Police Story 2 - Jackie Chan (1988) - Kar Wo Lei, So Kwun Wat

The gang's ramshackle factory building where they are holding May was most likely constructed just for the movie. I say this for three reasons: the first is that it gets completely destroyed at the end of the film, secondly, it looks temporary anyway (I expect most of the interiors were filmed elsewhere), and finally, aerial imagery of the area it was located in 1988, and just prior to, shows an empty space where you would expect to see a factory. However, if you know differently please feel free to comment.

Anyway, I managed to pin down the factory to an area near Tuen Mun called Kar Wo Lei. These days there is a small village development called Nim Wan Tsuen there, but back in the 1980s it was a sandy open bit of ground. The chimneys in the background belonged to the Lok On Pai Desalination Plant, which is still used to this day (minus the chimneys) as a large studio space (for example, I believe that Jet Li's scenes in Expendables 2 was filmed inside as well as Dead or Alive: Final and many more films I haven't covered).

Look carefully in the last images and you can see the flat reclaimed area that was shortly to become the Gold Coast Hotel and Resort area in the lower left.

Police Story 2 - Jackie Chan (1988) - Cheung Shun Street, Lai Chi Kok

This is the street where Ka Kui follows the bombers and then has to jump on top of a truck and a bus in order to gain access to the building where they are holding his girlfriend. If the area looks familiar it's because just down the road is the Police Station from Righting Wrongs.

The Elite Industrial Building that Ka Kui leaps into (through the Lee Kum Kee sign) as well as the Great Wall Factory Building from where he starts his assault, are still around.

Cheung Sha Wan Plaza under construction in the background

Police Story 2 - Jackie Chan (1988) - Kai Tak Tunnel, Ma Tau Kok

Ka Kui tricks the baddies so that he can enter the tunnel and cut off the radio communication that would otherwise allow the bombers to set off his vest bomb. The tunnel in question is the Kai Tak Tunnel, still going strong after all these years even though the airport it once ducked under has long since gone. So, Ka Kui drives in through the west entrance (image 1), stops the car mid-tunnel to deal with the vest (image 2), and then runs out of the east entrance (image 3) before the bad guys can cotton on to what is unfolding.

Police Story 2 - Jackie Chan (1988) - East Kowloon Corridor, To Kwa Wan

As the cars make their way north along the Kowloon City Road section of the East Kowloon Corridor, we can see the circular apertures of the To Kwa Wan Market building on the right side of the screen. This means the cars are just passing over Lok Shan Road.

Police Story 2 - Jackie Chan (1988) - Chatham Road North, Hung Hom

After tricking the gang into driving on ahead of him so he can deal with the bomb strapped to his chest, Ka Kui drives up Chatham Road North. In the image below is the Fat Kwong Flyover bridge that is still around. In fact, I covered the same location (albeit on theother side of the bridge) a few months ago for Asia-Pol Secret Service, which shows just how long this bridge has been around. Speaking of which, a thought just popped into my head in that there is only 22 years difference between those two films (1966 - 1988), and yet it's already 34 years since Police Story 2 was made! I'm just getting old and wondering where all the years have gone...

Police Story 2 - Jackie Chan (1988) - Bowen Road, Mid-levels

The small tree lined road where the bombers meet up with Ka Kui's after he has grabbed the suitcase of money is Bowen Road. The first image shows the car driving under the elevated section of Borrett Road that leads to Borrett Mansions above. The second image is at the junction with Borrett Road not that far along.

Earlier in this sequence, we get a view past Ka Kui's car looking towards the - under construction - Bank of China Tower. This was captured a little further along either Borrett Road or Bowen Road (hard to tell which one) near to the bend below the old military hospital building. The view is now obscured by #6 Borrett Road development.

Police Story 2 - Jackie Chan (1988) - Ping Ting Road, Hammer Hill

After also kidnapping Ka Kui, the bombers make another extortion demand, this time from a payphone on Ping Ting Road - it's actually just a stone's throw from the old Golden Harvest studio complex, in fact just the next road down the hill.

In the top image, the East Kowloon Psychiatric Centre can be seen in the background right of the frame. This is still around. In the second image, the twin blocks of what was once the Hong Kong School for the Deaf can be seen on the other side of Hammer Hill Road. This is no longer there and has been replaced by Chun Tok School.

Police Story 2 - Jackie Chan (1988) - Chi Lok Villa, Tuen Mun

This is the home of Chor Yuen's invalided bad guy, Chu Tou, from the first movie. Ka Kui heads there as soon as May is abducted because he believes the old man is responsible, when in reality it's the bombing gang.

Built in 1955, this was actually quite a beautiful house and was featured in many home grown local Cantonese movies throughout the 60s. This may just be the last glmipse of it looking half decent because not long afterwards it was bought by the Chinachem group (run by Nina and Teddy Wang) and left to rot in a typical HK way of destroying stuff so there can be no arguments about its demolition.

