A Cause to Kill - Ivy Ling Po (1969) - Choi Hung Estate

Some scenery to take in during a driving home scene as Hsin Li's husband, Li De (Kwan Shan) and Su Su (Chiao Chiao) take a taxi home from the airport. Su Su has just arrived from Singapore to help with the screenplay for Hsin Li's new comeback film.

The scene starts with a view of the Choi Hung Estate from the view point of the adjacent road, but then we follow the couple for an in-car scene that was shot as the car drove along the first section Clearwater Bay Road that starts at the estate.

Savour the view because it was announced last year that Choi Hung Estate would be redeveloped very soon bringing an end to its 60+ year lifespan, although the latter stages of the plan won't be implemented until the 2040s.

A Cause to Kill - Ivy Ling Po (1969) - Glenthorne, Customs Pass

Hsin Li lives with her husband in a rather nice art-deco style mansion up in Customs Pass. This area appears to have been a popular filming location for Shaws productions in the 60s and 70s because we were here a few weeks ago for The Generation Gap.

In this film we carry on up the hill a bit further to a house called "Glenthorne" which, rather surprisingly for Hong Kong, still exists. I take my hat off to the owners for not selling up to a developer because the house is very stylish (and I have no doubt jinxed it by featuring it here). The interwebs tells me this house was built in 1958 and is one of only a couple originals.

On the way up we are treated to some views of Fei Ngo Shan Road as the car drives passed the previously linked to "Cairnmount". We also get brief glimpses of some of the neighbouring properties, but they are, sadly, only fleeting.

"Cairnmount" on the left

Glenthorne

A view of the neighbouring property "Devonia" (since demolished)

A Cause to Kill - Ivy Ling Po (1969) - Clearwater Bay Road, Pak Shek Wo

Up next is another from the Celestial Shaw channel on Youtube called A Cause to Kill. It's about a retired actress (Ivy Ling Po) who plots to kill her husband (Played by Kwan Shan - Rosumand Kwan's father) because he had a secret affair with one of their friends (Chiao Chiao). Apparently it's a Shaw version of Dial M for Murder but because I haven't seen (or read) it in about 40 years then I can't possibly comment, but suffice to say it's a great plot and the film showcases some nice spots in Hong Kong from the late sixties, some of which have changed beyond recognition and some that haven't.

The opening scene shows Hsin Li (Ivy) driving her car along Clearwater Bay Road through the section that goes through Pak Shek Wo (i.e. not far from Pik Uk prison). She's supposed to be driving home, but as you'll see in the next post, she is actually driving in the opposite direction.

It's hard to reconcile the images below with the modern day road which is a dual carriageway, but this is how it used to look.

A sign for Wah Lok Yuen (華樂園), a local eatery

This last image has some writing on the slope on the left. It says "Lot 1098 Pak Shek Wo". This relates to the current 1098 Clearwater Bay Road which helped me narrow down the location. Sadly, we don't see the property on film.

Die Sieben Masken des Judoka - Heinz Drache (1967) - Pacific Islands Shipbuilding, Kowloon Bay

Yes, an older movie that I covered many years ago (2018 to be precise, and I have since decided to list it on the right hand side under its original title: Casse-tête chinois pour le Judoka, but have yet to bother changing all the post titles). This one is being done now because it was another of my pandemic finds back in 2021 that I thought I had already posted but checked back recently (you'll see why in a few posts) and realised I had forgotten about it.

The location can be seen during footchase that actually ends up over on Ap Lei Chau, but the initial scenes were shot at the Pacific Islands ShipBuilding shipyard in Kowloon Bay. This was worked out by triangulating the background buildings with the large gantry that can be seen below. The building behind it was Block 13 of the Ngau Tau Kok Resettlement Estate and was still under construction at the time.

Take note of the small Chinese-roofed hut in the lower image as this will pop up in a later post for another film.

This whole area now sits under where Kowloon Bay MTR station depot and the Telford Gardens development now sits. The former aforementioned Block 13 site now holds the reasonably newish "Kowloon Cultural Centre".

My Three Sons - Fred MacMurray (1965) - View from the Peak

Not the best view we've ever seen on the blog, but no doubt the same footage has been used elsewhere in better quality than the VHS upload I took this from on Youtube. At least the time frame coincides with the 1965 setting because I can see the Hongkong Hilton in the top image, completed in 1963. Often you find library/stock footage used that doesn't reflect the reality of the show's setting.

