The Angel Strikes Again - Lily Ho (1968) - Fei Ngo Shan Road

After succesfully planting explosives on board the plane, Fan Mei-sheng calmy smokes a ciggie on Fei Ngo Shan Road as he watches the (very fake) plane blow up in the sky. In the left background is the split peak of Lion Rock.

The Angel Strikes Again - Lily Ho (1968) - Kai Tak Airport

Some more Shaw nostalgia for this next film, The Angel Strikes Again, released on 30th May 1968. I believe it's a sequel to Angel with the Iron Fists released the previous year and features Lily Ho Li-li returning as agent 009, an Interpol agent who has been tasked with tracking down a gang who specialise in extorting money from companies in return for not blowing up their stuff. The movie sets the scene with some of the gang members placing their miniature explosives on a plane so we see a very nice panning shot of the area around the airport as the scene is established.

A young Fan Mei-sheng smokin' a fag

Here's a stitched panorama of the opening panning shoot. Click to zoom.

Victoria Park Road Layby - Now and Then

Whilst doing the newly extended HK Island waetrfront walk, I also went past this small layby off Victoria Park Road. This is where Dr Orantes (Marion Cotillard) is kidnapped by the villagers in their attempts to get hold of vaccinations.
 

Heroes Two - Alexander Fu Sheng (1974) - nr Wong Chuk Yeung, Sai Kung

Another popular filming site for Shaws, and indeed many movies throught the 1970s and 80s, was the plateau above Three Fathoms Cove in Sai Kung District. It's also been featured on the blog on multiple occasions previously, but by far the most popular post for it in the one I did for The Young Master where the only way Lung (Jackie Chan) can beat his opponent (Whang In-sik) is by getting completely stoned on bong water.

In this movie, this is the location of the final fight between the rebels, led by Fong and Hung, and the Ching general and his minions. The location is now completely overgrown now, as are many former filming sites simply because of the shift away from these outdoor locations during the 1980s.

Heroes Two - Alexander Fu Sheng (1974) - Pak Shek Au, Kwu Tung

The next up is another Shaw movie, Heroes Two, that I shall dub "Locations: Two" because that's the number of places I have been able to identify for this one. The reason being that, like many Shaw movies, much of it was shot on sound stages at Movietown.

The film stars Fu Sheng as the legendary Fong Sai Yuk, a mythical fighter from Ching Dynasty era. He gets duped by Ching officials into getting fellow rebel, Hung Hei-gun/Hung Hsi-kuan (Chen Kuan-tai), arrested and makes amends by freeing him from his subterranean dungeon prison. The film culminates in a big brawl between the rebels and the local Ching officials.

The film starts off with the burning of the Shaolin temple and the hunt for Hung. This whole sequence was shot in a place that should be very familiar to readers of the blog by now, it's the formerly-beautiful-rolling hills-but-now-a-building-site-for-the-Northern-Metropolis Pak Shek Au. So many films, particularly Shaw ones, were shot here over the years and the area is basically now ruined. Forever.
 

Hung Hing Road - Now and Then

I recently walked some of the newly minted Hong Kong Island waterfront walk and noted that it takes you along Hung Hing Road right next to the entrance to the Cross Harbour Tunnel. Having just recently covered this bit of road for She Shoots Straight I took the opportunity to grab some modern day comparisons.

Looking east towards Victoria Park

Looking southwest with the tunnel entrance in the background.

Looking at the tunnel entrance

The cars are entering the cross harbour tunnel

The Champions - Stuart Damon (1967) - Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter

The end of Stirling's memories shows us a view of Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter, and with it the end of the Hong Kong locations for this singular episode. Unsurprisingly, this footage also features in another ITC production, Jason King (follow the link to the post and you can see the same image at the bottom).

The Champions - Stuart Damon (1967) - Yee Wo Street, Causeway Bay

After Stirling gets in his rickshaw, we are treated to some passenger point of view shots of the rickshaw journey. The first image shows the rickshaw travelling up Yee Wo Street from the east, close to the junction with Pennington Street.

The next sequence from the rickshaw ride shows us being pulled around the end of Yee Wo Street close to the Causeway Bay tram terminus. You can just see the yellow walls of the old St. Paul's Convent School down Tung Lo Wan Road on the far right in the lower image.

The Champions - Stuart Damon (1967) - Star Ferry Pier, Central

In his reminiscences, Stirling recalls catching a rickshaw to Wanchai. The image we see is a rickshaw rank outside the old Star Ferry terminal in Central. The building in the background is Star House over in Tsim Sha Tsui. So at least we know the stock footage was contemporary for the show (Star House was completed in 1966).

