Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - Queen's Road East, Wanchai

So, back to the black and white 1960's to continue with Rod Taylor's Hong Kong series. Next up is episode 4, Freebooter. The plot revolves around an old US air pilot who does "freebooter" work for whoever pays him money. One of his jobs has made him an enemy of a nearby country who are trying to get him back to answer for his past.

Like most other episodes, the actual on-location filming is minimal but there are some nice glimpses, including this brief shot up Queen's Road East from the direction of Hennessy Road/Queensway. You can make out the retaining wall on the right where the ARP portals are and Gwulo.com has an excellent colour picture of the old building (on the left) that sat on the corner plot now occupied by Generali Tower (formerly known as the Sincere Insurance Building before it was revamped). Although that colour image was shot in 1953 you can see that it looked more or less the same for the 1960 TV show.

Powaqqatsi - Godfrey Reggio (1988) - City One, Shatin

The last post from this film is a long shot, again from a helicopter, of the City One development in Shatin. This place is locally famous for being one of the biggest and most extensive residential developments in the New Territories with 52 blocks housing around 25,000 people. Siu Lek Yuen Road is in the bottom of the image.

Powaqqatsi - Godfrey Reggio (1988) - View of Kai Tak, Kowloon

There are a couple of shots of the Kai Tak area in this film, the first one is a view across the bay towards Richland Gardens. The angle and power of the lens makes it difficult to know exactly where the camera was placed when filming, but I am guessing somewhere at the tip of Hung Hom - possibly around where the Laguna Verde development now stands.

The second sequence is one following an aircraft as it takes off along the old runway. The three buildings in the background of the bottom image still exist. The one on the left with red window trim is the Fen Hin Industrial Building. In the middle is the Peter Leung Industrial Building and on the right is a building called the CCF Building. All sit along Wai Yip Street in Kwun Tong which is now largely obscured from this angle by a new round of waterfront development.

Powaqqatsi - Godfrey Reggio (1988) - Nathan Road, Yau Ma Tei

It should be noted that most of Hong Kong and Kowloon is now completely devoid of the neon signage that can be seen below. Many establishments have switched to more energy efficient LED lighting, but the main reason is because the Govt has decreed that lots of these signs are not safe to have hanging above peoples' heads and so they've largely been removed.

The New Buckingham Restaurant and Club appears to have disappeared, but its name pointed me to the Buckingham Building at the corner of Nathan and Ning Po Streets. Lo-and-behold the "Jade City" Karaoke Niteclub  (翡翠城) - the sign with the pink writing on the left of the third image - is still around. These places have extreme longevity because most often than not they are owned and run by triads. Let's face it, if you're the landlord of this building, are you brave enough to raise their rent?

Powaqqatsi - Godfrey Reggio (1988) - Former Whampoa Dock, Hung Hom

The tail end of the 1980s was when Hutchison Whampoa was putting some of the finishing touches to the Whampoa Garden development that occupied the site of their former dockyard. The reason there is a mall in the shape of a large boat in the area is as a sort of homage to the area's former identity. Although most of the estate had been constructed, Hutchison Whampoa still had a working dockyard at the very end of the peninsula and that is what you can see captured in the image below.

The old dock office building on the right was demolished some time later to make way for redevelopment and the space was later turned into One Harbourfront and the Harbour Grand Hotel. The waterfront where the boat is docked is actually now the Whampoa promenade in front of those two buildings.

Powaqqatsi - Godfrey Reggio (1988) - Shatin Racecourse, Shatin

It's not immediately obvious until you see the faces of the people in the video, but the combination of Chinese features and the downcast look can mean only one thing...Hong Kong punters leaving/arriving at the racecourse at Shatin.

Powaqqatsi - Godfrey Reggio (1988) - The Kornhill, Quarry Bay

Another of the large developments that is featured in the film is the Kornhill over by Tai Koo Shing MTR station. The Kornhill is named after some of the older staff accommodation blocks that used to serve the nearby Tai Koo sugar refinery and docks. The sole survivor from that time, and style of building, is Woodside up on Mount Parker Road.

