Narazumono - Ken Takakura (1964) - Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon

Narazumono (English title: An Outlaw) is a Japanese gangster film shot in 1964 starring Ken Takakura as a hitman with a conscience (I believe John Woo cites this as one of his inspirations for The Killer). This one was a real hard one to get hold of and so I have to thank my good friend, Arnaud, for lending me the French version. Sadly, this means the plot is really not something I could follow so well, but it doesn't matter because for me it is always the locations that matter most. This is a good thing because Narazumono has a whole ton of them, split between Hong Kong and Macau. It's one of the most comprehensive films I have come across yet in terms of the variety of locations. There are so many, I am finding it quite hard to locate them all.

Incidentally, if you can read French, then Arnaud's book on HK cops and gangster films might be of interest to you.

The film kicks off with Takakura's character, Minami, waiting at the waterfront in Tsim Sha Tsui for something or another. It turns out he is waiting for a target an is about to carry out an assassination. We get some glimpses of the harbour, as well as the area in the bus terminus next to the old KCT terminus, as well as a view of the hillside that the Marine Police HQ used to stand on before Li Ka-shing decided to rip it all up and chuck in a bunch of high end jewellery stores.

For the hit, a car pulls up and Minami jumps in the back to carry out his contract. We catch a brief glimpse of the KCR terminus, followed by the Star ferry before the opening credits kick in with a nice long shot of the station as it used to look.

The next shot then shows the car driving out of the bus terminus. The top image (below) is the view looking towards the junction with Canton Road. The tree topped hillock is the grounds of the Marine Police HQ and in the following images you can see the stone retaining wall of the hill on the left hand side. The old white YMCA building is beyond it and behind that, the Peninsula Hotel. You can just see the old fire station with its red doors in that last photo. Of course, this was thankfully saved and is still around.