Monday, September 30, 2024

Crossing Hennessy - Jacky Cheung (2010) - Gloucester Road Pedestrian Bridge, Wanchai

Another brief transition shot shows the large pedestrian bridge that connects the two sides of Gloucester Road. Anyone who has spent any length of time in Hong Kong will probably have had to use this bridge as it used to connect Wanchai MTR station (above O'Brien Road) with what was the Immigration Department HQ (since moved to Tseung Kwan O though, I think).

Sunday, September 29, 2024

Crossing Hennessy - Jacky Cheung (2010) - Mount Austin Road, The Peak

After a successful day's photo shoot, Loy and Man-yu have a takeout in her car parked along Mt Austin Road. You can see the famous "Umbrella Seat"in the background of the first image below. The car is parked next to a luxury residential development imaginatively called "The Mount Austin".

Saturday, September 28, 2024

Crossing Hennessy - Jacky Cheung (2010) - Fu Kee Metals and Plumbing Engineering, Lockhart Road

We've already seen the shop where Loy works, now we can locate the bathroom shop where Oi Lin works for her Uncle and Aunt. Her uncle, by the way, is played by Lam Wai who was "Raging Bull" in Royal Warriors. Again, this was a real business that was taken over for the purpose of filming. It looks as though the company is still around, but not at this location. A quick search for Fu Kee pulls up a shop in Tsuen Wan with the same signage, so it looks like Lockhart Road rents may have got the better of them - just as it is getting the better of everyone else in Hong Kong these days. Anyway, for posterity, the address in the film was 368 Lockhart Road, the ground floor of the Pak Ling Building. The company has a website here: https://fukeehk.com/.

Friday, September 27, 2024

Crossing Hennessy - Jacky Cheung (2010) - Big D Trading, Mongkok

The shop run by Loy's family was a real business and is still in operation. However, rather than being located in Wanchai as per the film's story, the physical shop location is over in Mongkok - on the 12th floor of "Ginza Plaza" on Sai Yeung Choi Street South. The company has a website here: https://bigd.hk/.

Thursday, September 26, 2024

Crossing Hennessy - Jacky Cheung (2010) - Cheung Hong Mansion, Fenwick Street

Loy's family run "Big D Trading", a white goods/home appliance store of a type that is very common in Hong Kong. It turns out Big D Trading is a real company and it appears they were amiable to letting the film crew use them for the story - no doubt for a small fee and some publicity. However, the company is located in Kowloon, so the exterior shots for the building where the shop is were done outside Cheung Hong Mansion on Fenwick Street.

Wednesday, September 25, 2024

Crossing Hennessy - Jacky Cheung (2010) - Unnamed Clearing next to the Peak Tram

I've kept this location separate because I can't quite figure out if it has a name, or is perhaps part of Chatham Path that runs in a rather higgledy piggledy manner between May Road and Barker Road. Anyway, this is seen during one of Loy's dream sequences when he is dreaming about chatting with his deceased father. The location is more or less directly opposite the tennis court of Po Garden, so it's also possible that this is an extension of the podium of Grenville House. I doubt Google will let me place a marker where I want it to (it keeps snapping back to May Road or Grenville House), so here is a GoogleEarth link just to be clear.

Tuesday, September 24, 2024

Crossing Hennessy - Jacky Cheung (2010) - May Road, Mid-levels

Speaking of May Road, the very next shot has Loy running close to the last location but running past a historical residential building called "Gladdon", at #3 May Road, with its rather unique array of garage doors. There's actually fourteen doors in total and a single penthouse apartment above them all. I'm not sure who lives there but I believe it was bought by Kerry properties in 1988, so it's probably lived in by one of the members of Robert Kuok's family (he who owns Shangri-la Hotels, Kerry Group et al). Just a guess, mind you.

Monday, September 23, 2024

Crossing Hennessy - Jacky Cheung (2010) - The Peak Tram

Loy decides to get himself into shape and starts jogging in the morning instead of his usual lying in. He jogs mostly around the Peak and in one scene we can see him from the back of the Peak Tram as he tries to run up the stairs at May Road.

Sunday, September 22, 2024

Crossing Hennessy - Jacky Cheung (2010) - Cattle Depot Artists Village, Ma Tau Kok

After meeting by chance outside the law courts, Loy invites Oi Lin to a photographic art exhibition at the Cattle Depot in Ma Tau Kok. I did actually pop down here a few years ago and it's well worth a visit even if there is nothing going on inside. The Govt has given it a bit of a clean up, but thankfully have gone against their usual form and left much of the original buildings intact. It's free to enter.

This place operated as an abattoir until around 1969 when slaughtering duties were transferred to a new site in Cheung Sha Wan and this site was kept as a quarantine depot for various livestock including cattle, pigs and sheep. It remained in use until 1999 and anyone who was in Hong Kong in the 1990s may remember the livestock trains that used to roll down the East Rail (then KCR) line. I can always remember my first experience standing on the platform at Tai Po and watching everyone take a step or two back from the edge. I had no idea what was going on until the train rolled by and I was hit in the face with the smell of the pigs in the back. Quite overpowering.

