North Kowloon Magistracy - Now and Then

I used to live in the area and was always walking past this rather magnificent building on the way to and from Shek Kip Mei. Before moving apartments I made an effort to actually stop and try to capture some comparisons with some of the screencaps I took from Donnie Yen's excellent Flash Point. He may not be the world's best actor but Donnie has been and still remains, even in his 60s, one of Hong Kong's foremost action movie stars. I for one am looking forward to John Wick: Caine (currently filming in Hong Kong as I write this in August 2026 - along with Henry Cavill's Highlander reboot, apparently).

The North Kowloon Magistracy building was constructed in 1960 and served as the main courtroom for most of Kowloon - particularly following the closure/repurposing of the South Kowloon Magistracy on Gascoigne Road which now serves as the Lands Tribunal. For several years the building was leased to the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) but that rather useful repurposing came to a shuddering halt following the imposition of strict Covid regulations in 2020. Other than a bit of a touch-up the following year - mainly to remove the SCAD sign from above the main entrance - the building appears to have just been sitting empty for the past 6 years. It's such a shame because it's a great building, but I suspect the internal layout and location might make it difficult to repurpose as anything other than some sort of adult education centre.

If you have seen Flash Point, you will know that the main antagonist, Archer (Ray Lui), goes to court after being caught by the police. He has to surrender his travel documents but otherwise can go free.

Double Dhamaal - Sanjay Dutt (2011) - View from Ponte Governador Nobre de Carvalho

Some more digital manipulation in the final scenes of this movie as the gang are chased along a road by the local gangsters. The problem with this scene is that the view in the background looks real enough, it has recognisable buildings, but has actually been digitally superimposed onto the background. How do I know this? Because the view has been inadvertantly reversed. The background view shows a mirror image of the view when you travel along the Ponte Governador Nobre de Carvalho looking towards the Macau mainland. So I assume this last sequence was shot back in India and touched up later.

Double Dhamaal - Sanjay Dutt (2011) - Cemitério Hau Si, Taipa

Kabir has a meeting with local gangster Johnny Bonzela. This was filmed in the Cemitério Hau Si, located on the north side of Tai Pa (former) Island.

Double Dhamaal - Sanjay Dutt (2011) - St Paul's Facade, Macau

The wedding scene was shot in front of Macau's most famous historical landmark.

Double Dhamaal - Sanjay Dutt (2011) - Aberdeen Marina

The next con the gang try to do is to pretend one of them is a rich investor who rocks up to the casino and demands the valet park his boat. The shot we are shown is a view across the marina next to the Aberdeen Marina Club - most likely shot from the Shum Wan Pier Drive area where the floating casino pontoons were located - and not, as the editing tries to convince us, outside the casino in Macau. 

Double Dhamaal - Sanjay Dutt (2011) - Fisherman's Wharf, Macau

It's been years since I visited here - they still had the fake volcano on my last visit circa 2006/7 (it has since been replaced by another hotel casino - Hotel Legend Palace). The last images were taken outside the Rocks Hotel which is located at the far end of the development. The development has been seen twice on the blog previously.

Double Dhamaal - Sanjay Dutt (2011) - Lai Chi Kok Park, Kowloon

The four men formulate a plan to win over the heart of Kabir's wife by pretending to save her from an escaped gorilla. Yes, as you can imagine the fake gorilla they were supposed to confront and rescue her from ended up being replaced by a real one. Supposedly still in Macau, this was filmed at Lai Chi Kok Park next to the Mei Foo estate. The park is quite nice if you ever get the chance to go. These scenes were filmed inside the Chinese garden section.

Double Dhamaal - Sanjay Dutt (2011) - Praça de Ferreira do Amaral, Macau

The four men meet at the Praça de Ferreira do Amaral to formulate their dastardly plans. Even though the infamous statue has been removed (at the request of the Chinese authorities prior to the Macau Handover) the man's name remains in place. If you're not sure what I'm talking about, see this post about the Ferreira do Amaral statue, now located in Lisbon.

City on Fire - Chow Yun Fat (1987) - Wo Heung Street, Fo Tan

The mystery of the triple-location heist sequence is finally solved. Readers of my City on Fire posts will know that the initial heist scene where the gang hold up a jewellers, was filmed in at least two locations. The building they rob is located in the Yau Tong Industrial Area. It's the Chung Pak Commercial Building - I think it's still there but it's been a while since I checked. The subsequent shootout was filmed a fair distance away on Wo Shui Street in Fo Tan. However, there was a third location that I wasn't sure about and we see it as the gang make their getaway as the cops shoot at them.

