same place where Wang staged his initial fight from the rather excellent The Art of High Impact Kicking. You can see it on Youtube.

The concrete structures are still there and the area has been turned into a pleasant coastal park area. If you have the time and energy it's well worth a trip.

Challenge of the Tiger - Bruce Le (1982) - Guia Fortress, Macau

The finale of the film - the big assault on the bad guy's HQ - like the images of the HQ itself, is a combination of several locations both in HK and Macau. We've already featured Monte Fort as a location and some of the action goes on there, but there are three other locations that were also used (I have no idea why but suspect budget and/or time constraints came into play).

The first location we will look at is the Guia Fortress in Macau. It's identified by the famous lighthouse that sits at the top of the hill and most of the action takes place around the cluster of buildings by the lighthouse.

Challenge of the Tiger - Bruce Le (1982) - Penha Church, Macau

Harrison goes to meet his nemesis spy (the girl who picked him up on the beach) at Penha Church to find out where his kidnapped colleague has been taken. We only catch a brief glimpse of the church itself and most of the shots were taken on the courtyard in front with views over to the Lisboa.

This final picture is of the sloped driveway that leads from the main gate, up the side of the church to the front courtyard.

Challenge of the Tiger - Bruce Le (1982) - Jockey Clube de Macau, Taipa

In one of the more bizarre moments of the film, the cast and crew appear to gatecrash the 2nd Anniversary celebration of the Macau Jockey Club (well, strictly speaking it was the "Trotting Club" at the time) and mingle with the crowds. The most weird thing about this is that the various celebrities seen in the section - probably unbeknownst to them - actually are credited in the films cast list on IMDB. So we see Morgan Fairchild with her beau, Craig Denault, followed by Jack Klugman (Quincy) and Jane Seymour. Bruce even walks up to the latter two for a quick chat and they all look very confused about what's going on.

Another confusing aspect of this is that the Macau Jockey Club was supposedly started in 1980, but this clip is showing the 2nd year celebration. There are 2 possible scenarios: 1. The 2nd anniversary sign above the entrance was a prop (feasible but makes me wonder why they chose "2nd" anniversary as opposed to what should be the inauguration) or 2. The Jockey Club was in fact started in 1978 contrary to what wikipedia states (always a possibility) and this really was the 2nd anniversary celebration. In my opinion either is as likely as the other. Perhaps someone with more information will be able to let me know (comments and email always open).

Edit: see the comment below, the film was made in 1982 and now everything makes more sense. I've updated all the titles to reflect this now.

The offending sign showing the "2nd Anniversary"

And the final shot shows the type of racing that the club was originally involved in - trotting - essentially a race with each horse pulling a small cab behind. For someone who gets bored watching horse racing, this looks like a complete snoozefest so I'm not surprised they changed it to standard turf racing after a very short time and the trotting bit was binned.

Challenge of the Tiger - Bruce Le (1982) - Praça de Ferreira do Amaral, Macau

Just in front of the Hotel Lisboa is the Praça de Ferreira do Amaral. It's a circular road that has a park in the centre, but prior to 1992 it also had a large imposing statue of the 79th Governor of Macau, João Maria Ferreira do Amaral. The statue was removed in 1992 at the request of the Chinese Govt because the man it symbolised was a rather controversial figure who ended his days by being assassinated just beyond the Barrier Gate that once formed the northern border between Macau and Mainland China.

The impending return of Macau to China hastened the necessity of its removal and it was taken down - without any fuss - and shipped back to Portugal where it now stands, with a slightly less imposing pedestal, in the Jardim da Encarnação. These days the park has some rather uninspiring, but uncontroversial, glass sculptures.

We also catch a brief glimpse of the Governador Nobre de Carvalho Bridge which runs across the bay from here connecting the Macau peninsula with Taipa island.

Challenge of the Tiger - Bruce Le (1982) - Casino Lisboa, Macau

Another of the famous Macau landmarks we see is the Hotel/Casino Lisboa. This is the original casino/hotel built by Stanley Ho and Henry Fok (and others) when they had the gambling monopoly. It's rather gaudy exterior seems quite restrained these days compared to its increasingly ridiculous neighbours (including the completely stupid looking Grand Lisboa).

Challenge of the Tiger - Bruce Le (1982) - Casino Macau Palace, Macau

The CIA agents' female companion has a contact who sells newspapers at the entrance to the Casino Macau Palace - the original floating casino that once stood (or floated) near Ponte 14 in the inner harbour area.

We've seen it several times now on the blog (Noble House, Flatfoot in Hong Kong, The Man with the Golden Gun) but I'm still clueless as to what happened to it. Feel free to comment if you know.

Challenge of the Tiger - Bruce Le (1982) - St Paul's Church Facade, Macau

It wouldn't be a trip to Macau unless we have a visit to the old ruined church facade of St Paul's. In this instance the film makers have really thrown everything they can into the scene and have Harrison and Le attacked by a couple of dirt bike riders. I'm fairly certain that these days the riders would be overwhelmed by the sheer vast numbers of Mainland Chinese tourists, but back in 1982 it was a lot more feasible.