Waterloo Road by Yau Ma Tei Wholesale Fruit Market - Now and Then

I went for a wander last week and used the pedestrian bridge at the western end of Waterloo Road where it originates at the former waterfront (now Ferry Street). I was reminded that Tsui Hark shot an establishing shot for Knock Off here in 1997 so I took the opportunity to try and get a comparison.

It's been a little over twenty years since that film was made but there has still been a bit of change with the construction of a couple of new high rises (the taller one centre screen of my 2021 image is called "Waterloo Tower"). The building on the left is called the Wah Tak Building and has been given a new lick of paint, but other than that, the view remains fairly similar.

Police Story - Jackie Chan (1985) - Wing On Plaza, Mody Road

Included for completeness as Andi has done an amazing job at going in and taking comparison shots of some of the key scenes in the film's finale. So here is his link.

Incidentally, the pedestran bridge where Ka Kui and May wait for the gangsters to show up is still there and hasn't changed (other than different colour paint), so you can also go up there to repeat the angle that the camera captures of the plaza entrance (top image). This location of course is just a hundred metres or so from these earlier scenes shot in East TST.

Police Story - Jackie Chan (1985) - Sai Sha Road, Sai Kung

The remote rural road where Ka Kui drives his kidnapped boss to before letting him off, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, was the section of Sai Sha Road not far from Chat Sing Temple. Sadly there is an immense amount of development going on here at the moment and the whole place looks more like a building site rather than the rural idyll seen on the film. The view is looking south.

Police Story - Jackie Chan (1985) - Devil's Peak, Lei Yue Mun

After being framed for murder and then being chloroformed, Ka Kui wakes up on some remote hillside. This is a great shot because we get to see a plane making its approach to Kai Tak from the harbour-end of the runway, with Mount Parker in the background. Timed to perfection. As we see the wide angle shot of Ka Kui's surroundings (lower image) we get a glimpse of a mid-80s Chai Wan. The massive empty patch of reclaimed land on the opposite shore is where Heng Fa Chuen was constructed (and opened the following year in 1986). 

There is an old battery emplacement on the top of Devil's Peak, constructed to defend the eastern approach to Victoria Harbour and Chan used this a couple of years earlier for a shot of the pirates' hideout in Project A. 

Police Story - Jackie Chan (1985) - Private House at Chuk Yeung Road, Sai Kung

Here is a location that was originally identified by Daniel Thomas for his Hong Kong on Film blog several years ago (circa 2011) but he appears to have since deleted the post for some unknown reason. It's the large property that Ka Kui breaks into to rescue Salina from the gangsters and where he is set up for the murder of his corrupt colleague.

Sadly, this rather ostentatious property has gone. It's been redeveloped into a string of luxury housing (8 houses, in fact) that goes by the name of "Arcadia", located on Chuk Yeung Road in Sai Kung. The only recognisable thing still around is the pool that Ka Kui forces Salina to jump into from the roof to make her escape. That pool is located below in what was then a new development (actually, built in 1983) called "Sea View Villa". The development and its associated pool are still around.

The old house occupied a portion of land right on the top of a hill and that section is now occupied by houses 6, 7 & 8 of the development (it was that big). The long driveway you can see Jackie looking down from the front gate, is now the estate's main road with houses built along the left hand side of the former driveway.

Note the red building behind Jackie, this is #103 Chuk Yeung Road (still there)

Stuntman about to hit the deck

Sea View Villa pool below

It looks like JC and the crew were probably the last to use the house. It was demolished very soon after filming which is probably why it was available for use. The "Arcadia" development was completed in 1987. If you use Google Chrome, this link shows you what the view from the gate area looks like today.

Police Story - Jackie Chan (1985) - Shatin Pass Road, Tsz Wan Shan

After his disaster in court, in the HK version of the film Ka Kui is given some punishment by having to man Sha Tau Kok police station. In fact the location we see Jackie at doesn't look like Sha Tau Kok police station and the use of that name - using a fake signboard - was more likely to emphasise how far out in the sticks he was for the local audience. The scene is a slight comedic break from the main story and I don't remember it being part of the film when it was given an international release, but I could be wrong.

Anyway, back in the main thread and Ka Kui goes to meet May following the embarrassment that was his court appearance. Whilst with her he gets a call from his informant telling him Salina is being held hostage at an address. Whilst chatting to May, his crappy car rolls down the hill and takes out a phone box where he was just on the phone to his contact.

The fake phone box was located on the pavement in front of a retaining wall that holds the local CLP offices, just down from the junction with Tsz Wan Shan Road. You can see in the second image that the car has just turned the corner from Tsz Wan Shan Road.

Police Story - Jackie Chan (1985) - former Supreme Court, Central

As mentioned in this post for Righting Wrongs, the Supreme Court ceased to exist on the 1st July 1997 and the building was renamed the "High Court" with some splitting of its former responsibilities. In 1985 the Supreme Court in Hong Kong moved to this brand spanking new building opposite Admiralty MTR Station so it was new when JC and the crew turned up to film the establishing shot seen below. Even though the court was renamed for the handover, the road that leads to it is still retains the English name "Supreme Court Drive" (although the Chinese name "法院" just means "court").

