Pedicab Driver - Sammo Hung (1989) - Six Nation Restaurant, Macau

Staying in Macau but moving on to the next film, Pedicab Driver. It tells the story of a group of pedicab drivers (pedicabs are the Macau equivalent of rikshaws but involve pedal power rather than straight up running/pulling ability). You can still spot them in Macau much like you used to be able to spot rikshaws in Hong Kong - relegated to photo opportunities at the main tourist haunts (recall this post from January) - but no one rides them in Macau anymore.

The opening scene of the film takes place as two different factions of workers - drivers and labourers - argue over who should get what kind of work and the tense situation is tipped over the edge by a gormless chef (Eric Tsang) as he runs into the room carrying a chopper whilst trying to chase away some vermin.

The location of this scene was areal life restaurant called the 六國飯店 (Luk Kwok Jau Dim - the best translation is "Six Nation Hotel") - not to be confused with the same-name establishment in Hong Kong on which The World of Suzie Wong was supposedly based.

The entrance we see at the beginning of the film was located on Rua de Cinco de Outubro, just off the western end of Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro and this is the same entrance that Eric Tsang's character falls down as he runs away from the brawlers at the end of the scene.

I'm not sure what happened to the old block, but I suspect it has been torn down. Thankfully GoogleEarth has an image from 2008 which can be seen here (Chrome needed). But it appears that the restaurant closed circa 1990 - this could explain why the film crew were able to use it for filming - perhaps it had already closed by then? The entrance on Rua de Cinco de Outubro was blocked up and the byuilding appears to have sat empty for a long time. It's just another to add to my to-do list for when Macau finally opens up to non-gambling tourists again (who knows when?).

Rua de Cinco de Outubro

Asia-Pol Secret Service - Wang Yu (1966) - Lok Fu Park, Kowloon Tsai

It seems like I have been doing this film for ages because I started it when I was still in the UK back in April. 51 location posts makes it the highest number of posts for a single film in all the years I've been doing this blog (and there was a bunch I haven't been able to identify).

Anyway, following the defeat of the bad guys on the boat, the ending of the film sees the two spies meeting near the summit of Checkboard Hill. The intial shot shows the steep hillside of the Chinese Christian Cemetery on the opposite side of Junction Road. In the third image you can see the former radar installation that was located on the hill behind Wang Hsieh's head. It looks like they were filmed a little way down the slope from the circular turnaround (same place seen here) at the top of Fu On Street. The area is now part of Lok Fu park. The final image shows the buildings clustered around the layby next to the unction between Heng Lam Street and Junction Road looking much the same now as it did then. The only difference is the housing blocks between the actors and the background have all been redeveloped when the Lok Fu Estate was rebuilt.

Asia-Pol Secret Service - Wang Yu (1966) - Port Shelter, Sai Kung

After dealing with most of the gang at the ruins, Wang Yu and co head for the boss man and chase his boat across Port Shelter. There are some shots taken inside Port Shelter with Shelter Island in the background, but there is also a nice shot of the boats in the distance as they pass by Steep Island in Clearwater bay (top image). For that last shot the camera would have been placed in what is now the Tai hang Tun Kite Flying Area (a great place to pick up spare parts for your own kites because in very typical HK fashion, people just dump their kites in and around the bins at the end of the day).

Steep Island

Shelter Island on the left

Basalt Island in the background

Asia-Pol Secret Service - Wang Yu (1966) - Shaw Brothers Movietown

After Wang Yu runs up the hill he arrives, not at Monte Fort as you would expect but, at the backlot of Movietown in Clearwater Bay where he takes cover behind some (prop) ruins and is about to be gunned down by the gangsters. It wouldn't surpise me if these ruins were quickly knocked up just for this one particular scene given how adept the Shaw bros art department was. This area is largely taken up by the University of Science and Technology (HKUST) which has been slowly taking over the hills around Movietown since the 1990s.

Asia-Pol Secret Service - Wang Yu (1966) - St Paul's Church Facade, Macau

The car chase ends next to the ruins of St Pauls as Wang Yu jumps from the car and runs up the nearby hill to escape his pursuers.

Asia-Pol Secret Service - Wang Yu (1966) - Estrada de Dom Maria II, Macau

The car chase moves onto part of Macau's designated Grand Prix circuit along Estrada de Dom Maria II. The corner you can see in the foreground of image two is the start of turn 19 as the circuit rounds the far end of Dona Maria II Hill.

Asia-Pol Secret Service - Wang Yu (1966) - Rua de Silva Mendes, Macau

The next shot is actually a few metres back up the road from the last one, outside the Casa Memorial do Dr. Sun Yat Sen. We don't get to see that particular building in the shot though, only the outer wall at the extreme left of the image. What we can see is the old building that used to stand on the plot between Rua de Silva Mendes, Avenida de Sidónio Pais, and Rua de António Basto. I don't know anything about this building, but I do know that in its place today is a 6-storey mid-rise residential building called "Edifício Hou On".

The development around this area is marked and you can contrast the currrent view by looking at the current Streetview version here. The building in the right background of the lower two images is the "Jardim de Infância D. José da Costa Nunes". However, the view of the old buildingis now blocked by a new school annex. About the only thing to have remained unchanged over all these years is the external wall of the aforementioned memorial house of Dr Sun Yat Sen. If you look closely in image one (left hand side of the dark car in image 1) you can see some white bricks in the wall that are still there today.

Asia-Pol Secret Service - Wang Yu (1966) - Avenida de Sidónio Pais, Macau

The next shot is a view of the cars driving southwest along Avenida de Sidónio Pais close to the junction with Rua de Sacadura Cabral. In a bit of a kick in the teeth to someone (me) who believed Macau had done a good job in protecting its old housing stock, the rather elegant looking houses seen on the left side of the frame have all been redeveloped into high rises. Well, I guess it's still done a better job than Hong Kong.