In a weird, further Jackie Chan link, Teddy Wang went missing not long afterwards and it was rumoured his body was buried here. Wang's disappearance was the inspiration behind Chan's Crime Story movie a few years later.

Following several years of dereliction and use by local kids for BB gun battles, the house was demolished in the mid 00's and replaced by a new development called "South Crest". You can google the old place (use 志樂別墅) and find lots of old images of it, including the golden dragon water feature in the front garden that can be seen in the film grabs below.

Castle Peak Road

Pine Villas (still around) can be seen at the left

Golden dragon water feature

Police Story 2 - Jackie Chan (1988) - Oxford Road, Kowloon Tsai

This is the location where May is kidnapped by the bomb gang as she leaves the supermarket with her aunt.There's still a supermarket here but it's gone a bit upscale now and been turned into a "Jasons"(still owned by Jardines who also own Wellcome). The house in the background behind the shop has since been redeveloped into an apartment block, but looking back the other way (second image) it's pretty much the same view.

Police Story 2 - Jackie Chan (1988) - Tate's Pass, Fei Ngo Shan

The bad guys take the explosives supplier up Kowloon Peak to interrogate him about the police. This one was a right pain to find but I was helped along the way by the remains of Pillbox 126 - one of the pre-war remnants of the British defences. You can see it, or at least its remains, in the foreground below. This is actually part of the Wilson Trail (stage 4) in case you ever get the urge to go hiking.

Police Story 2 - Jackie Chan (1988) - Star Ferry Car Park, Edinburgh Place

I believe this final 1950s-era monument to the former Star Ferry infrastructure in Central is also about to be redeveloped. What it will be replaced with is hardto tell because my understanding is that HSBC's lease secures them an open view to the harbour in front to allow good superstitious bullshit fung shui. Anything taller than a couple of storeys will probably not be allowed. This could be some of the usual Hong Kong folk lore though rather than reality, I guess time will tell. It's seen its fair share of movie and TV shoots over the years and in Police Story 2 it is the location where the explosives supplier is abducted by the bombing gang because they know he talked to the police when he was arrested. Again, for some reason this is another brief shot that was cut from the Cantonese (i.e. Fortune Star) DVD release.

Police Story 2 - Jackie Chan (1988) - Kiu Wong Street Industrial Estate, Yuen Long

The seemingly old and deserted factory estate, where the police follow John Cheung to, is still around and located next to the Kiu Tau Wai walled village in Ping Shan. Again, this is still part of the sequence in my DVD version that is missing several key shots, so the quality of my screencaps might vary a little. Some of the older buildings in this scene are still around. In the first image below, we see the taxi driving along Kiu Wong Street and then stop at the corner with Kiu Shing Street. The building (now called "4S City") behind the taxi is still recognisable, or at least its shape is because the exterior has undergone a complete revamp. The building on the far left of the frame, with the saw tooth roof, is still pretty much as it was.

Next up John Cheung crosses Kiu Wong Street at the far end of the estate where the road curves back on itself. The building the gang are holed up in has actually been replaced by a more modern structure now occupied by Crown Motors (the company that imports all the Toyota Crown Comfort taxi cars from Japan), but the smaller building on the other side of it is still around. You can see a similar view here on GoogleEarth.

In that GoogleEarth link, if you swivel the view to the right you will see the old building whose roof the cops use for their surveillance set up. It's the Ying Cheong Industrial Building and appears to currently host a company called "Meco Technology Limited", but how much time the place has left before that's gone as well is anyone's guess.

Directly opposite the cops' observation post is the view below. On the right is the gangs hideout (now Crown Motors) and on the left is another warehouse that has since been replaced.The alley between them is still around but the view towards Ha Tsuen and the hills in the distance are a lot more cluttered these days - just like the rest of the NT.
 

Police Story 2 - Jackie Chan (1988) - Diamond Hill MTR Station, Diamond Hill

Continuing the MTR theme from the last few posts and our final station stop for John Cheung is Diamond Hill MTR station. Although again this has changed - drastically - since the film was made. In fact changed again just recently with the opening of the Tuen Ma line (formerly West Rail) extension between Tai Wai and East Tsim Sha Tsui which now goes through the extended Diamond Hill station.

Anyway, the exit that Cheung leaves the station by was removed sometime in the 1990s to make way for an additional block of Lung Poon Court called Lung Wan House. In the top image the only thing still around today are the large vent buildings immediately behind. In the second image (another one missing from my DVD), as he gets into yet another taxi, pretty much all of the buildings in the background have been replaced by high rises with the exception of the Shek On Building. It's the small building with the red facade poking out from behind the exit wall.

