Anti-Corruption - Bill Lake (1975) - Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong

One of the great encounters I have had over the past few years has been with a local military historian called Bill Lake. I met Bill one evening at a Gwulo.com get-together (pre-Covid of course) and although he now dedicates his time to researching Hong Kong's military past (Bill is an ex-soldier from the Royal Regiment of Artillery) and is one of its pre-eminent historians, he also has a fairly impressive resume of Hong Kong films under his belt.

Anyway, just after leaving quarantine on my return to HK, myself and David Bellis (the man behind Gwulo) headed out to Sai Kung to meet Bill for a coffee and chinwag. One of the things I departed with that day was a copy of one of Bill's larger films roles in the form of an Ng See Yuen film called Anti-Corruption. The film *fictionally* portrays the events surrounding the eventual prosecution of renowned bent copper, Peter Godber, and his fellow corrupt police officers. Bill plays the main character, Taff Hunter, who arrives in Hong Kong as an arrow-straight policeman who eventually gets overwhelmed by the constant pressure to accept bribes.

The film starts off as Taff is counting his weekly stack of bills and then goes into flashback as he reminisces about how it all started. Bill told me that at the time of release, it was really popular with local policeman who, after being kept in the dark about the events surrounding Godber's capture, were keen to see how everything had played out. It appears that the rank and file didn't know that most of the arrests were achieved through confessions taken by senior officers in return for dropping of charges or reduced sentences.

One problem with the film is that it appears to be the only copy available. The picture quality appears to be a pan-and-scan VHS transfer from the 1980s, so the screencaps I have aren't great, but there are some interesting locations so I thought it was worthwhile including here. I don't think this movie has had a release outside of the early 80s? If anyone knows differently, please feel free to comment because it would be nice to get Bill a better version.

The opening scenes start with this zoomed in view of a passenger liner berthed at Ocean terminal, before the camera lens pulls back to reveal the harbour and the main part of Central. Most of the right hand side of the loer image has been redeveloped - the Furama and Hilton Hotels disappearing a while ago. But most recently (whilst I was in the UK it seems) Hutchison House has also been demolished to make way for a more modern one now being constructed.