Die Another Day - Pierce Brosnan (2002) - Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong

I appear to be approaching a moment in this blog's life where the pick of overseas productions filmed here are starting to diminish and get increasingly difficult to obtain due to either unavailability or prohibitive cost, so I may have to start delving into more of the local stock in future (hit me with a wish list and I will see what I can do).

Until that happens, I have another entry in the category of films supposedly shot in Hong Kong but actually weren't. There are really only two types: those that sent a camera over to capture real images for later insertion (e.g Macao, Spy Game, The Chairman*) and those that just used stock footage and nothing else (Target Hong Kong, The Road to Hong Kong, A Countess from Hong Kong, Tomb Raider etc)

This film, Die Another Day, essentially falls into the latter category. It appears that someone has taken an image of Hong Kong Island's famous waterfront and used it as the back projection for the scene when Bond manages to escape whatever predicament he has got himself into by swimming through (supposedly) Victoria Harbour.

Looking at the upper picture, the only recognisable structure I can make out is the Bank of China Tower. Nothing else in that skyline makes any sense to me, even when taking into account buildings that have since been replaced. My hunch is the image is a mash up with the B.O.C Tower thrown in to make it look like Hong Kong. It doesn't even make any sense if I flip the image the other way.

Obviously the set designers didn't bother with too much reality either - perhaps because they would need permission to use the name of the Royal HK Yacht Club? Whatever. Like the rest of this film, the HK scene is a travesty and I include it here merely to educate people on the fact that this was not filmed here. In case you hadn't already realised.

* Granted, J. Lee Thompson and Gregory Peck had all intention of filming here but were the subject of death threats from the local mouth-frothing commies and were unceremoniously booted out of HK by the authorities for everyone's safety. It was only 2 years after the '67 riots after all. However, before that, Thompson managed to capture a variety of brief shots of HK that were later incorporated into the general establishment scenes.