Police Story 2 - Jackie Chan (1988) - Shek Kip Mei MTR Station, Shek Kip Mei

Despite showing the entrance to Tsim Sha Tsui MTR station in the immediately preceding shot, the interior station scenes were filmed elsewhere. The first big giveaway is the colour of the wall tiles. When the MTR was first constructed, each station was given a different colour scheme to help those who couldn't read characters - Chinese illiteracy was a well-established problem amongst the previous generations of Hong Kongers, especially before the introduction of compulsory schooling. TST station happens to be black - at least it is now, it may have been a different colour when it was first built.  The green tiles you can see below belong to Shek Kip Mei MTR Station. In case there was any doubt, in the background of one of the shots of John Cheung (not included here) it quite plainly says "Shek Kip Mei" on the signboard above the platform doors.

This happens to be one of my local stations and I can tell you that it never gets as busy as you can see on the film. Even during rush hour. I suspect the relative quiet of this station is probably why the production crew used it. Crystal Kwok can be seen below practising her "stink eye".

Police Story 2 - Jackie Chan (1988) - Tsim Sha Tsui MTR Station, Tsim Sha Tsui

Another shot missing from my DVD (hence the dodgy screencap) is this one of Cheung making his way across Haiphong Road to exit A1 of TST MTR station. This was actually how the exit still looked up until a few years ago when it was redeveloped into a more modern-looking glass version. Interestingly though, the interior scenes were filmed elsewhere.

Police Story 2 - Jackie Chan (1988) - Austin Avenue, Tsim Sha Tsui

We come to a point in Police Story 2 where the Cantonese DVD release I have differs from the HD version on Netflix (at least HK Netflix). The following sequence involves the police tailing one of the suspected terrorists (played by John Cheung) but on my DVD release is significantly shorter and plays out with a background music track like a montage. The extended version on Netflix contains dialog and several extra locations.

The sequence starts with John Cheung's character exiting a billiard hall onto a large stone staircase. This is a location that I am having a hard time pin-pointing. Lots of things have changed since 1988. He walks down the stairs but the location (and stairs) in the next shot is different. These stairs were easier to find because I inadvertantly walked down them last week when I was walking from Hillwood Road down onto Austin Avenue.

Apologies for the quality of the screen shot but this is from my phone. It's one of the shots missing from my DVD version and has been done using my prehistoric phone pointed at a screen. The planters, or at least a version of them, are still there. Look carefully and you can see the old Yau Tsim Mong District Council emblem sprayed on the bottom one in yellow paint.

Police Story 2 - Jackie Chan (1988) - Ting Kok Road, Tai Po

When the bombers use a public telephone box to make their next extortion demand, they use a call box in Tai Po near to the Tin Hau Temple on Ting Kok Road. The scene starts with a beat policeman walking along Mei Sun Lane (top image). This is an interesting shot for me because in the background is Eightland Garden. This is the very first place I stayed when I first visited Hong Kong in 1995. My friend's family had a flat in there. The taxi driver dropped me off on On Chee Road ecause he had no idea where the place was and I was left to wander around asking in my stilted Cantonese where the address was. An old person who spoke English took pity on me and showed me the way. 

Anyway, nostalgia aside, the cop takes a call to go an find out who is using the phone box. The phone box is on the other side of Ting Kok Road and the bad guy jaywalks across the road to grab a cab when he is stopped by the cop. Actually, this area looks very much the same now as it did back in 1988, with the exception of Mei Sun Lane which now looks slightly less ramshackle.

Police Story 2 -Jackie Chan (1988) - RAF Little Sai Wan, Siu Sai Wan

The story of this location actually starts several years ago when I was asked by a former RAF engineer, Andrew Suddaby, if I knew which film had been shot at the former RAF listening base at Little Sai Wan in the east of Hong Kong Island. He had been stationed there during his national service in the late 1950s and had made many a return trip to visit the place in the following years, right up to around 1987. He had heard from former colleagues that the buildings had been blown up for the finale of a movie and was asking me which one it might be. I had no idea. Cue a few years later and the question was asked again on Gwulo and was answered by non other than Mr Bey Logan - see here:  https://gwulo.com/media/23005.

Anyway, despite Andrew not recognising anything, my deeper dive into it revealed that Bey was in fact spot on and so I put a comment at the end of that thread explaining which building it was. You can see my comment on that thread so I won't repeat it here. Just know that the building was scheduled for demolition not long after and so this, no doubt, gave the film crew carte blanche in terms of inflicting damage on it. What I will say is that they added a false second floor facade to make the building look taller, and they widened the window apertures to the point where one of the structural walls can actually be seen through the widened window (you can see it in the first image below, to the right of the main entrance). Why they did this is anybody's guess but Andrew and myself  speculate it was to enhance the effect of the explosion, as it might not have looked quite so spectacular spurting through the original smaller windows.

The area where the building was located is where Block 2 of Fullview Garden now stands (built 1993).