City on Fire - Chow Yun Fat (1987) - Peking Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

As the car makes its getaway after the heist, we see it turn into Peking Road from Nathan Road. The Capital Restaurant in the background was located in Chungking Mansions although it changed names over the years - I believe it was originally the "Golden Capital" before becoming just "Capital" some time in the 1980s.

There was another shot of this area afew minutes before as the gang are casing up the various jewellery stores along Nathan Road - we catch a quick glimpse of Larry Jewellers which, for many years, was located on the SW corner of Nathan and Peking Roads.

City on Fire - Chow Yun Fat (1987) - Portland Street, Mongkok

Before the heist, the gang's boss insists that the group spend the night together incommunicado to prevent any news of their robbery getting out and alerting the police. It turns out that the red/blue sign attached the building says "吉祥", which was a cafe located on the corner of Mongkok Road and Portland Street. So the gang are holed up in one of those corner buildings. The only problem is I haven't been able to determine which one so will have to make an educated guess.

When the pair lookout the the flat opposite at the party going on, the camera pans along the outside and you can see the Portland Street sign. This doesn't match the corner building on the NE corner, so I will assume this is looking instead to the SW corner of the junction. Unfortunately, I can't confirm 100% because that building was replaced by "Bright Way Tower" in 1992. However, assuming I'm correct, this means the gang were holed up in the second floor flat at 320 Portland Street - coincidentally, that flat still has green coloured window frames.

City on Fire - Chow Yun Fat (1987) - Middle Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

As Tiger and Ko Chow case up a few jewellery stores along Nathan Road,they take a lunch break on the corner of Middle/Nathan Roads and watch two women emerge from the Peninsula Hotel across the street.

In the background you can see the sign for the Kowloon Hotel which was in the news recently when the actor Kenneth Tsang passed away in one of the rooms during his quarantine stay. Sadly, the hotel staff were unwilling to open the room for his daughter when she lost contact with him. A sad indictment of Hong Kong's increasingly ridiculous Covid restrictions and the repurcussions the Govt has threatened should any rules be broken i.e. the staff were more fearful of the Govt than they were of a man (a revered HK actor, no less) dying in one of their rooms.

City on Fire - Chow Yun Fat (1987) - Lan Kwai Fong, Central

After being finally arrested and taken back to the Police Station for a beating, Ko Chow is then released to cintinue his mission infiltrating the heist gang. He is dropped off on a very rainy Lan Kwai Fong which back then still had cobbles. He hobbles down the street and turns into #13. The building is still around but it looks as though the scenes set in the backyard were at a different location.

City on Fire - Chow Yun Fat (1987) - Kai Tak Airport

After picking up the guns from the bowling alley, Ko Chow heads to the airport to try and stop Hung heading to the US with her rich boyfriend. However, he left her hanging at the registry office so she heads off anyway.

City on Fire - Chow Yun Fat (1987) - Tsim Sha Tsui MTR Station

After catching up with Ko Chow at Kimberley Road, the police then follow him everywhere until he is able to lose them at Tsim Sha Tsui MTR station. Cue one of the best scenes of the film as Chow Yun Fat, not a stuntman, proceeds to do what we all want to do deep down and slides down the slope next to the escalator bumping over the obstacles with his bum.

City on Fire - Chow Yun Fat (1987) - Kimberley Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

The police catch up with Ko Chow when the truck he is in stops on Kimberley Road.

City on Fire - Chow Yun Fat (1987) - Nathan Road, Various Locations

As Ko Chow tries to lose the police that are following him, he does a runner along Nathan Road before jumping into the back of a truck. It's a bit difficult identifying all the places that flash upon screen as he scarpers along the pavement, but they all seem to be in the vicinity of Yau Ma Tei. Here are a few of the places I can identify.

Saigon Street

Prudential Hotel Mall

View south towards Austin Road

View at Austin Road looking south

The next shot is Ko Chow's point of view as he looks back up Nathan Road fromthe back of the truck. This was the area in front of the old Kowloon British School (now the offices of the Antiquities and Monuments Office).

And finally the point of view from the pursuing police car as the truck Ko Chow is in turns the corner into Kimberley Road.

