Past form on this blog has shown that when a film (specifically John Woo ones) uses a property for explosive shootouts (see Hard Boiled, The Killer), it was because the place was about to be demolished so no one cared what happened to it. It seems that this was also the case for this property as well until someone offered to buy it and extended it a lifeline, at least for a few years. The offer was by former model, Sally Mount and her investor husband, Duncan.
I have a book in my hand that claims the property was built in 1940 for Sir Run Run Shaw, but the timeline feels off for me as I don't believe Sir Run Run was in Hong Kong at that time, but I could be wrong. However, it does confirm some rumours I heard previously that Shaw owned a property in Deepwater Bay. This also ties in with the fact that this film was made to raise money for Chang Cheh, one of Shaw's most prolific directors. Someone mentioned on Gwulo that Lee Kuan Yew, the former leader of Singapore, used to stay here when he visited Hong Kong. Knowing Shaw's ties with Singapore this doesn't surprise me.
Sadly, the lifeline was only for a few more years as the Mounts sold up in 1996, following five or six years of renovations, and set a territory sales record for the property at HK$163million. Looking at aerial images, it looks like the property remained until circa 2000 before finally getting demolished and redeveloped into a row of much more valuable but aesthetically underwhelming luxury townhouses.
5 comments:
This was indeed Sir Run Run's house and various directories put him at this address in the 1960s. I mentioned in a comment on another of your posts that he moved to Clearwater Bay in the 1970s. An fung shui website noted that he moved from this house for longevity.
Strangely, I don't ever recall seeing this house, exterior or interior, in any TVB productions. I'm sure it must have appeared at some point or another.
I've had computer problems and had to up/downgrade the Windows then resorted to Linux for a time. Please delete if this post gets duplicated a bunch of times.
Hey Rodney, welcome back and (almost) happy new year! What a great looking house - at least from what I can see of the available images. Such a shame that it was demolished after such an extensive and long term renovation in the 1990s. Phil (no duplications btw)
The 1985 Shaw Brothers film Women starring Chow Yun Fat and Cora Miao was on TV last week. It seems to still be available on the RTHK website, but don't know for how long.
https://www.rthk.hk/tv/dtt31/programme/weekendmovies/episode/983229
They filmed at 39 Island Road, which appeared to be flats at the time unless the interiors were filmed elsewhere. I wonder why Sir Run Run didn't just lend his own house just down the road for production because nothing got blown up. I am quite sure he was not living there by then.
I think it's gone already Rodney, but I'll keep an eye out for it elsewhere. I'll be doing a lot of local movies this year.
Oi! They must have taken it offline at the stroke of midnight January 26 because when I wrote that comment, it was still available at RTHK. That old mansion at No. 43 was used in a few TV shows that I of course did not write down and can't name off the top of my head. That stretch of Island Road is almost unrecognizable now.
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