Strangers - John Simm (2018) - Rua da Felicidade, Macau

Another slight detour as the taxi gets his monies worth by then taking Jonah all the way down to the Rua da Felicidade. This "Street of Happiness" was named so due to its previous incarnation as a popular red light district. It was basically one long street full of brothels. This time it's only Jonah getting screwed.

Strangers - John Simm (2018) - Rua de S. Miguel, Macau

In the process of being taken for a ride (literally and figuratively) Jonah is driven along the rather picturesque Rua de S. Miguel. This view shows us the view looking back towards the intersection with Calcada da Igreja de São Lazaro. On the other side of the junction (where the green netting covers the building) the road becomes the Rua de Eduardo Marques and continues on up to the St Michael cemetery (the pastel green blur in the far distance is the church that sits in the middle of the burial grounds).

Strangers - John Simm (2018) - Macau Maritime Ferry Terminal, Macau

Jonah follows David and catches the ferry to Macau. He then hops in a Macau taxi cab at the front and is taken on what must be the most realistic aspect of this series i.e. being taken on an overly circuitous ride by a local taxi driver. Remember that he only needs to go around the corner to the Legend Palace Hotel Casino.

Strangers - John Simm (2018) - Legend Palace Hotel, Macau

David has gone to do his deed at a casino called the "Illusion Hotel and Casino". In reality it is the relatively new Legend Palace Hotel, built on the site of the fake Chinese fortress/temple at Fisherman's wharf. It's a really quick walk (< 3 mins) to the main ferry terminal.

Strangers - John Simm (2018) - Sai Van Bridge, Macau

Greetings peeps. After a rather long lay off as I spent the last few weeks in Europe, I can restart the Strangers posts with the second half of episode 4 as the action moves to Macau. David Chen (Anthony Wong) heads there to meet a contact and Jonah (John Simm), being suspicious, decides to follow him. Cue a nice shot taken from Penha Hill looking south towards Taipa and the Sai Van Bridge, one of the three bridges that connect the Macau peninsula to the (former) island.

Tomb Raider - Alicia Vikander (2018) - View from the Peak, Hong Kong

Okay, I'm off for a few weeks for Chinese New Year and will return with the Strangers posts at the end of the month. But before I go here is a quickie involving last year's reboot of Tomb Raider. 

Perhaps in a bit of a homage to the previous version of Lara Croft, some of the action from the reboot supposedly takes place in Hong Kong and we are given a typical Hong Kong harbour view in order to establish that that's where the action has moved to.

However, it turns out (after some of the scenery in the background didn't make sense to me, see bottom image) that the key Hong Kong-based scene - supposedly shot in Aberdeen Harbour when Croft goes to find the boat her father was on - wasn't filmed in Hong Kong at all but was actually shot on a well crafted studio set in South Africa.

I must admit it had me fooled for a few seconds because it blends real superimposed shots of the harbour with what appears to be computer generated buildings. So I have included a couple of examples below. The first image shows a superimposed view along the real Aberdeen Harbour in the top half of the screen, with the South African set in the bottom half. You can achieve a view like this if you stand on the breakwater at the western end of the harbour, but there are no flat concrete piers there. Still, it's very convincing.

Real Aberdeen top, fake Aberdeen bottom

The next shot shows where the CGI buildings appear. They look sort of Hong Kong style I suppose but anyone familiar with Aberdeen will know that there are no buildings like this at that location. They look okay on film but closer scrutiny reveals the slightly computer-generated quality to them.

Fake Aberdeen top, fake Aberdeen bottom