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! 

No culpes al karma de lo que te pasa por gilipollas - Verónica Echegui (2016) - View over Wanchai

The last shot for this film, before the story returns to Spain, is this nice view across the Wanchai rooftops. The Hopewell Centre on the left and Central Plaza still dominating the skyline in this area.

No culpes al karma de lo que te pasa por gilipollas - Verónica Echegui (2016) - Harcourt Road, Central

Another footbridge, this time a bit further west, back towards Central, this is the footbridge that connects Harcourt Garden with Tim Mei Avenue and the CITIC Tower near Admiralty station. It's been a while since I was down here because much of the last ten years the place was closed as they constructed the East Rail line extension stations at Admiralty (yes, the old KCR blue line from Lo Wu now goes all the way into Admiralty).

No culpes al karma de lo que te pasa por gilipollas - Verónica Echegui (2016) - Gloucester Road, Wanchai

The last few posts are just general shots around the area. This one is of the pedestrian walkway across Gloucester Road where it intersects with O'Brien Road. A familiar walk for anyone who had to make the traipse to the Immigration Department when it was still based here (we've all had to make that walk on multiple occasions as immigrants into Hong Kong).

No culpes al karma de lo que te pasa por gilipollas - Verónica Echegui (2016) - Tsim Sha Tsui Waterfront

Sara decides to head back to Spain and bids farewell to her boyfriend on the Tsim Sha Tsui Waterfront.

No culpes al karma de lo que te pasa por gilipollas - Verónica Echegui (2016) - Sheung Wan View

After leaving hospital, Sara convalesces in a hotel. The view is from what was the Holiday Inn Express which has since been rebranded as a Hilton Motto. The view is from there but it looks to me as though, for the second image, it's most likely a studio shot with a back projection. The reason being is that the curved window seems to be out of place. It's just my opinion though. The entrance to the hotel is on Jervois Street.

No culpes al karma de lo que te pasa por gilipollas - Verónica Echegui (2016) - Wellington Street, Central

Another generic shot inserted before the hospital scenes (which I'm fairly sure were filmed in Spain with Asian extras). This shows the view up Wellington Street from that section of the mid-level escalators running up Cochrane Street. Sadly the sign on the right (for the 文輝墨魚丸大王 Restaurant) is gone because the restaurant closed a while back. The rather ornate facade decor on the left is the Tung Sin Tan building. I believe it's an old age home but I'm not sure. It's quite striking in the daylight.

No culpes al karma de lo que te pasa por gilipollas - Verónica Echegui (2016) - Hennessy Road, Causeway Bay

Some more general shots of Hong Kong as Sara is taken to hospital. This one shows the view looking west along Hennessy Road towards the Canal Road Flyover. The shot was obtained by putting the camera on the pedestrian walkway that links the two sides of Percival Street.

No culpes al karma de lo que te pasa por gilipollas - Verónica Echegui (2016) - Chun Yeung Street, North Point

After feeling ill on the minbus (anyone who has ridden on a red minibus in Hong Kong can empathise), Sara gets off and the pair walk along the street as she feels increasingly ill. She then collapses. This was all filmed along Chun Yeung Street (春秧街) in North Point. It's one of those streets pushed by the HK Tourism Board for being a bit quaint. The street has a local wet market whose stalls are located right next to the North Point tram terminus. I think the tourism board wants to pretend this street market is like those ones you see in Vietnam or Thailand where everyone has to move their stalls when the train breezes through (Narrator: it's not).

Unicorn Fist – another ‘lost’ Bruce Lee location rediscovered (repost from 2011)

Originally posted on my old Wordpress blog (back in 2011), I noticed that one of my old posts pointed to this article, so, rather than just delete the link why not just republish the original post..and of course add a few updates where relevant (and removed quite a bit of my irrelevant ramblings). I was reminded as well by a recent video on the Stripey Rambles channel detailing a new magazine about the film and it mentions Pak Tam Chung. Seeing as I was the one who rediscovered the location, I thought a repost wouldn't go amiss. I also made it into the papers at the time for my nerdiness (see the SCMP article at the end).

Bruce Lee and I - one of the alternative titles of this movie

No culpes al karma de lo que te pasa por gilipollas - Verónica Echegui (2016) - Shanghai Street, Mongkok

After emerging from Mongkok station and meeting her beau all the way over in Causeway Bay, the pair zoom back to Mongkok to catch a red minibus. I reckon at that speed they didn't need the bus. The building in the background is the Shantung Street-end of the Langham Place Mall. The minibus is driving south down Shanghai Street.