The Black Dragon's Revenge - Ronnie Van Clief (1975) - Junction Road, Lok Fu

After their ambush at Lok Fu Park, the guys go to try and find the journalist who they were supposed to be meeting, only to find out he was murdered that morning. The scene involves a car driving along Junction Road in order to reach the guys house. The camera is placed at or close to the junction with Inverness Road, opposite the Chinese Christian Cemetery, and films the car driving from south to north. Interesting to note is the old ornamental archway that formed the old entrance to the cemetery. You can also see the old chapel inside the grounds. Sadly, the rather picturesque piece of Junction Road has been replaced by a rather bland flat building frontage that is marked on maps as the "ossuarium". This location is just down the slope from the previous Lok Fu Park location, so no doubt filmed around the same time.

The Black Dragon's Revenge - Ronnie Van Clief (1975) - Lok Fu Park, Kowloon

After meeting up with someone they believe to be a journalist, the pair are then taken elsewhere so they can discuss the events surrounding Bruce's death inconspicuously. So the guy drives them to Lok Fu Park - located on what is perhaps better known as Checkerboard Hill - where they realise they have been set up as a bunch of goons appear.

This is actually one of my favourite locations from the film because I don't recall any other movie (that I've covered on the blog) using this location previously. The location itself remains unchanged even today with the exception of the usual tree growth that now limits the view. In the screen caps below though we can clearly see the old Wang Tau Hom Estate in the centre background down the hill. This area was redeveloped in the early 80s and much of the visible area you can see in the closer background has become Lok Fu MTR and surrounding area.

This section looks almost the same today, except much more shaded

Wang Tau Hom Estate down the hill, Wong Tai Sin beyond

An entrance portal to the covered reservoir is in the background

The Black Dragon's Revenge - Ronnie Van Clief (1975) - Tin Hau Temple, Yau Ma Tei

Ronnie and his buddy also try to make contact with the journalist and instead are duped into meeting one of the bad guys masquerading as him. They arrange the meet up for outside the Tin Hau Temple in Yau Ma Tei. Note that by 1975, the temple and surrounding area was already looking pretty much as it still looks today. The old market having been ousted from the public square and the front wall of the temple (and the temple itself) undergoing a renovation.

The Black Dragon's Revenge - Ronnie Van Clief (1975) - Aberdeen Harbour, Aberdeen

The students go and speak to a local reporter who wrote an article about Bruce's death, but he tells them he will be killed if he says anything. The meeting takes place on a sampan in the middle of Aberdeen Harbour. An interesting point to note is that in the panning shot of the harbour, the Tai Pak is no where to be seen. It's possible it was being refurbished when the film was made because it did undergo some changes in structural design at some point between 1973 and 1975. The Sea Palace can be seen in the first few images though.

The Black Dragon's Revenge - Ronnie Van Clief (1975) - Man Mo Temple, Sheung Wan

Man Mo Temple actually makes two appearances in this film. Its main role is of the interior of the temple/kung fu school where "Bruce" is supposed to have studied. The interior of the temple is used for all the scenes involving the students training and talking inside with their master. If you're wondering why it looks so spacious, it's probably because it is missing the large rack of incense coils that normally hang from the ceiling. All the exteriors for the temple/school were another location that I have yet to find.

However, the temple forecourt also shows up later in the film as the training ground for a kung fu master who claims to have killed Bruce with his deadly fists and two of the students go to his school to challenge him to ascertain whether or not he has the power/ability to have done what he claims (spoiler: no).

Anyway, the first few images show the Man Mo Temple interior as the inside of the good guys' kung fu school and the lower images obviously show the mentioned challenge fight. The funny thing to see in these images is all the locals sticking their heads through the railings to watch the filming. I guess the location manager for this film was on holiday that day.

The Black Dragon's Revenge - Ronnie Van Clief (1975) - Fa Po Street, Yau Yat Chuen

 After leaving Verbena Road, the next shot of the trio sees them walking along Fa Po Street just the other side of Tat Chee Avenue in Yau Yat Chuen. This shot below shows the view looking from the lower end of Fa Po Street between the Chinese Rhenish Church and Tak Nga Secondary School. Actually, the wall on the right is the school wall and still looks the same today.

The Black Dragon's Revenge - Ronnie Van Clief (1975) - Verbena Road, Yau Yat Chuen

Often confused with Kowloon Tong but actually developed in the 1950's, Yau Yat Chuen was also originally the location of some very large properties with private gardens but has seen most of them redeveloped into multi-apartment mansion buildings. Whereas Kowloon Tong had roads named after English counties, Yau Yat Chuen (or Tsuen, depending on how it is romanised) has roads that are named after plants.

