The Yin and Yang of Mr Go - James Mason (1970) - Sutherland House, Chater Road

As a little break between Strangers episodes, here is a real tough one finally identified by Arthur Yau, who, along with Thomas Ngan, has been instrumental in identifying some really obscure locations over the past few years. The location is the Bank of Tokyo and it had some very large characters on its road side wall identifying it as such. The screen images below show what appears to be the entrance.

 

I really had no idea where this was but Arthur found an obscure old picture here, which places this at the ground floor of what was Sutherland House, at the corner of Chater Road and Club Street. Sutherland House was the building that for many years had the circular "BAYER" advertisement at the top. It was a prominent advert that featured on many a night time panorama.

Anyway, I believe Sutherland House was demolished in the early 90s to make way for the former Ritz Carlton hotel. The latter was one of the shortest lived buildings in Hong Kong's history and only lasted for 15 years between 1993 and 2008 before once again being demolished to make way for the current CCB Tower.

The Yin and Yang of Mr Go - James Mason (1970) - Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

While we're on the subject of the large Chinese writing written on the wall of the old Government dockyard, here it is cropping up in the previously looked at The Yin and Yang of Mr Go.

The scene involves Jeff Bridges running alongside it. I can't remember the reasons but you can see (if you have a sharp eye and a knowledge of Chinese) that the section he runs along is the same section seen behind Shirley MacLaine in that last post.

The Yin and Yang of Mr Go - James Mason (1970) - Hollywood Road, Central

The US agent gets into a spot of bother (it's never clear why and I suppose the reason may have been one of the never filmed scenes) and is chased up Pottinger Street. Burgess Meredith, in a role that is also never made clear, agrees to act as a decoy and leads the pursuers up to the Central Police Station on Hollywood Road where he is able to escape (into the police compound it seems) by walking next to some police.

The Yin and Yang of Mr Go - James Mason (1970) - Dragon Garden, Castle Peak Road

Although most famous for it's prominent role in The Man with the Garden Gun, we've seen Dragon Garden and the villa inside quite a few times on this blog (Noble House, The Last Grenade, Men of the Dragon to name a few) and although it looks as though no real filming was done here, we do catch a brief glimpse of the villa in one scene.

I suspect this was probably a borrowed clip from somewhere else (perhaps inserted years later?) otherwise I am sure we would have seen much more of the garden etc.

The Yin and Yang of Mr Go - James Mason (1970) - Wo Hop Shek Cemetery, Fanling

Fortunately for this particular location I had prior knowledge after speaking with Chaplin otherwise I would really have not had much chance of finding it. The scene was shot over the night of Chinese New Year Eve of 1970 (so, I think 5th Feb?) and apparently caused much consternation amongst the Chinese crew because not only did they have to work on Chinese New Year's eve but also had to do it in a cemetery! Anyway, sadly the night shoot means the picture quality is even poorer than usual.

You can see some of the grave numbers here so it might be possible to find the actual spot (for Jeff Bridges and James Mason hardcore fans only, me thinks). I may take a trip there one day (hopefully whilst I'm still alive I mean...).

The Yin and Yang of Mr Go - James Mason (1970) - Hongkong Hilton Hotel, Central

The Hilton was a popular spot for filming in the 60's and according to Chaplin it was also where the production company were based for the filming of The Yin and Yang of Mr Go. We see it a couple of times, first is the entrance as Irene Tsu walk s out and second involves the confirmation of a location seen in another film that I thought was the Hilton but had nothing to compare it to until now.

Here is the entrance (Jack Palance and Aldo Ray were here a couple of years previously).

The next location appears to be a rear inner courtyard of the hotel, notable for its Japanese arches and the internal wall having what looks like a large ceramic mosaic attached to it. The only reason I now know it's the Hilton is because of a brief glimpse of the old HSBC and Bank of China through a gap as the camera pans down at one of Burgess Meredith's quirky (and possibly alcohol induced) camera angles.

HSBC & Bank of China seen through the gap

The courtyard looks like a Japanese garden and in the film it is supposed to be part of the Bank of Tokyo where the manager (King Hu) meets the US agent for some clandestine talks. Note the wall decoration in the background.

