Saturday, November 30, 2024

Just Heroes - David Chiang (1989) - Nameless Passageway, Peking Road

I briefly covered this location a few years ago when I was posting about Something Good. There is a small L-shaped passageway that joins Peking Road and Canton Road. You can see it here on GoogleEarth. In Just Heroes this is the location where Wai's young fishermen friend (played by Ni Kuang's son, Ngai Jan) drives the car so Wai can escape following the wedding reception shooting.

Look carefully at the top left of the frame (top image) and you should be able to see the words "Hard Rock Cafe". It turns out that in the 1980s, Hard Rock Cafe had a branch here. I personally remember the one that was located further up the road at #100 Canton Road, and it later moved to #30 Canton Road, but this one looks as though it was located at #12 or thereabouts. If anyone knows the exact location, please feel free to comment.

The film has done a bit of a sneaky switcharoo here because the top two images, and the one showing the car emerge, were filmed close to the where the passageway emerges onto Peking Road looking up towards the bend in the L-shape of the passageway. But when we see the reverse view (image 3) we are already up at the bend. I suspect the reason for the switch in position was to prevent the busyness of Peking Road being captured and detracting from the apparent seclusion of the location.

As usual, the google marker is giving me grief because it keeps snapping to nearby buildings,so I've left it on the Pacific Star Building. The alley runs alongside it. 

Spot the "Hard Rock Cafe" signage top centre left

1 comment:

Pip the Troll said...

I've had some feedback from TST Dave who believes that this 'Hard Rock Cafe' never existed as an official branch and may have been fake. Apparently HRC didn't open their first outlet until 1994. I'd love to hear from anyone else that may be able to solve the mystery.

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