Saturday, September 21, 2024

Crossing Hennessy - Jacky Cheung (2010) - Eastern Law Courts, Shau Kei Wan

Oi Lin goes to court to see how Xu's hearing goes, and Loy heads there to pay the fine for being late with the business registration he forgot about. So the pair bump into each other again. The first image shows the front entrance of the courts on Tai On Street, but as Oi Lin turns the corner to try and see Xu's prison transport as it pulls away, we are looking at the side entrance on another section of Tai On Street (perpendicular to the first bit) with the view looking down towards Oi Kan Road.

Friday, September 20, 2024

Crossing Hennessy - Jacky Cheung (2010) - Morrison Hill Road, Wanchai

After their coffee and walk, the pair stop at the bus stop so Oi LIn can catch a bus ride home. This particular stop is located on Morrison Hill Road, in front of what is currently the "South Pacific Hotel" (no doubt it will change in a few years) in #23 behind. The same stop also pops up in the closing credits.

Thursday, September 19, 2024

In Search of Bruce Lee's Last Filming Location

I was recently made aware that one of the extras on the Enter the Clones of Bruce Lee documentary is a small location video tour called Bruce's Hong Kong. The snippet I was sent included the footage of Ching Chung Koon followed by Bruce's fight against Sammo at the beginning of Enter the Dragon and basically saying that the fight scene was shot in a "still unidentified location". 

If only Frank Djeng - the creator of the otherwise informative film - had got in touch. I know my blog stuff here is a bit niche, but the location of the fight has been public knowledge since 2009 when I was first able to track it down. In fact, it was one of my first big location scoops and was what sent me down the path of finding all the other places that make up these (now numbering in the thousands) location pages for Hong Kong-shot movies.

In fact, my old (granted, now deleted) historical blog even had a page called Bruce Lee's Hong Kong on which I detailed a significant number of Lee-related Hong Kong sites. It certainly seems to have been useful to a large number of people coming to Hong Kong and wanting a consolidated list of places to visit. It also formed the basis for some walking tours that I have decided to reinstate here (see the right hand side bar of the blog). Even before that I had written an article for Time Out in 2011 that identified the site. So I am a bit confused as to why it still seems to remain a mystery. Especially since some other information I have documented publicly (such as the appearance of the original Jumbo back in 2011) did make it into that little 'documentaryette'. Well, anyway, regardless of the reasons, it seems like a good idea to revive an old deleted post, from blog v.2 (when I was using Wordpress) in 2009, that detailed the events surrounding the location's eventual discovery. 

Bruce Lee's mysterious last filming location

Crossing Hennessy - Jacky Cheung (2010) - Johnston Road, Wanchai

After having a drink at the Honolulu Cafe, the pair walk back along the north side of Johnston Road. The last images shows them crossing to the south side outside the Tai Yau Building on the corner of Fleming Road.

Wednesday, September 18, 2024

Crossing Hennessy - Jacky Cheung (2010) - Honolulu Cafe, 176-178 Hennessy Road

Hennessy Road for real this time as Oi-lin's aunt makes her take Loy out for a coffee after he delivers a free dehumdifier to the shop as a gift. This film was quite influential in making this cafe quite popular at the time and it features extensively throughout. I've never been but it looks like it is still around and I hope it remains so. Unfortunately, the Hong Kong Government fails to understand or appreciate the benefit that the local film industry has on tourism. Unless you intend to stay in expensive hotels and part with loads of cash at the (too) many jewelery stores in the city, then you are not really a priority. What a shame.

Anyway, this place also has a website, and several branches it seems, but it's the main site at 176-178 Hennessy Road that features in the film.

Tuesday, September 17, 2024

Crossing Hennessy - Jacky Cheung (2010) - Queensway

Finally, a little shot that gives us a brief glimpse of the road that features in the film's title. This is a brief transition shot as the story jumps from Man-yu's new studio back to the reality of Loy's life in Wanchai. This is a view down Queensway showing the section where Hennessy Road, just beyond the brown Methodist Church HQ, smoothly becomes Queensway at the corner of Johnston Road. This shot was most likely filmed from the pedestrian bridge at the southern end of Arsenal Street.

Monday, September 16, 2024

Crossing Hennessy - Jacky Cheung (2010) - Cornell Centre, Chai Wan

Man-Yu's new studio space is located in the Cornell Centre, an industrial building in Chai Wan. It looks like we have a rare incidence where the exteriors and interiors were filmed at the same place because the view from the studio is one that matches the view that should be visible from the upper floors of the Cornell Centre.

Sunday, September 15, 2024

Saturday, September 14, 2024

Crossing Hennessy - Jacky Cheung (2010) - Expo Drive, Wanchai

Loy gets a call from his ex-girlfriend, Man-yu (Maggie Cheung Ho-yee), and he gets all excited. It seems that she wants to employ him to provide the aircon for her new studio, but it turns out she is also recently divorced and may have other things on her mind. They meet up in the pouring rain on Expo Drive, next to the Exhibition and Convention Centre.

Friday, September 13, 2024

Crossing Hennessy - Jacky Cheung (2010) - Pik Uk Prison, Sai Kung

Oi Lin's boyfriend is Xu (Andy On) and has a bit of a temper, hence why he is locked away and also why they are going out - he came to her aid when she was assaulted on a bus one day. Anyway, he is incarcerated in Pik Uk prison until his release later in the film. Incidentally, Andy On and Tang Wei would be filming together again a few years later for Blackhat.