Police Story - Jackie Chan (1985) - Perth Street, Ho Man Tin

The scene where Jackie skids his car into an unbelievably tight parking space was filmed on Perth Street in Ho Man Tin. Once again, the location was originally found by Dan back in the day. The scene sees Jackie driving his car out of King Tak Street and onto Shek Ku Street (first image). He spies the gap and speeds down Shek Ku Street, past Arran Court (image 2) and then manages to skid his car sideways into the parking space on the opposite side of Perth Street in front of "Perth Garden".

Police Story - Jackie Chan (1985) - Fuk Cheung Street, Ma Tau Wai

After driving Salina's wrecked car back to his flat, the pair arrive at Fuk Cheung Street in Ma Tau Wai where (a recently redeveloped) Pooi To Primary School still stands. Ka Kui's apartment is located in Carlton Mansion next door and it turns out that Ka Kui's long suffereing girlfriend, May (Maggie Cheung) has planned a surprise birthday party for him.

Police Story - Jackie Chan (1985) - Island Eastern Corridor, Causeway Bay

After having Salina's car trashed by the real hoodlums, Ka Kui offers to take her back to his place, so he drives her wrecked car along the highway to get home. The stretch of road he drives along is the Island Eastern Corridor. Chan fans might recognise this section of road as where Chan and Chris Tucker are stranded with no clothes on in Rush Hour 2. The only thing that has changed is the signage.

Police Story - Jackie Chan (1985) - Goodview Garden, Stubbs Road

Goodview Garden is the location of Salina's apartment where the cops stage a fake assassination attempt (Mars in a mask wielding a knife) and then get embroiled in a real life fight on the road in front. The development was built in 1982 so it was fairly new when the filming took place. I'm sure I read on an old Bey Logan blog post (Dragon Dynasty days) that the apartment they used was actually Jackie's at the time, but I may be getting confused. Anyway, once again, Andi has been up there with his camera for those who are curious what it looks like now.

Located next door was Lingnan College (now Lingnan University and based in Tuen Mun), which can be seen in the movie, but this has since been demolished and replaced by a brand spanking new apartment complex called "Central Peak".

Police Story - Jackie Chan (1985) - East Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon

 After Salina has been taken into protective custody as a witness, ka Kui is tasked with being her minder and has to follow her around in case she is attacked by her boss, although she is firmly of the opinion that she is in no danger. She goes shopping around East TST with Ka Kui in tow and we see a couple of spots including the link bridge that crosses above Mody Road connecting the (now) Royal Garden Hotel building with the Tsim Sha Tsui Centre.  They then stop and have an argument at the southern end of the Urban Council Centenary Garden (a small separate section called Mody Road Garden), which is East TST's main open square. The bottom image shows the Regal Kowloon Hotel on the left and the East Ocean centre at the back right. The sloped walkway behind the two in the lower image is no longer there. It was replaced by a lift circa 2008.

Police Story - Jackie Chan (1985) - Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Force HQ, Happy Valley

The police station where Ka Kui (JC) is based in the movie was actually the HQ for a famous local military regiment called the Royal Hong Kong Regiment aka HK Volunteer Defence Corps. The old HQ was located at the northern end of the Happy Valley racecourse but was demolished in the mid-90's to make way for the HK Jockey Club HQ.

All the scenes filmed in front of the police station were shot here, as well as a few from the beginning of the film as Ka Kui is being photographed for the police publicity drive following the arrest of the drug baron (Chor Yuen).

Police Story - Jackie Chan (1985) - Sui Wo Road, Fo Tan

The bus chase ends with Jackie using a passersby's car to create a roadblock and makes the bus come to an abrupt stop and throw its occupants through the windows. If, like me, you grew up with Jonathan Ross's "Son of the Incredibly Strange Film Show" playing on a loop in the VCR, then you'll know that this was one of the film's stunts gone wrong. The guys were supposed to land on the "specially prepared car but instead landed in hospital" to quote (probably inaccurately, it's been a few years since I watched it) Jonathan Ross. Anyway, the scene was shot on Sui Wo Road in the hills above the Fotan industrial estate. Once again, a big credit to Daniel Thomas of Hong Kong on Film who was the first to locate the road way back when, and of course Andi has been up there for the great then/now comparison shots for Hong Kong Movie Tours.

Police Story - Jackie Chan (1985) - Dai Cheong Street, Tai Po Industrial Estate

The strip of road where Jackie (well, actually it was a stuntman! shock horror!) is thrown from the bus is Dai Cheong Street. He gets thrown off as the bus turns into Dai Kwai Street, but when Jackie looks up to see the bus driving away, it is driving back up Dai Cheong Street. The building on the right in image top is the Lam Soon Building. The surrounding area looked quite barren back in 1985, but these days both sides of this road are now packed with industrial and factory buildings.