It turns out I should have just looked around the corner on Wo Heung Street. The shot shows a CLP Electricity Substation on the right hand side as the cars speed off. This is the Fo Tan Substation located on the corner of Wo Heung Street and Wo Shing Street. Here's the reminder.

If you want to see what it looks like now, here is the Streetview. Anyway, as you can see I do endeavour to track these things down, even if it takes me a few years...

Double Dhamaal - Sanjay Dutt (2011) - The Venetian

Kabir's casino is called "The Four Jokers", no doubt an in-film joke referring to our trusty conmen. However, the exterior of the casino features a bit of digital mainpulation. Other than having the fake name emblazoned down the side, one of the fake buildings on the hotel exterior has been extended three times its real height. This same fake building - the yellow one we see in the close up - is used in the film as the location of Kabir's office and is used in a gag later when someone dives out of the window into the water below. In case my explanation isn't clear, GoogleEarth has some imagery from a while back.

Double Dhamaal - Sanjay Dutt (2011) - Various Casino Signs, Macau

In Macau again and we are treated to some of the bright lights that front the casinos. The initial shot is of the Grand Lisboa but we also see some of the older Lisboa Hotel/Casino as well as the Rio and Pharaoh's Palace. We saw the Rio recently in Ballad of a Small Player. It's on Rua de Luis Gonzaga Gomes. My understanding (from TST Dave), is that most of the smaller "satellite" casinos, such as the Rio, have been forced to close due to recent changes in Macau's gambling laws. The hotel side of these businesses continue to operate. The Pharaoh's Palace Casino is located inside the Landmark Hotel on Fisherman's Wharf (there's a later post for that location).

View of the old/new Lisboas

Grand Lisboa

Rio

Pharaoh's Palace

Double Dhamaal - Sanjay Dutt (2011) - Central Piers, Hong Kong

Back to Hong Kong as the four discuss their plans to trick Kabir as they vent and fume at the public piers next to Central Piers. From the images it looks like they are standing next to Pier 9 with Pier 10 in the background.

Double Dhamaal - Sanjay Dutt (2011) - Galaxy Hotel, Cotai Strip

Kabir's casino looks suspiciously like the Galaxy Hotel on the Cotai Strip. This scene is an example of the merging of Hong Kong and Macau. In the film, the four conmen turn away from the harbour where they have just crawled out of the water and see Kabir arriving nearby in a stretch limousine. Of course, in reality the limousine was filmed pulling into the main entrance of the Galaxy, not in Hong Kong at all. This scene reminds me a little bit of Mr Hercules Against Karate which features a scene - supposedly in a single location - that was filmed at both Sydney Opera House and Hong Kong's Victoria Peak.

Double Dhamaal - Sanjay Dutt (2011) - Hong Kong Exhibition Centre, Wanchai

After jumping from the boat to escape the police, the four men reach the waterfront next to the Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Double Dhamaal - Sanjay Dutt (2011) - Victoria Harbour

This next movie, Double Dhamaal, is a Hindi language Indian comedy movie (and sequel to 2007's Dhamaal) about four conmen (played by Ritesh Deshmukh, Arshad Warsi, Aashish Chaudhary, and Javed Jaffrey) who try to con Kabir (Sanjay Dutt) out of his fortune. About half of the film appears to be set in India, but when Kabir absconds with some ill-gotten gains, he flees to Macau where he has just bought one of the casinos. "Macau" is a mixture of both Macau proper and a few shots in and around Hong Kong.

As an illustration, the first scene in "Macau" is actually Victoria Harbour where the four conmen are riding on a junk.

Kent Road Garden - Now and Then

The Kowloon Tong Estate is littered with small parks and rest areas and one of those quite familiar to me is Kent Road Garden. I spent a good few years living nearby and walking past here quite a lot on the way to Festival Walk.

You may remember a few months ago it was one of the locations seen in The Taxi Driver, so here are some modern day comparisons. You can't see it now because of the small tree in the way, but the circular canopy/pavilion is still in the park. It now has benches underneath it.

Most of the older, original houses of the Kowloon Tong Estate have long since been redeveloped along with their perimeter walls. It looks like the garden was much greener back in the 1970s. It's green now, but not green enough to cover the big ugly modern house in the background.

This image below may show one of the only remaining old walls. This wall belongs to #27 Kent Road, which is one of the original European-style villas that still survives virtually unchanged since it was first built - almost 100 years ago!