My Three Sons - Fred MacMurray (1965) - Repulse Bay Road

The family are staying with one of their dad's colleagues and the establishing shot for these scenes is an upward shot towards some properties that used to stand on Repulse Bay Road. The lower building in the image is the previous version of a property that was located at 16 Repulse Bay Road. The two properties above are the old properties of 25 (on the right with the curved verandah) and 27 Repulse Bay Road. Fortuna Court and Royal Garden developments now occupy these sites (respectively). It's a shame the picture quality is so poor because I've never seen images of these upper properties before. I think the camera must have been positioned down on Island Road in front of the golf course.

My Three Sons - Fred MacMurray (1965) - Kai Tak Airport

The family arrives in Hong Kong via some stock footage of the Kai Tak runway and the airside of the terminal building showing the observation deck.

My Three Sons - Fred MacMurray (1965) - Aberdeen Harbour

Here's an obscure one that, not being American, I had never heard of until recently. My Three Sons was a fairly long-running comedy drama show starring Fred MacMurray as the widowed father-of-three young sons and the show followed them through their daily lives. It ran from 1960 through to 1972 over 12 seasons.

For the purpose of this blog there is a single episode from Season 6 (broadcast in 1965) that featured Hong Kong as the setting. Episode 12 is called The Hong Kong Story and details how the main character, Steven Douglas (MacMurray) travels to Hong Kong with his sons and their Uncle Charlie for the purpose of business. Uncle Charlie is an ex-sailor who met and fell in love with a local girl when he was in Hong Kong and he hopes to find her despite 35 years passing. George Takei (pre-Mr Sulu) even makes an appearance as a local Chinese business associate who greets them at the airport.

Sadly, as with many low budget shows, the episode only features library/stock footage of Hong Kong for its various establishing and transitional shots, but there are some interesting views to look at and I am including the show for completeness more than anything else. If anyone is interested in watching the episode, Knack Entertainment on Youtube has Season 6 loaded up as one long video on their channel.

The episode starts its journey to Hong Kong by showing us what we think is the plane's view of its approach to Kai Tak, but in fact is just a helicopter shot of Aberdeen that takes in the cemetery, town, and then harbour.

(above) Aberdeen Chinese Permanent Cemetery

Look carefully at the bottom of this last image and you can see the old Aberdeen dry docks where Nam Ning Street now runs.

Killer Angels - Moon Lee (1989) - Lai Yue Hing Tong, Fanling

People may know this place by another name, the "Fanling Babies Home", and it was a regularly featured property in many movies following the exit of the orphange in the mid-60s. Andi has the best break down of many locations over on his blog. In this movie it is the location where the gang have all their kidnapped women holed up in preparation for shipping them to the Middle East. The real name of the house was Lai Yue Hing Tong (賴餘馨堂) - the babies home was only located here between 1940 to 1966.

Killer Angels - Moon Lee (1989) - A Kung Kok Street, Ma On Shan

The denouement to the car chase takes place on A Kung Kok Street in Ma On Shan. A Kung Kok is a small village development built in the mid-1980s to rehouse fisherfolk who were to be displaced by the construction of the Shatin racecourse and nearby Ma on Shan New Town. To be honest, in terms of resettlement estates, this place was pretty shabby even when it was built as you can see from the screencaps below. Despite that, it's still around and looks pretty much the same. The area now has a major highway flyover going across the terrain you can see in the top image.

Killer Angels - Moon Lee (1989) - Ma On Shan Road, Ma On Shan

The car chase continues along Ma On Shan Road with the newly completed Heng On Estate in the background. The bottom image is from the roundabout where Ma On Shan Road joins with Hang Hong Street with St Joseph's Primary School in the background. The school has since added and extra floor and an additional wing on the right hand side.

I should mention that the film is edited to appear that this location, and the previous one, are one and the same but actually they are about 2 miles apart.

Killer Angels - Moon Lee (1989) - Tai Chung Kiu Road, Shatin

Michael chases after the gangster boss (Shing Fui-on) in a car. The first road we see them driving along is Tai Chung Kiu Road in Shatin. In the background is the City One development, and on the right hand side is Ravana Garden under construction, or so it looks. If so, this pushes the filming time back to 1988.