Snowden - Joseph Gordon-Levitt (2016) - Lung Fu Shan, Hong Kong

Here's another one that snuck under the radar. You'd be surprised how easy it is to miss filming in this place unless you are in with the right crowd. Unfortunately I'm not so when this film was being made here back in 2015, I was none the wiser. That said, it looks as though the actual HK-based locations were narrow in scope, especially given the fact that Snowden kept his movements close to his chest for some time for fear of endangering those who sheltered him. As it turns out,the Govt has totally shafted those involved by turning down many of their asylum applications, so it looks as though his fears were justified.

For those who have been living under a rock for the past 5 years, Snowden was the NSA whistleblower who stole a bunch of top secret data and leaked them to the Guardian newspaper in an effort to shine a light on the overreach that was being utilised by the various US spy agencies i.e. spying on everyone, not just terrorists. He did a runner from Hawaii to Hong Kong and then managed to board a flight onward to Russia. The whole event caused quite a stir here when the local Govt let him 'escape' on the basis of a very pedantic clerical oversight which really pissed off the Americans. This film is a dramatisation of those events and the story that led to Snowden finally becoming disillusioned by his work and that of his Govt.

The film starts in Hong Kong and then deals mainly with flashbacks of his life leading up to that point. What better way to start a film than with an establishing shot of Hong Kong filmed with an aerial camera over Lung Fu Shan.