Verbena Road runs north/south linking Peony Road at the southern end with Begonia Road at the north end and is featured during some key scenes in the film as another fight breaks out between the baddies and another group of goodies who comprise Bruce's former kung fu school brothers (and sisters).

The scene starts at the southern  end of Verbena Road as a fake rickshaw puller is spying on the two groups of good guys. The first two images show the southern end of the road, looking in each direction, then the scene cuts to the group as they pass the northern corner onto Begonia Road. The buildings may have changed but some of the external garden walls are still around today.

As they wander off, Van Clief and his buddy walk around the southern end of Verbana Road and hire the rickshaw. Then follows a bit of a silly scene as they both decide to use the occasion for some training and put the rickshaw puller in his own vehicle and run up and down the road. The white wall on the left side of the road in the third image is still around - as is the original property behind it. It's #7 Verbana Road and is a good example of the type of property, with some art-deco influences, that lined this particular part of Yau Yat Chuen.

The Black Dragon's Revenge - Ronnie Van Clief (1975) - Rutland Quadrant, Kowloon Tong

Once they are turned away from Miss Tang's house, the duo walk around the "corner" (in reality a distance of more than 13 kilometres as the crow flies) and suddenly appear at the junction of what is now To Fuk Road, York Road and Rutland Quadrant. Obviously the film makers wanting to create the impression that the house is located in Kowloon Tong instead of way out in the far New Territories.

Surprisingly little has changed in this area, apart from the fact that To Fuk Road has been created and is now the road between here and Kowloon Tong MTR Station. Back then it was a small street at the end of York Road that led around the back of the last house (#13 York Road, which we will see in a minute) and joined up with Norfolk Road behind.

The back road that became To Fuk Road

Looking down Rutland Quadrant

Kowloon Tong District Scout HQ (still there)

The view looking down York Road with Rutland Quadrant on the left

Anyway, the pair get ambushed by people who don't want them discovering the truth behind Bruce's death and they promptly beat them all up. Ronnie gets to beat someone up with the aforementioned #13 York Road in the background. This house is one of the better examples of art-deco architecture in the estate and still exists in more or less the same state with the exception of some remodelling behind where Ronnie's head is. Also the same garden wall still exists but has had some additional height added. Actually, the house has been afforded a heritage grading and you can read a bit more about it on Gwulo.com. 

#13 York Road

The Black Dragon's Revenge - Ronnie Van Clief (1975) - Dragon Villa 旭龍, Tsing Lung Tau

The first thing the intrepid pair do once Van Clief meets up with his Vietnam buddy, Charles Bonet, is head to the house where Bruce supposedly died. Of course, in real life we know this to be the apartment of Betty Ting Pei at "Beverly Heights" on Beacon Hill Road. However, in this movie the location is a large property owned by film star, "Miss Tang". Although the property is supposed to be located in Kowloon Tong, as you will see in a later post, the actual location used is called Dragon Villa, located over on the NT coast at a place called Tsing Lung Tau. Not to be confused with Dragon Garden which is not that far away from this location and has a property inside that I have, in the past, referred to as Dragon Villa. To avoid confusion, I have added the label "Dragon Villa 旭龍" which contains the Chinese characters for the property (pronounced yuk lung in Cantonese).

The property hasn't actually changed very much since this movie was made, with the exception of some extra tree growth and the widening of Castle Peak Road (the same widening project that made the aforementioned Dragon Garden lose its original front wall and entrance gateway).

Anyway, I digress. The property is featured extensively in the film and is also the location of the final fight so we are given a fair amount of different camera angles that reveal bits of the property as the action moves around the garden.

View to Dragon Villa from across Castle Peak Road

I am 100% convinced this interior is real and not a studio set 

If you look on GoogleEarth you can see that the pagoda in the bottom image is still in the garden of the property.

The Black Dragon's Revenge - Ronnie Van Clief (1975) - Nathan Road, Kowloon

As Ronnie leaves the airport and takes a taxi to his Vietnam buddy's place (the guy is played by Charles Bonet) we get to see a bit of his route. It starts off on Salisbury Road and turns immediately into Nathan Road next to the Peninsula Hotel. We then get to see a few views looking north up Nathan before the camera then  reveals we are heading back south again (with the Hyatt Regency clearly visible on the right in the last image). Actually, two of the several hotels seen in this sequence have since gone. The previously mentioned Hyatt Regency (last image) was demolished in 2006 and replaced by iSquare and in the fourth image you can see the Ambassador Hotel on the corner of Nathan and Middle Roads which was replaced by 26 Nathan Road (the building formerly known as Oterprise Square).