Powaqqatsi - Godfrey Reggio (1988) - Fairview Park, Yuen Long

It's quite hard to believe that anything like this exists in Hong Kong but there are a few areas that were deliberately designed as low-rise garden estates. One of the more significant ones is Fairview Park, built on the old wetlands up close to the Chinese border near Yuen Long. I hadn't realised the place was quite as old as this but there you go. Judging from the images we see in the film, part of it was still being constructed.

Powaqqatsi - Godfrey Reggio (1988) - Far East Finance Centre, Central

Actually, this building has cropped up a few times on the blog previously, but usually in its full golden glory. In this film it is just shown from the very top with the sun glinting off it making it hard to see the window colour.

Powaqqatsi - Godfrey Reggio (1988) - Hotel Furama, Central

Here's another close up that may have been missed by those not familiar with Hong Kong's recent past. It's the facade of the, since demolished, Hotel Furama. Built and opened in 1973, this hotel was a popular addition to the waterfront in Central and a great many people mourned its subsequent demolition in the early 2000s. By the time I moved here full time in 2006, the plot had already been filled in by the AIA building.

Powaqqatsi - Godfrey Reggio (1988) - Wonderland Villas, Kwai Chung

Wonderland Villas actually appears twice in this movie, except the first time it is in extreme closeup that makes identification a bit more challenging unless you are familiar with the building's configuration. The initial appearance is below - it's a fairly drawn out sequence as the camera pans from left to right , taking in the rather long expanse of the building. I believe this is the western facing part of the facade. To be fair there aren't that many developments in Hong Kong that form such a long contiguous structure so it's not surprising that it caught the attention of Godfrey Reggio, the director. The more recognisable appearance towards the tail end of this musical-documentary can be seen at the bottom. In that image we see it from the opposite side, looking across towards Tsing Yi in the background.

Powaqqatsi - Godfrey Reggio (1988) - Cross Harbour Tunnel, Hong Kong

I'm interrupting the black and white transmission for a little spot of colour before getting back into the 1960 Hong Kong series.

The film I am interrupting it with is a bit of a weird one in that it's a documentary with no commentary other than a rather cool Philip Glass soundtrack. I think I first heard about Powaqqatsi via a comment when this locations blog was first set up. It really slipped my mind until recently when I went on another seek and find and managed to locate an old copy in one of the used DVD stores in Mongkok. Anyway, for those that don't know it is a sort of music and film compilation that takes us through various places in the world . The cinematography is absolutely stunning and luckily there are several sequences that were shot in Hong Kong. I think I captured them all but I may have missed some because of the way the filming was done. So if anyone is familiar with the film and recognises a snippet that has been bypassed, please feel free to let me know.

Anyway, the first scene I recognised - helped by the addition of the Hong Kong urban taxi in the frame) is the Cross Harbour Tunnel. This is the original tunnel, from Hung Hom to Causeway Bay, that was first opened in 1972.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - View to Kowloon

Seeing as there is a bit of a dearth of decent location shots in Pearl Flower, here is a not so great quality shot from the Peak area looking over to Tsim Sha Tsui in Kowloon. Sadly the detail isn't good enough to see much other than some of the ships docked at the old Kowloon Wharf and the sort of blurry mess centre screen is the still undeveloped rocky hills that form the Ho Man Tin area.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - Aberdeen Waterfront, Hong Kong

Moving on to Episode 3 - Pearl Flower - and it's about a visitor to HK who, on the spur of the moment decides to check out a little girl that her company has been sponsoring with gift packages and the like. It turns out it was just a front for running some dodgy mail shipment system to a criminal in Ko Shing Street.

There are really no proper on-locale scenes in this film and it looks like all outdoor footage was shot back in the US with just a few proper establishing shots to maintain the illusion of us being in Hong Kong. First up is this interesting footage from Aberdeen Harbour looking back towards the town's waterfront.

For the real movie buffs who read this, you may be interested to note that this episode featured a very young looking Aki Aleong as one of the two main bad guys.

