La Fine Dell'innocenza - Annie Belle (1976) - Peak Road, Midlevels

Annie goes for another jolly on a motorbike, this time with her new found friend, Cheng (Charlie Chan Yiu-lam). They stop off at what appears to be Peak Road (it could be Bowen Road, but I feel the elevation here is more in line with Peak Road than Bowen Road - corrections/opinions welcome) above Central, but looking over Wanchai - before all the highrises started to obscure the view.

La Fine Dell'innocenza - Annie Belle (1976) - Ching Chun Koon, Tuen Mun

Annie gets invited to audition for a film and low-and-behold, in the middle of an erotic drama, we are treated to some kung fu fighting courtesy of Charlie Chan Yiu-lam (Chan should be familiar to anyone who has watched The Man with the Golden Gun - he's the kung fu dude in the black uniform that fights Roger Moore in the Thailand fight scenes). The premise is that Annie is wandering around looking at the bonzai trees when she is grabbed by a bunch of hoodlums and is about to be assaulted when Charlie jumps in and defends her honour. Charlie also gets involved in another type of "action" later on in the film.

La Fine Dell'innocenza - Annie Belle (1976) - Deepwater Bay

The gang go on a junk trip to the outer part of Deepwater Bay (i.e. the part past Middle Island). There are a couple of shots that I can include here with some background greenery including (image 1) the distant Stanley Peninsula and (image 2) the northern tip of Lamma Island.

La Fine Dell'innocenza - Annie Belle (1976) - Yau Kung Tong, Yuen Long

We were here not so long ago for Snake in the Eagle's Shadow but it's a location that has been used in several foreign movie productions as well. It's the Tang Clan "Yau Kung Tong", a large historical clan hall near Ha Tsuen. In La Fine Dell'innocenza, the film crew also shot some scenes at the back of the building complex and in the small alleyways in between the various buildings/structures.

La Fine Dell'innocenza - Annie Belle (1976) - Beas River Country Club, Sheung Shui

Linda and Annie head to Beas River Country Club where Linda meets her lover for a quickie whilst Annie hangs out and eats an ice cream. We don't get to see the famous former Jardines front gate but we do see a bit of the grounds including a building with the zig-zag staircase that (I believe) now houses the club's gym (feel free to correct me if you know better).

La Fine Dell'innocenza - Annie Belle (1976) - Hollywood Road, Sheung Wan

This should be a familiar location for anyone who has read any of my old posts. It's the junction of Hollywood Road and Ladder Street. It first appeared in The World of Suzie Wong way back in 1960 as the location of the "Nam Kok Hotel", but has cropped up multiple times since thanks to the proximity of the Man Mo Temple next door. As you can see by the screencaps, the current bulding was already there back in 1976 with its familiar circular moon door entrance.

La Fine Dell'innocenza - Annie Belle (1976) - Aberdeen, Hong Kong

Annie's new best friend, Linda, takes her for a ride on her motorbike as she makes her way to a rendezvous with her bit on the side. Two of the main streets we see the pair riding along are located in Aberdeen. The first screen capture shows the motorcycle driving south (towards the harbour) along Aberdeen Main Street. The building in the far background is the Pui Tak Canossian College. The lower images show the view looking the other way as the bike drives back into town around the former curved section of the old Aberdeen Praya Road (before the area was reclaimed and the road layout changed).

La Fine Dell'innocenza - Annie Belle (1976) - Aberdeen Harbour

Annie and "dad" go to a restaurant and before the food arrives, she decides to leave and go elsewhere with her new found frinds. The next scene shows them on board a few sampans with the various Aberdeen floating restaurants in the background.

La Fine Dell'innocenza - Annie Belle (1976) - Furama Hotel, Central

The hotel that the pair are staying at is the Furama. Built in 1973, demolished in 2001 and was replaced by the AIA Central building (it used to be AIG Tower but has since been renamed). It was a popular hotel with its top floor revolving restaurant (see the lowest images). One of the things I didn't know about it was that it had a carved replica of the famous "87 Immortals Painting" above the front driveway. This was based on a famous Tang Dynasty silk painting (you can see an image of it the painting here). In 1976, the management of the hotel was taken over by Intercontinental, which is why you can see the name in the screen cap below.

The "87 Immortals" relief above the front drive

I don't have any stitching software on my laptop here in London, so here is my compromise below, showing the hotel in some of its former glory.

They also shot scenes in the revolving restaurant and in the hotel lobby.

La Fine Dell'innocenza - Annie Belle (1976) - Harcourt Road, Central

Here's a nice view of Harcourt Road as the pair arrive at their hotel (the Furama, see next post). The interesting thing for me can be seen on the left hand side (lower image) where you can see the old dock buildings inside HMS Tamar that were replaced, not long after actually, by the former Prince of Wales building (now known as the "Chinese People's Liberation Army Forces Hong Kong Building"). On the right you can see the lower floors of the (now demolished) Hutchison House and Bank of America Tower (although at the time it was still called Gammon House).

La Fine Dell'innocenza - Annie Belle (1976) - Kai Tak Airport, Kowloon

A not-often used view over to Kai Tak will kick off this post as our protagonists arrive in Hong Kong for their adventures. We see the plane land, then the actors leave via the upper drop off point. I've also included some captures from the end of the film as the story comes to a close and Annie & co go to the airport for the final scenes.

My memory of Kai Tak is very fuzzy, but I don't remember the internal layout loking like this when I frequented it in the late 90s. I'm sure the check in desks had moved to the side by that time. The only really standout thing I can remember is being late for a flight once because I was distracted taking photos with friends. But it took literally 2 minutes to go through immigration checks and straight into the gate area that was immediately behind it, then another couple of minutes to my gate number whilst be harried by a member of the airline who told me to get a move on! These days the gates are so far from the immigration area that there is no way I would even get close to catching that flight (I did, by the way, in case you were wondering).

Plane touches down

Leaving and arriving at the pickup/drop off point

Departures

La Fine Dell'innocenza - Annie Belle (1976) - Aerial view of Harbour

Next up we have an Italian/UK co-production from the mid-70s. The title is La Fine Dell'innocenza but was released in the English speaking world as either Annie, Blue Belle, and The End of Innocence. It was another of the erotic movies produced by Harry Alan Towers before he moved on to the low budget action movies of the 80s (American Ninja anyone?). The story features French "starlet" Annie Belle (real name Annie Brilland) as a barely-out-of-convent-school teenager who travels to Hong Kong with her sugar daddy (played by the rather illustrious Charlie Fawcett), who pretends to be her real dad. Anyway, there she meets up with a bunch of new friends and...well, the title says it all really.

To kick off the locations I'm using this nice view over Victoria Harbour that shows the reclamation that had been started at the Sheung Wan waterfront. This land eventually became the Sheung Wan firestation and a sewage treatment works.