Sai Yeung Choi Street South - Now and Then

Following on from my recent post for The Angel Strikes Again, I thought I would take a quick trip down to the junction of Sai Yeung Choi Street South and Soy Street to try and grab a comparison photo. Bear in mind that this area in Mongkok is one of the busiest places in Kowloon these days, not just for people but also for traffic, and so getting an exact match of the angle seen in the screen capture was a bit of a faff.

The Hollywood Theatre, where much of this scene played out, was off camera to the right. It closed in 1980 and the building was demolished and replaced by the current one, Hollywood Plaza - HK loves to maintain names of older buildings for their newer replacements - was completed in 1984. You can see in the image below though that the new building has a similar square canopy over the pavement area. 

Tragic Hero - Chow Yun Fat (1987) - Green Jade / Tsing Bik Villa, Tuen Mun

As mentioned in my first post, this property is the main reason to include this film. This is Yung's palatial home and is the location of the film's finale as it gets completely obliterated by Chai and Kwok as they exact revenge on Yung and his men for killing all their family in Malacca. You can compare the images to how it looked in the 1960s for Kill a Dragon. As mentioned previously, the property was demolished almost immediately after filming was completed and the site was cleared to make way for the current "Bayview Terrace" residential development.

The old entrance way on Castle Peak Road

Tragic Hero - Chow Yun Fat (1987) - Queen's Pier, Central

This is one of the locations that Yung and Kwok's adoptive father goes to when he arrives back in Hong Kong from Malacca. Yung is having him followed by one of his goons so he knows whether or not his dad is on his side or Kwok's. My understanding is that the old structure - removed when reclamation started back in 2007 (after a delay due to the growing awareness of heritage protection in HK). The pier structure is supposed to be restored back to its original, although now landlocked, location in front of CIty Hall, but I haven't been there for a while so can't confirm whether or not it has been done. I'll confirm later.

Tragic Hero - Chow Yun Fat (1987) - Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

Following his return from Malacca, Chai makes a call to Inspector Cheung (Danny Lee) telling him his plan to take out Yung so that Cheung can take all the credit. He makes his call from a phone box located on Nathan Road opposite the Peninsula Hotel. It looks to me like a prop because in one shot the phone box is facing the hotel on the other side of the road, and then in the next it has turned at an angle so that we can see the end of the hotel building facing Salisbury Road.

Notice in the top image how the left arched window aperture is missing the molding from its keystone? That has since been replaced and the rectangular hole next to it has been filled in. As you can see, most of the things I notice in these images are of no interest to anyone...

No doubt the Google location marker will have jumped to a nearby building, but to be clear, this is on the south east corner of the Nathan/Middle Road junction.

Tragic Hero - Chow Yun Fat (1987) - Shaw Bros Dormitories, Clearwater Bay

The exterior scenes of the police station where Chai's wife, Po (Carina Lau), is being held were filmed at the old Shaw dormitories next to Movietown. The interior scenes were shot somewhere else though (looks like a real, but old station - yet to be determined).

Tragic Hero - Chow Yun Fat (1987) - Sun Wong Toi Road, Kowloon

Kwok heads back to Malacca after arriving in Hong Kong to plead with Yung to end his quarrel with Chai. Not much of a scene other than a view of his car supposedly driving towards the airport along Sung Wong Toi Road.

Tragic Hero - Chow Yun Fat (1987) - Fu Uk Tung Kei Joint Garden, Tai Chung Hau Village

Following the execution of Big Eye, Chai calls a meeting with all the disparate groups of triads to work out a plan to deal with Yung. However, they have all been set up and the police raid the meeting, kill a couple of the gangsters and to save his brothers, Chai gives himself up to the police and takes all their guns with him.

This was filmed at a small horticultural co-operative in Sai Kung called Fu Uk Tung Kei Joint Garden (富屋東記組合花園). It's still marked on some maps as being located right next to the junction of Tau Chung Hau Road and Hiram's Highway. It may have moved around a bit over the years, I have no idea, but at least one of the angles matches the ridgeline in the top image below.

Tragic Hero - Chow Yun Fat (1987) - Lower Shing Mun Reservoir Main Dam

Chai discovers that A-lok's death was the result of him being double-crossed by Big Eye (Lam Chung) so he takes the latter to a secluded place to confront him. The location is on top of the dam wall at the lower Shing Mun Reservoir in Tai Wai. I located this one quite quickly because it was one of the places I used to ride to on my motorbike a few years back. The building in the background of the third image is part of the Fu Shan Crematorium. You can see it in my own image at the bottom (taken 2017).

