Tai Po Market KCR Station - Now and Then

I recently took a trip back to Tai Po, my former home of six years when I first moved to Hong Kong, and coincidentally the very first place I ever stayed when I first visited Hong Kong back in November 1995. One of the best places of interest in Tai Po is the Railway Museum, based in what is the former Tai Po Market KCR station.

Sadly, the days of cows wandering around in the background are long gone, but it's a good example of how over-developed Hong Kong has become.

Ballad of a Small Player - Colin Farrell (2025) - Rio Hotel Casino, Macau

Another spot from TST Dave, this one is quite brief and I had totally missed it so hats off to Dave for persevering on this one. It's definitely a tricky one to spot. The top image shows Lord Doyle riding an escalator down to a lower floor during his initial boit of gambling. Dave was able to match the ceiling decoration in the background to confirm it was the Rio Hotel Casino. This is the same location that Doyle is first spotted by Dao-ming and the same place he returns to following his return to Macau after convalescing in Hong Kong, so it's a fairly major location I had missed out. Thanks Dave.

Ballad of a Small Player - Colin Farrell (2025) - Sands Casino Hotel, Macau

Here are a couple of extra locations for Ballad of a Small Player courtesy of TST Dave. So many thanks to Dave. The first one is a brief view of the Sands, identifiable by the crescent-shaped light fittings that cover the gaming floor. If you have a decent enough memory you may recall I had identified this a while back for Now You See Me 2, but I had neglected to include it this time around.

She Shoots Straight - Joyce Godenzi (1990) - Lam Tei Quarry

The film finale takes place in a quarry as Mina chases Yuen Hua and Yuen Ying away from the waterfront on a police motorcycle. The brother crashes and is killed so it's left to his sister to fight Mina mano a mano. This is actually quite a good fight and you can see Godenzi throwing down with some slick moves - no wonder Sammo made a move...Anyway, it looks as though this was filmed at Lam Tei quarry.

Yip Man's Grave, Fanling

Continuing the process of resurrecting my film- and Bruce Lee-related posts from my old, deleted history blog, here is a post I originally made back in 2011 about how to visit Yip Man's grave in Fanling. It's been a while since I made the effort to go (I think my last trip was around 2014?) but I don't believe very much has changed since then.

Yip Man has been very much in the public eye over the past decade or so thanks to the rather large number (relatively speaking) of films that have been made about him, including four with Donnie Yen, two with Dennis To, an effort from Wong Kar Wai starring Tony Leung, a mainland Chinese TV series, another film with Anthony Wong, and a plethora of cheap and quick cynical cash-ins from mainland China. First we had Brucesploitation and now we have Yip Mansploitation. If you're curious about whether the old master is spinning in his grave about all this, you can now go and check.

This photo is on Yip’s grave stone

She Shoots Straight - Joyce Godenzi (1990) - Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Kowloon

Mina takes the brunt of the explosion at the grave site and is rushed to Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

She Shoots Straight - Joyce Godenzi (1990) - Sai Wan Military Cemetery

Bo (Tony Leung) is laid to rest at the Sai Wan War Cemetery. In reality, when a civil servant dies in the line of duty, they get to be buried at Gallant Garden in Wo Hop Shek. Mina spots the Viet gang boss just prior to him blowing up a bomb on the grave.

She Shoots Straight - Joyce Godenzi (1990) - Wu Kau Tang, North District

On my burnt-in subtitle version of this film, the place the Vietnamese gang lure the police to is called "Wu Gao Tam Park", but in reality it is usually referred to as "Wu Kau Tang" - a cluster of old villages just north of Tai Po and Plover Cove Reservoir. Ling arrives first to meet the "informant" and parks her car in the car park.

She Shoots Straight - Joyce Godenzi (1990) - Hong Kong University Main Building

The interiors of the police station were filmed in the old main building of Hong Kong University. This isn't the first time it has been used as a police station (reminder: To Be Number One).

She Shoots Straight - Joyce Godenzi (1990) - Club BBoss, East TST

The establishing shot for the night club raid used a shot of the entrance of what was to become Club BBoss. The venue has had an interesing history over the years. Originally called "Club Volvo" (it can be seen in this form in Blade in Hong Kong), however, Volvo (the car company) found out and proceeded to sue the owners. Volvo won and the club owners agreed to change the club name to "Club Borubo" (Borubo was the Japanese pronunciation of "Volvo"). This occurred sometime around 1990 - and it's possibly this form of the club that can be seen in the images below.

