Hong Kong Godfather - Leung Kar-yan (1985) - Wholesale Fruit Market, Waterloo Road

The planned attack on the rival gang goes awry when a pre-emptive attack by them takes place as Han's gang are getting ready. I haven't been able to work out where the main attack occurs - it's obviously a warehouse in the NT somewhere but has been edited to imply it is adjacent/nearby - but the subsequent aftermath of Playboy Lung being chased takes us to the Yau Ma Tei Wholesale Fruit Market as he struggles to escape multiple machete wielding attackers. The fight continues through the narrow lanes of the fruit stalls before spilling over onto Waterloo Road as he tries to escape. Believe it or not but this kind of stuff still goes on in Hong Kong today.

Hong Kong Godfather - Leung Kar-yan (1985) - site of Chinachem Golden Plaza, East TST

The intimidation and sabotage continues as Lan's men set fire to cars parked in a carpark owned and run by Han's gang.

This car park was located where Chinachem Golden Plaza now stands. What you are looking at is the carpark with Science Museum Road behind and beyond that a development that was called Pak Sui Yuen (百粹苑). This development was a residential tower for staff at the nearby Hong Kong Polytechnic (now PolyU). It was demolished circa 2007 to make way for the PolyU's teaching hotel, Hotel Icon.

Chinachem Golden Plaza was opened around 1988, so it probably started construction not long after this film was made.

Hong Kong Godfather - Leung Kar-yan (1985) - Club Paris, Hilton Towers

Following the confrontation at the party, Lan decides to go all out and wreck Han's gang's businesses. One of his first acts is to release snakes into one of their night clubs. The club in question is "Club Paris" located in Hilton Towers in East TST. The establishing shot below shows us the view from the "Centenery Garden" circular fountain looking towards the corner of Hilton Towers where the club was located, with Autoplaza in the distance.

I believe this place closed down around the same time as Club BBoss, although in a strange twist of fate, that latter place has recently reopened under the new name of  Big Boss Generation.

Hong Kong Godfather - Leung Kar-yan (1985) - Canton Road,Tsim Sha Tsui

The establishing shot for the restaurant/party scene where the two gang bosses meet up and argue was shot along Canton Road. Unfortunately it doesn't help me nartrow down the venue so that will remain a mystery for the time being (see my help page). Ocean Star restaurant is mentioned in the credits and so is a possibility but I'm not sure right now.

Hong Kong Godfather - Leung Kar-yan (1985) - 16 Watford Road, The Peak

The rival gang leader, Jiaxi Lan (Wong Chun), just arrived from the US to put his stamp on Hong Kong, lives in a large luxury house complete with garden pagoda, swimming pool and naked women splashing around in it. This property is located at #16 Watford Road on the south side of The Peak. It looks pretty much the same today, although the orange roof tiles have been removed and the current owner is happy with the white-washed concrete look.

Hong Kong Godfather - Leung Kar-yan (1985) - Auto Plaza, East Tsim Sha Tsui

Following his altercation with the minibus driver and bumping into Mad Wei (Leung Kar-yan) who was a passenger on the bus, Playboy Lung drives them both to Auto Plaza where they meet up wth Sergeant Lam (Cheung Kuen) a fellow gang member who is also a policeman. This scene was filmed on the open, lower section of the carpark.

Hong Kong Godfather - Leung Kar-yan (1985) - Science Museum Square, East Tsim Sha Tsui

This is where Playboy Lung (Norman Tsui) gets into a fight with a minibus driver.

Hong Kong Godfather - Leung Kar-yan (1985) - View over East Tsim Sha Tsui

The next film up is the absolutely batshit crazy Hong Kong Godfather, the 1985 one directed by none other than Johnny Wang Lung-wei. It's Chinese name is 尖東梟雄 (tsim1 dung1 hiu1 hung4) which helps to differentiate it from the 1991 Golden Princess film of the same name.

This film centres around an avuncular triad boss, Han (played by Shek Kin and perhaps riffing off his character name from Enter the Dragon), and his various enforcers, Playboy Lung (Norman Tsui), Sergeant Lam (Cheung Kuen), Rotten Chi (Shum Wai) and finally, the now retired-from-gang-life, Mad Wei (Leung Kar-yan). Rotten Chi basically lives up to his nickname and feels hard done by compared to the others and agrees to work for a rival gang to bring down Boss Han and help the new gang take over East Tsim Sha Tsui. The story follows Chi's inept attempts at taking down his rivals, and starting a gang war that ends with the three sworn brothers storming the HQ of the rival gang in one of the most intense and gory action sequences I have seen in a long time. John Woo has his "Bullet Ballet"and Johnny Wang Lung-wei establishes himself in this film as the king of "Machete Mayhem". The last 10 minutes or so of the film is just utterly relentless. Anyway, if you fancy a watch, someone uploaded it to the Internet Archive (i.e. it's downloadable).

The film opens (and ends) with a nice view across to East TST (where much of the action takes place). This is the view taken from the roof of Chevalier House on the west side of Chatham Road South. The long ornamental pool is part of the former Urban Council Centenary Garden that readers of my old, now defunct, history-based blog will know features columns from the old Kowloon train terminus. Auto-plaza is on the right and Inter-Continental Plaza is on the left. Both feature in the film.

The Scavengers - Vince Edwards (1958) - Peking Restaurant, East Point Road

Sometimes little facts pop up in my comments that lead to an identification months, or even years later. A good case in point is this following screencap of the Peking Restaurant. I can't remember the context from the film but this shot was an establishing shot for part of the sequence where Stuart is trying to track down his estranged wife. You can just make out the road sign on the side of the building and it looks like it says "?? Point Rd". As far as I know there are only two road with the word "point" in their name: East Point Road in Causeway Bay and North Point Road in...erm North Point.

Well, going back over old posts I recalled that fellow Gwulo'er "C" (who I met for the first time in person last year btw) had commeneted on one of my old posts showing some buildings in and around Yee Wo Street. Here is the post from Heisser Hafen Hongkong (aka Secrets of Buddha). But TL:DR, here is his pertinent comment:

There was a restaurant called Peking Restaurant (東興樓, pronounced Tung Hing Lau) on the ground floor of Hop Kwan Building men's hostel (not sure if it is the official English name; Chinese name is 合羣大厦男子公寓).

Well, it seems as though this is the restaurant in the screencap. You can see the English name in neon above the door, but more eagle-eyed (and perhaps Chinese literate) peeps will notice that in Chinese writing on the door lintel is three Chinese words that look very much like (reading r-l) 樓興東 i,e, Tung Hing Lau as described by C in his comment.

So, East Point Road it is and this is obviously the ground floor of the Hop Kwan Building. According to T in that same post, the current building, the Island Centre, was constructed in 1984 so I guess this building must have disappeared a few years before that. I don't know how long the restaurant was around for.

The Scavengers - Vince Edwards (1958) - Stubbs Road Lookout

We've had several productions film up around here over the years but I think 1958 may be the earliest yet. This is where Allison arranges to meet his wife in an attempt to get her away from the hotel so O'Hara (Vic Diaz) can try to search her hotel room for the stolen bonds. Rather than the concreted terrace that the lookout now is, back in the 50s (and as late as the 60s according to these screencaps) the lookout was more like a natural grassy clearance with some trees dotted around. Remember, in Hong Kong the solution to most problems that don't exist, is to pour more concrete.

I've also managed to stitch some of these frames together (with the help of Autostitch) for a nice view that gives a better sense of the area. Click in the image for a closer view.