The latter two images are showing the old building that used to sit on the curve as the Praya road reached town. This building survived all the way to 1979/80 before being replaced by the current Shanghai Commercial Bank Building. In fact, those who actually pay attention to these scribblings may recall that the old building was supposedly one of Vanessa's newly acquired brothels in the 1977 film, Vanessa (see second from last image). Here is a stitch of the two images above.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - View over Wanchai, Hong Kong

The next shot appears to be a continuation of the same shot that is used for the series' opening credits, but for some reason (perhaps because of timing) was cut from the credits and then used several times as an establishing shot throughout many of the episodes. It;s the view across Wanchai from the same vantage point above the former Bowen Road Military Hospital, which can be seen in the lower portion of the image. In fact, given the extensive use of 17 Magazine Gap Road in the show, I am fairly certain this image was filmed from the podium of that building.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - 17 Magazine Gap Road, Mid-levels

I know that I already posted a picture of this place from the previous episode, but this image is slightly clearer and taken in daylight as opposed to the earlier darker one (either taken later or most likely with a filter on the camera lens). Anyway, there aren't too many pictures of this place around since it was demolished later the same decade. Look closely and you can see the balustrade that surrounded the podium level. We get to see it close up in a later episode.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - Lockhart Road, Wanchai

A couple more establishing shots from this episode, Murder Royal, were taken at the junction of Lockhart and Luard Roads in Wanchai. They pop up in a sort of montage as Evans tramps around the city trying to find out what is going on from his various dubious sources. It seems most of them frequent the bars in the Wanchai red light district.

Conveniently, both of these bars were on opposite sides of the same junction. The Skyroom Bar was located at 88 Lockhart Road, on the south east corner of the junction and the United Bar was located on the opposite corner.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - View over Stonecutter Island, Kowloon

We move on to episode 2 in the series and this one is called Murder Royal. This episode looks as though it was mainly shot in the US with a few HK-based establishing shots to try and keep the authenticity up. I can't think of a single scene involving the actors that made me think it was shot on-location. The plot involves a foreign King arriving in Hong Kong with his son and entourage for the purpose of undergoing a serious medical procedure. At the same time a plot is afoot to have him and his son assassinated so that the throne can be usurped by certain nefarious characters.

It's never mentioned as far as I can remember, but the attire of the Royals and their entourage reminds me a little bit of the formal dress in Brunei.

Anyway, to start with there is a rather nice panorama of Stonecutters Island in its original form i.e. as an actual island. These days it has been subsumed by the West Kowloon reclamation and the whilst most of it still contains the off-limits naval base (now with the PLA), a small section is partly accessible to the public as part of the container processing zones and surrounding road infrastructure.

Can anyone see what is wrong with the panorama? The capture below is a stitch of a camera pan from left to right.

Okay, so if you thought something looked odd, it does. This footage used in this episode has been flipped horizontally. A more-frequent-than-you-realise phenomenon that I have observed over several years of this blog. here's how it should really look. The more familiar orientation of the Hong Kong hills in the background. The large building in the bottom left is still around, its actually the two long terrace blocks that make up the old tenements (built in 1959) between Fuk Wing Street and Fuk Wah Street in Cheung Sha Wan. There is an alleyway between the two called Kim Shin Lane. The slant on the buildings on the right hand side are where the two blocks meet Castle Peak Road at an angle.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - Central Police Station, Central

One of the main locations for the on-screen dialogue between Evans and the Police Chief, throughout this whole series, occurs on the police station studio set. However, the establishing shots for these scenes were filmed at the real life Central Police Station on Hollywood Road, with Taylor driving his signature white sports car up the main entrance and then around the central courtyard/carpark area.

This place is now open to the public and you can rad more about it here.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - Garden Road, Central

Some nice old footage of Rod Taylor driving up Garden Road and then turning onto Magazine Gap Road just past the junction with Robinson Road. Obviously this is way before the flyover was built and the view was much more open.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - The Sea Palace, Aberdeen Harbour

Another of the establishing shots at the beginning of the episode. This one shows the now defunct Sea Palace floating restaurant that used to be next to the Tai Pak in Aberdeen Harbour. In fact I believe that is the Tai Pak on the left of the screen. This series was filmed in 1960, so what you can see is the original Tai Pak restaurant that was later (around 1962) moved to Castle Peak Bay.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - Barker Road Peak Tram Stop, The Peak

Another of the series' establishing shots was filmed inside the Barker Road Peak Tram Stop. It's a more substantial stop than most on the line and therefore has been the one that has been filmed the most - so far it has been seen in about 6 movies included on this blog.