Knockabout - Yuen Biao (1979) - Shap Sze Heung, Sai Kung

After redoing my Golden Studios post recently and learning that the "Chinese street" set (seen in such films as The Magnificent Butcher and The Young Master) was only constructed in 1979, I thought I would watch Knockabout to see if the set was being used. It turns out, no. Pretty much all of the scenes in this film look to be shot out and about in old buildings and villages in the New Territories - making it really difficult to track down the locales.

Knockabout was apparently Yuen Biao's first starring role as a young 21/22 year old and tells the story of how he and his brother (played by Leung Kar-yan) are a couple of scam artists that eventually try to scam the wrong person (Lau Kar-wing). Impressed by their target's kung fu skills they force him to take them as his students and get embroiled in his rather not-so righteous life.

The film's finale (and a few of the middle scenes where Yuen Biao is training with Sammo) is about the only place where I can confidently say I know where it was shot: Shap Sze Heung. This is the large area east of Ma On Shan that incorporates locations such as Nai Chung, Three Fathoms Cove and Tai Tung Wo Liu, and was popular up until fairly recently because of its flat open views with Ma On Shan on one side and the sea on the other. That said, can you guess what has recently happened to the place? If you said "a massive high rise development" then you would be correct. Every bit of flat land between the few villages that were here is now being filled up by residential skyscrapers. Check out the latest Google Streetmap images. So another former (relatively) unspoilt location bites the dust as Hong Kong's money-grabbing property developers squeeze every last drip out of the place.

Actually, this is a good example of why finding some of the more obscure rural locations on this, or any other, film is really hard. You never know how long stuff was/is around for. Sometimes, with the lack of any distinguishable background features, you just have to rely on blind luck.

Anyway, rant over. Here are some shots from the film at this location. I think given the background cues, this was shot around where the golf driving range was (it's just been removed as part of this huge redevelopment) between Tseng Tau Tsuen and Che Ha Tsuen. Nothing lasts for long in Hong Kong it seems.