The Champions - Stuart Damon (1967) - Bonham Strand East, Sheung Wan

More general shots of Hong Kong with this interesting image below showing what I believe to be the famous pharmacy owned and run by 唐拾義 Dr Tong Sap-yi (Tang Shi-yi) - a famous Western-educated Chinese doctor who introduced several medicines onto the Hong Kong market. My understanding is that this building was located on Bonham Strand East at the junction with Hillier Street. This image from Gwulo (it shows the two words of the good doctor's name on the right hand side) seems to confirm it was located where the Hillier Commercial Building now stands at #65-67. Funnily enough, Google Maps still has the pharmacy marked although the current business on the ground floor is a gold dealer. I would need to check in person but it could be the company still has offices there.

The Champions - Stuart Damon (1967) - Hennessy Road, Wanchai

Next up in our montage of Hong Kong establishing scenes is a view along Hennessy Road. This particular street corner is the junction with Marsh Road and you can see the same curved building in this earlier photo over on Gwulo.com. I'm still not sure when this library footage was shot but you can see that the adverts on the corner of the building were in place during the late 50s. Those with a bit of HK knowledge might be able to discern the old Tung Tak pawnshop building that was this side of the Marsh Road junction. You can see its old vertical blue sign on the left in both images below.

The Champions - Stuart Damon (1967) - Victoria Harbour

Next up is an episode of the 1967 British TV series, The Champions. It stars Stuart Damon, William Gaunt and Alexandra Bastedo as three secret agents bestowed with supernatural powers by mysterious ancient Tibetan tribe following a plane crash in the Tibetan mountains. They work for a secret service called Nemesis and undertake dangerous missions all around Elstree Studios...sorry, I mean the world.

In one episode, The Interrogation, originally broadcast in 1969, Craig Stirling (Stuart Damon) has been sent to Hong Kong for a mission but, following its successful conclusion, he is kidnapped and drugged and undergoes interrogation to find out the details of his mission. The Hong Kong footage, much like Jason King, utilises stock/library footage for the Hong Kong scenes as Stirling recalls what happened.

The opening Hong Kong shot is one of the harbour as seen from Kowloon-side. For your viewing pleasure I have also stitched the panning shot together using the very excellent Matt Brown coded, Autostitch. Click to zoom in.

Full Contact - Chow Yun Fat (1992) - Fleming Road, Wanchai

A final brief glimpse of Hong Kong's coolest modern film star driving his car south along Fleming Road with the Renaissance Harbour View Hotel in the background.

Full Contact - Chow Yun Fat (1992) - Hing Wai Ice and Cold Storage, Aberdeen

The ice factory where the guns are supposedly being stored is the Hing Wai Ice & Cold Storage facility in Aberdeen. As far as I am aware it's still there, right next to Aberdeen Harbour. It turns out the arms are in fact stored on a boat berthed right on the harbourside and so Jeff and Sam jump down and hijack it.

Full Contact - Chow Yun Fat (1992) - Harbour Drive, Wanchai

Following the shootout in the club with Judge (the famous one with the bullets striking in mid-air), Jeff, Sam and Mona escape in Jeff's car and drive down Harbour Drive from the direction of Gloucester Road.

The car is then also seen driving west along Harbour Road, right next to the junction with Harbour Drive.

Full Contact - Chow Yun Fat (1992) - Hart Avenue, Tsim Sha Tsui

Next up is one of Ringo Lam's most famous films, Full Contact, released in 1992 and starring Chow Yun Fat as (in some dubs) "Goofy". In the YT version I watched, he is called Jeff in the subs and "Gou Fei" in the dialogue.

Jeff is a gangster based in Bangkok and along with his friends, Chung (Chris Lee), Sam (Anthony Wong) and Mona (Anne Bridgewater) he involves himself in various lucrative plots. Sam gets in trouble with a loanshark - he borrowed money to pay for Jeff's mum's funeral - and Jeff has to free him but as a result makes an enemy of the loan shark. Sam's cousin, Judge (Simon Yam) is a ruthless, murderous gangster, but Sam suggests their gangs team up to do a heist that will earn them all big money. The heist is a disaster and unbeknownst to Jeff and his gang, the loan shark has asked Judge to kill Jeff afterwards. This all goes off in the first 37 minutes of the film and culminates with Jeff supposedly being killed by Sam on Judge's orders. The plot then moves to Hong Kong where Judge and his gang carry on their ruthless business.

Sadly, I haven't been able to get many locations out of this film largely due to most of the scenes being interiors - this means very few clues for me to work with beyond what appears in the film's credits. Nevertheless, there are a couple in here that are quite interesting including the very first HK scene, filmed at a real life bar in Tsim Sha Tsui.

The setting is "The Jouster 2" pub on Hart Avenue as the gang burst in and get the whereabouts of an arms shipment from another local gangster. They kill a few people before grenading the place and heading off to get the goods.

The scene starts with Judge sitting in a car scoping out the pub. As you can see the pub was located on the first couple of floor of Hart Avenue Court. The residential block is still there but the pub has long gone. There is currently a sports bar called AT-LUX occupying the same space.

I believe the railings were over the pub's "moat"

Faux stone interior, made to look like a real castle

This last images shows the opposite block with the Waltzing Matilda Arms