The Taxi Driver - David Chiang (1975) - Shek Kip Mei Estate

This next shot, also part of the opening sequence, is a shot between several of the Shek Kip Mei Resttlement Estate blocks. I can even tell you exactly which ones because there is a key location in these images that still exists. At the far distance is a building with what looks to elongated window apertures. They're not windows in fact but just the concrete patterns on the side of St Thomas' Church on Berwick Street. This means we are looking down the gap between Blocks 7,8,9 and 10 of the old estate. This same gap these days is now blocked at either end by newer (circa 80s) buildings.

l-r Block 8, Block 7

St Thomas's Church in the far centre

l-r Block 9, Block 10

The Taxi Driver - David Chiang (1975) - View of Northern Kowloon

I've been waiting a while for the Celestial Shaw Youtube channel to upload this because it was one of the first "local" films I covered on my blog many years ago. Sadly, at the time I only had a VCD version and those things are not very good for decent screen captures. Also, it was at a time when I decided to concentrate on foreign movies only and so, regrettably in hindsight, the posts were deleted (along with some for Shaolin Temple I think).

Well, now that local films are becoming the bread and butter of the blog, it's nice to be able to look at this movie again and perhaps get some locations that I missed the first time around.

The film centres around Chen Guang (David Chiang) a humble taxi driver who is just an honest guy wanting to make some money so he can marry his girlfriend, Lai-ching (Lin Chen-chi). The film has a variety of small stories about the shenanigans that drivers and their passengers get up to, but the main story is how some criminals have decided to rob a bank and intend to kidnap Chen Guang and make him drive his taxi as their getaway vehicle.

The film starts with some scenic establishing shots of various points around the territory. This initial image is a view looking east across northern Kowloon's shanty villages. The "higher" rise on the far left is the old Shatin Pass Estate. The estate it still around but those old buildings have been replaced by taller ones. The other high rise on the right is the Manning Theatre building on Yuk Wah Street. Back then it was the tallest building, these days it's just a baby compared to how the area now looks. The squatter huts between them and the camera correspond to what is now largely the Chuk Yuen Estate and Ma Chai Hang.

Hong Kong 73 - Yueh Hua (1974) - Hollywood Road, Sheung Wan

The last location from this film is Hollywood Road in front of Man Mo Temple as Chan's father returns home from work and learns that his neighbour has committed suicide by jumping off a building. He was a stock broker and suffered a huge loss when he mistakenly bought fake shares. It's one of the weirder subplots for a "comedy" but I guess satire comes in manay forms. Anyway, the scene shows a red minibus driving along Hollywood Road and stopping outside the temple where Mr Chan alights.

Hong Kong 73 - Yueh Hua (1974) - Statue Square, Central

While Chan's dad and his buddy are walking around town they come across what looks to be a share certificate, only to realise it is fake. Sadly, this is another of the issues that apparently faced investors in the early 1970s. This takes place in Statue Square as you can tell by the concrete canopy. The place is currently undergoing some "renovation" due to the nearby Central Yards development. Who knows what it will look like afterwards. Watch this space.

Hong Kong 73 - Yueh Hua (1974) - Castle Peak Hospital, Tuen Mun

Opened in 1961 as Hong Kong's main psychiatric hospital, it replaced the old one on Eastern Street (you will remember it from this) which was repurposed as an outpatient clinic. The hospital is still around on the same site, but has been extensively redeveloped into a much larger facility. The one we see below was quite small. One thing to note though is that despite all the change, the hospital still uses its original engraved name stone with its Chinese name (青山醫院). You can compare the name stone image below with the same one that currently sits outside the main entrance.

Hong Kong 73 - Yueh Hua (1974) - Carnarvon Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

A general shot from the film (I don't remember the context) that shows a very famous junction between Carnarvon Road and Granville Road in Tsim Sha Tsui. The Kaiser Restaurant was a long standing eatery here (between 1955 - 1977) on the NE corner of the junction. The building it was on was demolished soon after and replaced by the current Taurus Buildingh. However, on the oppiste corner, containing "Heung Bun" (on the right) is one of the buildings still around. Granville Road itself has one of the greatest concentrations of 50s era tenements along both sides of the road. However, they arec all slowly being replaced one by one. 

Hong Kong 73 - Yueh Hua (1974) - Monmouth Terrace, Kennedy Road

Chan goes to find his car after the friends borrowed it and turns up to find it is a wreck and about to get a ticket. This scene was filmed on the service/petrol station layby off Kennedy Road where Monmouth Terrace stands. The structure with the windows on the right of the top image is still there and is the service station building. Behind the policemen is a road sign that says "Monmouth Path". The path starts just behind them and goes down to Star Street area in Wanchai.

Hong Kong 73 - Yueh Hua (1974) - High Street, Sai Ying Pun

 When the whole group goes to the police station to report afew issues, Chan parks his car outside but is called back out to remove his car as it's illegally parked. He then discovers his headlights have been stolen and gets a ticket for driving with no lights. This whole scene was filmed outside the old No.8 police station on High Street and you can see the old psychiatric hospital building, of which the facade still remains, as Chan drives down the street to park again around the corner on Eastern Street.

Hong Kong 73 - Yueh Hua (1974) - View from Hotel Lisboa

The group are staying at a hotel and return to their room after hitting it big. I can't say for sure if the room is real or a set, but the view from the window is definitely the view you would have seen from the original Hotel Lisboa block back in the 1970s. It's a view that disappeared in the 1991 when the second hotel block was completed. The initial image shows a close up of the top of the St Paul's Church facade peaking out above the main block of the neighbouring "Colegio Mateus Ricci". That angle gives us a triangulation point that points all the way back to the Lisboa.

I'm not sure what the long yellow building in the second image is, but I believe it was removed to make way for the visual atrocity that is known as the Grand Lisboa. This latter construction, that I used to refer to as "Stanley Ho's catheter", is the main reason for the lack of a view today, but it was also blocked by the second, round block of the Lisboa mentioned earlier.

In the lowest image, Ching Li has the Club Militar behind her head. It's painted a pastel red colour these days and has had a bit of a facelift. Despite the mess that is the Cotai Strip, Macau in general has a bit more veneration for its built heritage.

So, is it a real hotel or just a studio set with back projection? I'm still unsure.

Hong Kong 73 - Yueh Hua (1974) - Rua das Lorchas, Ponte No.16

Another of the Macau establising shots is an oblique angle of the famous Ponte No. 16 along Rua das Lorchas. This structure was built in 1948 (by Fu Tak Iam I believe - the controller of the original gambling monopoly before he was ousted by Stanley Ho and Henry Fok et al). Thankfully it's still around, or at least was the last time I was here about 3 years ago.