Tragic Hero - Chow Yun Fat (1987) - Silvercord Centre, Canton Road

A-lok (Shing Fui-on) decides to take matters into his own hands and plots to assassinate Yung by pretending to be a window washer. He takes the gondola down to Yung's office floor but someone has already ratted him out and he is shot to death through the window. This scene was shot dangling from Tower 1 of the Silvercord Centre on Canton Road with the Wharf T&T Centre directly behind.

Tragic Hero - Chow Yun Fat (1987) - Chi Lok Villa, Tuen Mun

Boss Chu's house is Chi Lok Villa, a famous mansion that was demolished a few years back to make way for the current "South Crest" developemnt. You can see some images of it here because it also featured as Chor Yuen's house in Police Story 2. We don't get to see much of it in this film because the camera is inside filming out onto the driveway. This is where Yung puts in his attack plan and finally kills Boss Chu during a dinner party.

Tragic Hero - Chow Yun Fat (1987) - Tip Choi Villa, Barbecue Gardens

As in the first film, Chai's luxury family home is located in a 1960s era housing estate along Castle Peak Road called Barbecue Gardens. Apparently it was quite famous for having lots of stars living there in the 1960s. These days a few of the original houses remain. Chai's house, as can be seen here in Rich and Famous, was Tip Choi Villa at #11. The house is still around but I have no idea who owns it or lives there.

Tragic Hero - Chow Yun Fat (1987) - Clearwater Bay Country Club

Chai meets his former rival gang boss, Boss Chu, at the Clearwater Bay Country Club to discuss how to deal with the increasingly unhinged and belligerent Yung. The two former rivals now being friends and business partners.

Tragic Hero - Chow Yun Fat (1987) - Stanley Military Cemetery

Tragic Hero is the sequel to Rich and Famous that was, for some reason, released before the movie it was supposed to follow. I understand that both movies were filmed at the same time in 1986 but a decision was made to release the second movie first, and so Rich and Famous became a prequel instead.

The movie follows the continuing saga of two adopted brothers, Yung (Alex Man) and Kwok (Andy Lau) and their old triad boss, Chai (Chow Yun Fat). Rich and Famous shows the rise of Yung as an unhinged wannabe gangster, whereas this movie has him established as one of the head guys within a rival triad run by Boss Chu (Ko Chun Hsiung).

I should mention, in case you haven't read the posts for the other film, that this movie came to my attention following a post on Gwulo where someone had posted an image of Tsing Bik Villa (aka Green Jade) - a mansion that featured extensively in Kill a Dragon. In the image it was painted blue and blown up for a movie production and then subsequently demolished for redevelopment. The film involved was finally identified (with the help of regular commentor, Rodney) as this one and you can now see for yourself because it is still currently available on Youtube (until it isn't).

The film begins with a funeral scene for another one of the triads bosses where everyone attends to show their respects. This was filmed at Stanley Military Cemetery, no attempts made to hide its name or the distinctive shape of the Commonwealth military grave stones.

The Angel Strikes Again - Lily Ho (1968) - Anderson Road Quarry

The gang's secret hideout is hidden behind a quarry wall and hidden by a secret door. In this case we can see it is the Anderson Road quarry, although in the 1960s it still consisted of several smaller quarry faces.

We know we're here because of the views to to background behind the actors. In the top image, as the guy is about to blow up the secret door, we can see the north side of Hong Kong Island behind him. In the second image of 009 and the local police detective, that ridge in the background is Black Hill. You can walk along there on Stage 3 of the Wilson Trail if you ever feel the urge.

Looking at old maps, it looks as though the quarry face where this was filmed was located at what is now immediately east of On Kin Road near On Sing House.

The Angel Strikes Again - Lily Ho (1968) - Port Shelter, Sai Kung

The gang is blackmailing a local airline to the tune of 5M dollars (insert Dr Evil meme) and have instructed them to put the money into the water in Port Shelter. The police follow the money in a local junk to try and capture the extortionists but it turns out they have been duped as the gang collect it from underwater using scuba gear.

Most of this sequence appears to have been filmed in the bit of water between Sharp Island (seen from the east in the first image) and Kau Sai Chau.