City on Fire - Chow Yun Fat (1987) - Queen's Pier, Edinburgh Place

Ko Chow has a clandestine meeting with his handler, Inspector Liu, on Edinburgh Place in Central. The opening shot shows Ko Chow waiting at Queen's Pier before he sees the inspector's car arrive. The scene was shot with the car pointing in a variety of angles so we get to also see a bit of City Hall and the very much missed old Star Ferry pier.

For some reason,this shot above shows the car pointing at City Hall

City on Fire - Chow Yun Fat (1987) - Mongkok Bowling Centre, Mongkok

The venue where Ko Chow collects the guns from was a real life bowling alley on the first floor of the Hang Tung Building - located at the southeast corner of Canton Road and Bute Street: "The Mongkok Bowling Centre". I'm not sure when it closed but the building is still there and still has the Canton Road carpark on some of the upper podium levels - this is where Ko Chow leaps from to escape.

The view down onto Canton Road

View looking north with Bute Street by the "No Entry" sign

Ko Chow and Tiger escape in a car heading south on Canton Road

The Gray Man - Ryan Gosling (2022) - View from the Peak - but not really Hong Kong

I thought I would interrupt normal programming for a brief interlude: one that can be filed under "Not filmed in Hong Kong, actually" . There are a few films already on the blog that have done similar things (Target Hong Kong, Tomb Raider, The Art of War etc), but for the record here is another one in the form of The Gray Man.

In the film, Six (Ryan Gosling) is sent to Hong Kong to protect his boss's ill niece who lives in a large circular house supposedly somewhere on The Peak. The establishing shot is a reasonably convincing one of the house located on its vantage point atop of the Hong Kong hills with views down into Central.

So is this house real? Apparently so, yes.
Is it located in Hong Kong? No.

What you see here is a composite image of the view from the top of the Peak Lookout Tower in Hong Kong (the background) with a slightly enhanced view of a real house located in Los Angeles, California.

The house is known as the "Leo Harvey House", a 1950s era house designed by architect, John Lautner. It's located at 2180 West Live Oak Drive and I believe is currently owned by Mitch Glazer and Kelly Lynch.

City on Fire - Chow Yun Fat (1987) - Wilson House, Wyndham Street

Ko Chow and Tiger go to a coffee shop to discuss business. In the background you can see some window decals with the name "D & D". However, more interesting is what is beyond the windows because you can make out the brickwork of the Fringe Club in the background. This means the coffee shop was located on the upper ground level of Wilson House on Wyndham Street. The same venue is also seen a short while later when Ko Chow meets his girlfriend, Hung, and agrees to marry her the next day at the registry office.

According to the most recent Streetview images (I can't go and see for myself as I am currently stuck inside under an isolation order with Covid19) there is currently a Korean Beauty parlour called "Seoul Aesthetic" occupying the space.

2024 Update: I've just discovered, courtesy of the excellent Dylan Cheung on Bluesky, that this cafe, D&D, was owned by a recently deceased, famous fashion designer called David Sheekwan and was a bit of a hotspot for movie actors back in the day. You can read Dylan's short thread about the man here. 

City on Fire - Chow Yun Fat (1987) - Statue Square, Central

The location where Ko Chow initially meets with Tiger (Danny Lee) is Statue Square in Central. The inital shot shows a view along Chater Road before focussing on Ko Chow dancing around in front of the former Supreme Court building (it's now the Court of Final Appeal which was previously based in the former French Mission building).

City on Fire - Chow Yun Fat (1987) - Wo Shui Street, Fo Tan

Well, after a big of investigation it appears that the Jewelry factory heist sequence was filmed in (at least) three different locations. I've already posted the main location at the Chung Pak Commercial Building in Yau Tong but remarked that the shootout scenes didn't match the area. It turns out I was right and have found the street the police approach down before being shot up by the gangsters. It was filmed at Wo Shui Street in Fo Tan. The clue to finding this location was the train being unloaded in the far distance. This limited the location to somewhere near a siding along the old KCR track and eventually helped me locate the street in Fo Tan. However, in finding this location I then also realised that yet another street was used for the brief shot of the getaway cars speeding off around the corner, so the mystery isn't completely solved just yet.

City on Fire - Chow Yun Fat (1987) - King's Road Pedestrian Bridge, Quarry Bay

As Ko Chow goes home there is a shot of him walking over a pedestrian bridge in Quarry Bay. The pedestrian bridge looks pretty much now as it did then - although perhaps it was a bit cleaner back then.