Monday, October 24, 2022

Blade in Hong Kong - Terry Lester (1985) - Aberdeen Marina Club, Aberdeen

When the ransom exchange is going down on the Jumbo's top deck, Blade is keeping an eye on things at a distance from one of the balconies of the nearby Aberdeen Marina Club.

Sunday, October 23, 2022

Blade in Hong Kong - Terry Lester (1985) - Wong Tai Sin Temple, Kowloon

Blade's father (played by Keye Luke) has waited decades to be selected to lead a special religious ceremony involving a priceless religious text. In reality, the bad guys want him to be killed or injured so they can get their own man to take his place in the ceremony and steal the book.

The room where the book is held is a very obvious studio set, but the temple setting where much of the action and dialog takes place was Wong Tai Sin Temple in Kowloon.


The subsequent foot chase takes place along the pavement next to Lung Cheung Road and the area between the temple and the road which, as you can see, was much busier back in the 80s. The area was cleared out when much of the temple area was remodelled and the estate was rebuilt in the late 1990s.
The chase ends when the book is bundled into a van at the bottom of Shatin Pass Road.

Shatin Pass Road
The buildings in the background are still standng on Fung Tak Road

Saturday, October 22, 2022

Blade in Hong Kong - Terry Lester (1985) - Eucliffe, Repulse Bay

Blade follows Key Tam to Eucliffe in Repulse Bay and this is where we find out who the real bad guy is. The film used the property's interior extensively including a summer room which I have seen before in China Rose therefore confirming that this was indeed a real room and not an elaborate studio set.

The film visits this location on several occasions. Blade does go back later and is caught on the roof by the bad guy's henchmen. The state of the grounds at this time indicates that the property had most likely been abandoned for quite some time. I believe the eventual demolition took place in 1988, just afew years after this film was made, so this may have been the last time a film crew went inside. This is also the scene where Nancy Kwan makes an appearance as Lily - Blade's ex-flame.

Friday, October 21, 2022

Blade in Hong Kong - Terry Lester (1985) - San Po Kong Factory Estate, Kowloon

Blade drives his model friends into a car park when he spots Mr Key (James Hong) driving out and decides to follow him. This quick scene was filmed along King Fuk Street in San Po Kong with the (then painted blue) San Po Kong Factory Estate in the background. The estate was vacated and demolished circa 2007 and the space is only just now being redeveloped - no doubt into another residential development, but time will tell.

Thursday, October 20, 2022

Blade in Hong Kong - Terry Lester (1985) - Club Volvo, Tsim Sha Tsui

I've featured this club on the blog previously under its later name of Club BBoss. But originally it was called Club Volvo. What happened? I believe Volvo found out about the club name and threatened to sue the club owners for trademark infringement. The SCMP did an article on the place a while back and I was contacted back then by the writer asking if she could pinch a couple of my screen caps for the piece, so, if you can get past the paywall (or read a re-print here) you might see that they used some screencaps from the Chris Evans movie, Pushprovided by yours truly.

Anyway, in Blade in Hong Kong this is the location where Krista has been told to meet the kidnappers to discuss the ransom. Blade goes in her place and meets up with the kidnapper, played by Antony Newly.

Wednesday, October 19, 2022

Blade in Hong Kong - Terry Lester (1985) - Magazine Gap Road, Mid-levels

There are a couple of scenes in the film when Blade answers his car phone. Coincidentally, both times this happens is when Blade is driving down Magazine Gap Road. The only difference is the jacket he is wearing, so I suspect these scenes were both filmed at the same time with the actor, Terry Lester, driving back up for a quick costume change before run number 2.

Tuesday, October 18, 2022

Blade in Hong Kong - Terry Lester (1985) - Sheraton Hotel, Tsim Sha Tsui

The Sheraton Hotel pops up quite a few times in this film throughout, largely because it is the location where Blade's love interest, Krista (Ellen Regan), is staying. So we have an initial establishing shot (top image below) as well as what might possibly be a real shot of one of the rooms (I suspect it is one of the hotel's rooms and not a studio interior - this was a TV movie after all). 

Later in the film Blade goes to meet Krista and her boss Mr Tam (James Hong) to discuss the ransom demand and he pulls his car into the hotel forecourt (third image) and finally at the end of the film as Krista and Blade bid each other a temporary goodbye in a scene that must have been shot in the top floors of the Sheraton, given the view in the background.

Sunday, October 16, 2022

Blade in Hong Kong - Terry Lester (1985) - Salisbury Road Garden, East Tsim Sha Tsui

Blade is interrupted at the fundraiser by Half-time, who has turned up with some information for him, so the pair go for a walk in Salisbury Road Garden in East TST. This is the same place filmed at around the same time for Police Story. Although the maps seem to disagree on whether it's called Mody Road Garden or Salisbury Road Garden.