On the right handside you can just make out the area where Escola Secundária Luso-Chinesa de Luís Gonzaga Gomes is located. The white topped wall in the second and third images is the school's outside wall. In fact in the bottom image you can just make out the curve in the wall that is the school entrance. In that same image is a low wall on the left which I believe probably belonged to Praça do Tap Seac, although it has since been replaced by a low railing.

Asia-Pol Secret Service - Wang Yu (1966) - Rua da Penha, Macau

The next shot is of the car driving down Rua da Penha and then turning left onto Rua do Padre António towards Largo do Lilau (Lilau Square). The town houses on the left of the second image were still there the last time I was in that area, I'm not sure if they lasted though as they were fairly dilapidated by then. 

Asia-Pol Secret Service - Wang Yu (1966) - Travessa do Colégio, Macau

The car chase leaves Estrada da Santa Sancha and appears on Travessa do Colégio. At the junction, Yang turns his car right onto Rua da Penha. Sadly, the rather spectacular tree that can be seen at the junction has long gone and, to be honest, the place looks like a bit of a building site on Streetview (I'm unable to visit to know what the location is like at the current time). There's the hint of a large building on a hill in the background (with red pillars, top right second image) but that area now is just one big massive hole so it looks like the whole place was excavated.

Edit: I subsequently found out that the building with the red pillars in the background of image two was the former Carmelite Convent. Apparently it was demolished in the 1970s.

Asia-Pol Secret Service - Wang Yu (1966) - Calçada da Praia, Macau

After being followed from Avenida do Dr. Oliveira Salazar and Avenida da Praia Grande, Yang turns right up Calçada da Praia. The camera captures the car from the top of the road and follows it as it turns left onto Estrada de Santa Sancha (second and third images).

Asia-Pol Secret Service - Wang Yu (1966) - Avenida da Praia Grande, Macau

After picking up a tail on Avenida do Dr.Oliveira Salazar, Yang is followed along the Praia Grande. I'm not sure of the exact location but perhaps some Macau experts can recognise the buildings on the side of the road.

Asia-Pol Secret Service - Wang Yu (1966) - Avenida do Dr. Oliveira Salazar, Macau

I think only old-school Macau historians will recognise this road name because it was later split and turned into both the Avenida Doutor Mário Soares and Avenida da Amizade. I'm not sure why the name changed but perhaps someone who knows better is able to comment below. Anyway, originally the road ran along the seaward side of the newly reclaimed land of Porto Exterior. This is the state of affairs that can be seen below - essentially it connected the north of the peninsula with the southern section at Avenida da Praia Grande. On it's long, meandering route it passed the old hydrofoil terminal - the distant advertising road arch in the background of image 1 marks roughly where that was. The kink in the road that the car is driving around in images 1 and 2 is still obvious today and is where the "Artyzen Grand Lapa Macau" (澳門雅辰酒店) now stands. 

Images 3, 4 and 5 show the same road as it passes the bend at Praça de Ferreira do Amaral and its controversial (hence why it was removed and re-erected in Lisbon) statue. Note that this film was made before the construction of the Lisboa Hotel/Casino and so there is a fairly unrestricted view towards Guia lighthouse in the background (background right of image 4).

I believe the grey building in the background of image 4 & 5 was the "Liceu Nacional InFante D. Henriqueis" - a Portuguese-curriculum school that operated from the late 19th century all the waythrough to the handover. However, this building dated the 50s and was demolished in 2006.

Asia-Pol Secret Service - Wang Yu (1966) - Macau Hydrofoil Terminal

Yang manages to cross the 50km of open sea in his little speedboat and arrives at the old ferry terminal. We don't get to see much of it I'm afraid, other than the signpost, but my understanding is that it was located where I previously identified it in this post from a few years ago.

Asia-Pol Secret Service - Wang Yu (1966) - Hotel Caravela, Macau

It took a while for me to find the identity of this building but finally prevailed. I also found out that the website that helped in my search has been secretly pinching my screencaps for the past 10 years and never once provided a linkback. He's not the first and won't be the last. Such is life. Paul Li, Hong Kong's foremost expert on Bruce Lee, once told me someone from Mainland China had taken all my Bruce Lee content (from both blogs) and passed it off as their own stuff. There's really not much I can do about it I'm afraid. People generally suck.

Anyway, this is Hotel Caravela, one of Macau's early (circa 50s) smaller, boutique hotels. However, the house was originally built in the 1920s by Bernardino de Senna Fernandes as his family home. Sadly, despite Macau's better form in terms of preserving old buildings (although that now seems to be changing) this place was demolished in the late 70s to make way for...nothing! At least that's according to Macau's only available Streetview images for the location (62-64 Avenida da República) which is dated 2008. The problem is I can't go back and provide a more up-to-date check because no one is currently allowed into Macau due to the ongoing Covid problem. Anyway, if you click on that Streetview link you can see that despite the building going, the hotel's front steps and distinctive front wall are still intact.

The hotel doesn't really feature at all in the film other than a quick shot as some cars drive by but it's interesting to find out where it was.

Asia-Pol Secret Service - Wang Yu (1966) - Macau Peninsula Panorama

After a brief return to Hong Kong as Wang Yu discovers the gang are in Macau and decides to head there by himself on a small speedboat, we return to the former Portuguese colony and are presented with a different view, this time of the inner harbour area with a panning shot and a rather cheeky caption (similar to one seen in this post as the story kept moving between Japan and Hong Kong). The location of the camera, its height along with the floating casino (Casino Macau Palace) right in front, suggests to me that this was taken from the famous/infamous Grande Hotel (photo of it at the bottom of this post).