The Yin and Yang of Mr Go - James Mason (1970) - Chaplin the translator

Following on from our quest to tag Chaplin as many times as possible through out this blog, here he is in a rare speaking role when he plays the Chinese translator explaining to a bunch of local goons about how much they can expect to earn for the capture of Bridges and his girlfriend (played by Irene Tsu).

Chaplin was also the assistant director for the film (a role he would repeat a few years later for Enter the Dragon) and later on tried (unsuccessfully and at significant cost to himself) to buy the Asian distribution rights for this film. You may or may not know that for a while in the early to mid 70's Chaplin was also part of King Hu's film production company (where he helped obtain funding for The Fate of Lee Khan and The Valiant Ones from a rather reluctant Raymond Chow ) and they remained good friends until Hu (remember he plays the Japanese banker in this film) passed away in 1997.

Chaplin at the back

The Yin and Yang of Mr Go - James Mason (1970) - Kai Tak Airport, Kowloon City

I've lost count of the amount of times this shot has been used and sadly this version is one of the poorest quality ones. The detail is really too blurred to make out anything of interest other than what I believe is Ho Man Tin Hill in the background of the second picture.

And a picture of a plane parked on the apron.

The Yin and Yang of Mr Go - James Mason (1970) - Lockhart Road, Wanchai

After being duped into believing someone wants to publish his writing, Bridges heads out to celebrate with his new publisher - in reality a US agent. They hit the town in several places including the Ocean Bar that used to be at 88-92 Lockhart Road (thanks to Doug). It's a shame the picture quality isn't any better because I'm a big fan of these old neon signs.

The reason the top picture is rotated is because of Burgess Meredith trying to convey the drunkeness of the night with skewed camera angles.

We also get a quick glimpse of the nearby Neptune Bar sign (75-79 Lockhart Road).

The Yin and Yang of Mr Go - James Mason (1970) - Hong Kong Cricket Club, Central

So just a few short weeks after seeing the old cricket club featured in Les Tribulations d'un Chinois en Chine it pops up again (around 4 years later) in a more blurry version of itself. In this film though we get a quick glimpse of the scoreboard (how exciting...).

Behind Jeff Bridges in the second picture is the old Hong Kong Club, but by then its annex building had been knocked down and replaced by Sutherland House. This was the building that had the large green neon advert for Bayer for all those years. You can just see the corner of it at the right hand side.

Finally, in the lower picture with James Mason you can make out the Murray Barracks building at the background sitting on the site now occupied by the I.M Pei Bank of China Building.

The Yin and Yang of Mr Go - James Mason (1970) - Barker Road Peak Tram Stop, The Peak

Although it's blurry, the unmistakable design of the Barker Road Peak Tram Stop is quite discernible and looks to have added Jeff Bridges and James Mason to its list of illustrious visitors. This was 1969/1970 (I believe most of the film was shot in late 1969) so I wonder if any of these school kids are viewing this and suddenly remembering seeing these two dodgy looking geezers wandering around.

The Yin and Yang of Mr Go - James Mason (1970) - Aberdeen Harbour, Aberdeen

Unfortunately for our next film the print I have looks to have been taken directly from an old VHS copy because the quality is quite poor even after de-interlacing almost every screen grab. I heard of this film through Chaplin Chang who also happens to have a small role in the film (he is a master of this) as well as being credited as Assistant Director.

Anyway, I also heard about some of the shenanigans that went on during production and it seems that Burgess Meredith wasn't a particularly organised director and, in fact, didn't complete the film in the end. According to Chaplin, two key scenes were never shot and the way the film jumps around seems to confirm it. It sounds as though the version available to buy was a cobbled together work print and it really shows. Despite the presence of James Mason and Jeff Bridges - and even a cameo role from King Hu (as a Japanese Bank manager) - the film is just tragically awful.

Of the scenes that were actually completed, one of the first was some shots of Aberdeen Harbour where Mr Y.Y Go (played by James Mason in *sigh* "yellowface") has a boat where he plots his evil schemes.

You can barely make it out in the second picture but the old Aberdeen Police Station is just visible on the hillside at the back.