Tuesday, February 10, 2026

The Young Rebel - David Chiang (1975) - 20 Kent Road, Kowloon Tong

Yet another Kowloon Tong location and this one with a bit of intriguing history behind it. The headquarters of the opposing gang is located at 20 Kent Road in Kowloon Tong. Xiao Rong is sent there by his boss to kill their boss. Failure to comply resulting in the death of his mum and sister. So he heads there on his motorbike. This one took a bit of locating because the property and it surroundings have changed significantly over the years. But there are a couple of clues that have helped lead to the identification. The first is the garden wall in the background of the first shot, behind the bike. This section of the wall doesn't exist anymore but there remains a section of it a little further up, belonging to #27 Kent Road.

The second clue comes from the background in the other direction. As Xiao Rong enters and leaves the property, we catch a glimpse of the roof of a property behind. It's quite a distinctive roof and, thankfully, is still around today. It belongs to the former "Air House" located at 1a Cornwall Street (the same building that was captured on camera in this post).

Sadly the property at #20 has changed significantly over the years and it was just recently demolished and completely rebuilt into a new building. What's interesting about this place, and you may already know this if you ever read my old, now deleted, history blog, is that it was the private house of infamous heroin kingpin, Ng Sik-ho aka "Limpy Ho".

Coincidentally (or not), Ho was convicted for his crimes in 1975, the same year this film was made, so it's quite possible the house was available for filming once it had been examined by the people investigating his crime. I have no idea who owned it at the time. In a later incarnation it was turned into a "Love Motel" (called the Kent Motel, I think?, the Chinese name was 根德小築) much in the same way as Bruce Lee's old house was. The owner basically filled in all the open spaces of the property (that can be seen in the screecaps) and turned it into a big rectangular block with maximum interior space (for max profits/usage) and operated it until around the time that COVID hit. Following its closure the building was demolished and redeveloped.

The house at the rear is 1a Cornwall Street

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