Friday, November 9, 2018

The Chairman - Gregory Peck (1969) - Keelung, Taiwan

Better late than never, the last entry on the blog that comes as a result of my early summer trip to Taipei. This one will be familiar with anyone who read my The Sand Pebbles posts because this one also features Keelung.

I have yet to read a Gregory Peck or J. Lee Thompson bio (actor and director, respectively) so I can only suppose that Taiwan became the proxy for Mainland China once it became obvious that filming couldn't continue in Hong Kong. Their presence made the local Communist faction start their usual mouth frothing and as a result the Colonial Government requested they leave.

So we have a scene where Peck goes on a walkabout through a seemingly drab but lively environment and the existence of a recognisable piece of local architecture means we can easily identify the area in question as being in Keelung - the port city to the north east of Taipei.


In the top centre left of the first image above there is a familiar looking building. You may recall it was also seen in the Keelung-shot parts of The Sand Pebbles. It's the Lin Kai County Building (林開郡洋樓) that can be see behind Steve McQueen's head in this image.

The central waterway has since been covered and now has the Aiyi Road flyover above it, but you can see where various intersecting roads cross the water via bridges. The first is the Zhongyi Rd right at the water front next to the aforementioned Lin Kai building. Next up is another bridge where Rensan Rd crosses the water. Finally we get to the intersection where the camera stops and it's where the Rensi Road crosses over.

It looks as though most of the buildings around here have been redeveloped, however, the corner building with the open awnings (last two images above) does appear to have survived. Either that or its replacement appears to have copied it almost brick for brick - which I feel is unlikely.


It appears that this is the same area where we next see Peck doing his walkabout and by comparing the image of him below with some of the details in the screen caps above, it does look as though this is the point where he is standing.

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