The neon lights on the exterior in the shots below are significantly more extravagant than when the club was "Volvo", and even when it was "BBoss". If you look carefully though you can see the original neon signage behind the front section. So, a question for TST experts - was this the signage for when it was Club Borubo, or is this a prop stuck on the front for the film?

Anyway, the club became Club BBoss in the 90s and stayed that way until it closed down around ten years ago (as I write in 2026). It was recently reinvented and reopened as "Club Big Boss Generation" at the same venue, but I believe this life was short-lived and it closed down again within 2 months due to investor in-fighting.

She Shoots Straight - Joyce Godenzi (1990) - Former Marine Police HQ

The police HQ in this film is the former Marine Police HQ in Tsim Sha Tsui. These days it is a boutique hotel. It's current name is FWD House 1881, but this is its thrid name since being reopened about 10 years ago. The building in the background is the Langham, but the view is now obscured by "One Peking". The interiors of the police station were anopther location though.

She Shoots Straight - Joyce Godenzi (1990) - Fenwick Pier Street, Wanchai

Mina grabs a motorcycle and continues the chase along Fenwick Pier Street. You can see the side of the Grand Hyatt Hotel in the background. The lower three images are from the end of the car chase as the baddies crash. this last bit was filmed closer to the hotel. That area used to be an intersection but has since been turned into a roundabout.

She Shoots Straight - Joyce Godenzi (1990) - Lung King Street, Wanchai

The bad guys stop their car and turn to shoot a truck at the side of the road, which explodes and creates a huge fireball through which Mina rides the motorcycle. This was filmed along Lung King Street. There used to be a sewage screening plant here (that's the low white wall you can see at the side of the road), which itself has been used as a filming location, but has been subsequently demolished. The road has also undergone some realignment following the last round of reclamation and the creation of the Central/Wanchai Bypass.

She Shoots Straight - Joyce Godenzi (1990) - Hung Hing Road, Wanchai

Quite a few shots from the subsequent car chase were shot along Hung Hing Road next to the Cross Harbour Tunnel Entrance. The order of the images below is the same as the order in the film. You can see the concrete lattice roof of the tunnel entrance in the background of the second and third images.

She Shoots Straight - Joyce Godenzi (1990) - Harbour Road Pedestrian Bridge

Following the princess's kidnapping, Mina runs to the pedestrian bridge that crosses Harbour Road and takes a few shots at it before jumping onto some nearby advertising banners. Here's the current view of the middle image.

She Shoots Straight - Joyce Godenzi (1990) - Grand Hyatt Hotel, Wanchai

The destination of the entourage is the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Wanchai. I just posted about this hotel a few weeks back for Ballad of a Small Player.

She Shoots Straight - Joyce Godenzi (1990) - HMS Tamar

The first mission we see that the police group assigned to is the protection of a foreign (Arab?) princess who is attending a fashion show. The entourage starts the journey to the show from inside the HMS Tamar compund and exits via the main gates leading onto Edinburgh Place. This area is now the PLA Central Barracks.

She Shoots Straight - Joyce Godenzi (1990) - St Margaret Mary's Church, Happy Valley

The next film is another local one, this time from 1990, She Shoots Straight starring Joyce Godenzi (the future Mrs Sammo Hung) as Police Inspector Mina Kao (Mina is Godenzi's real middle name) who marries into a police family and faces a little bit of push back from her husband's younger sister, Ling (Carina Lau), because of her mixed-race (Godenzi is Eurasian in real-life). A Vietnamese gang, led by Yuen Wah, is running rampant in Hong Kong and following an incident at a nightclub where one of them is killed, they take revenge on the police by killing Kao's husband, Bo (Tony Leung Ka-fai). All bets are off as Kao and Ling put aside their conflict and join together to take revenge on the gang.

The film starts with their wedding which was shot at the St Margaret Mary's Church in Happy Valley, it's the same location that we saw in Rich and Famous a couple of years back.

The Young Rebel - David Chiang (1975) - Kwun Tong Police Station

It all ends at the police station as Gen Lai takes Xiao Rong in for all the naughty stuff he's been doing. Once again, it's a Shaw movie so it must be Kwun Tong Police Station.