Tuesday, December 3, 2024

Hafen der Düfte - Veronica Ferres (2013) - View from the Peak

The next film for the location dive is a German TV movie called Hafen der Düfte or The Hong Kong Affair. I found this one completely by accident as I was doing my usual periodic scan of the internet for a much sought-after film, Hong Kong Affair, made entirely in Hong Kong in 1958 at the old Cathay Studios (which later became Golden Harvest Studios).

The German film stars Veronica Ferres as Victoria Philips, an antique art expert who is brought to Hong Kong to front an antiques exhiition, only to have the antiques stolen from their mainland temple a few days before they are due to be shipped. Russell Wong pops up as a roguish antique dealer/criminal who takes a fancy to her.

In terms of locations, many of the proper, actor-on-location shots were actually filmed in Malaysia, and I tracked down at least three places supposedly in Hong Kong that are actually in Kuala Lumpur or Putrajaya. The most amusing was the local police station that is in reality a high school in KL, and quite clearly has its school name across the front entrance in Chinese. Not a single attempt to cover it up. It reminded me of the old movies I've covered that used stock images, ignorantly or otherwise, of other parts of China (usually Shanghai) to portray Hong Kong hoping no one will notice. It's a bit insulting to be honest. 

Anyway, other than that small gripe, the film has some nice travelogue style images of Hong Kong used for establishing and transitional shots and footage. Certainly enough to warrant a few posts. You can watch the movie yourself courtesy of the HD version uploaded to Youtube (kannst du deutsch sprechen?). In the meantime, here is the initial Hong Kong opening image of the harbour.

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