The Lady Professional - Lily Ho Li-li (1971) - Yau Ma Tei Police Station

The end of the film sees Tian-li turn herself in at the local police station. In this case it's the oft-used Yau Ma Tei Police Station on the corner of Canton Road and Public Square Street.

The Lady Professional - Lily Ho Li-li (1971) - Kai Tak Airport

Tian-li finally catches up with the mastermind behind Shi's assassination and the subsequent attempts to kill her. She knows he is leaving Hong Kong for Europe and goes to the airport in disguise.

The Lady Professional - Lily Ho Li-li (1971) - Waterloo Road, Kowloon Tong

After a brief interlude whereby Tian-li deals with more would be assassins (including two baldies played by Bolo Yeung and Chih Yuen) by putting one through a cement mixer - it's a bit like the woodchipper scene in Fargo - she heads to the airport in a taxi, dressed as a nun.

This shot shows the taxi driving down the slope at the north end of Waterloo Road. Most of the buildings you see are still around. The only really change is the addition of the north/south flyover that avoids the various traffic lights stops around Cornwall Street.

The Lady Professional - Lily Ho Li-li (1971) - The Peak Cafe

Following another attempt on her life, Tian-li goes to the Peak cafe to make a call to the man she believes is pulling all the strings. The sequence starts with a view to the north, looking over Victoria Harbour, before panning south to focus on the Peak Cafe. The scene then moves to the cafe garden where Tian-li makes her call. As you can see from the images, the Peak Cafe hasn't changed very much since then.

The opening shot shows a nice view of Victoria Harbour

The camera turns anti-clockwise and we catch a brief glimpse west

The Peak Cafe. Upper tram terminus building on the right

The Lady Professional - Lily Ho Li-li (1971) - View of the Harbour

Tian-li's friend, Huang, lives in an apartment bought by her sugar daddy boyfriend, who also happens to be the guy tasked to kill Tain-li. In one scene as she is driving home with her friends we see some in-car point of view shots looking over the harbour from the Peak area. Sadly they're a bit blurry, but it's a nice view.

The Lady Professional - Lily Ho Li-li (1971) - Kowloon Wharves

The contract to kill Shi is subcontracted out to the boss of the guy who is blackmailing Tian-li. They are based in a warehouse at some wharves somewhere. The establishing shot shows us the Kowloon Wharves but in the close ups of the warehouses/godowns, it looks like that was filmed elsewhere (possibly even Movietown). This image is a stitch from a panning shot of the area. This area is now all part of the Harbour City mall complex.

The Lady Professional - Lily Ho Li-li (1971) - HSBC Building Mongkok

The establishing shot for the company run by the gold smuggling gang is the HSBC building in Mongkok. It had only been open a couple of years when the film was shot so was still quite modern for the time. The curved concrete shades above each of the window apertures make it quite distinctive. It's still there. In fact I was in there just the other day withdrawing some dosh.

The Lady Professional - Lily Ho Li-li (1971) - Gloucester Road, Wanchai

The two main nefarious antagonists discuss the need to kill Shi as they drive along Gloucester Road in their Rolls Royce. In the background you can see a building site with Far East Motors Ltd on the front hoarding. This was the location of the former Far East Motors car showroom that can be seen in the back of a shot from The World of Suzie Wong. Behind it is the large B.A.T factory that stood along the waterfront until the mid-70s when it was replaced by Elizabeth House. The in-car scenes were obviously shot over a long period as the background outside changes from Harcourt Road to Queen's Road Central. This shot below was the establishing shot for the sequence.

The Lady Professional - Lily Ho Li-li (1971) - Shatin

Once out of prison, Shi is being driven away when a group of killers attack him. Most of this scene was filmed on the new reclamation for Shatin Town. There is the odd glimpse of the old Shatin Floating Restaurant in the background of some shots when it was moored on the river in front of Wo Che Village. The area where the restaurant was berthed is now the Wo Che Estate which makes the location where this sequence was filmed around where the Wo Che and Lek Yuen Estates now stand. In one scene there is a prominent building in the background which can still be seen today. It's the "Siu Tin Toa Home for the Aged" in Sheung Wo Che Village (see bottom image).

This section above was right next to the restaurant (off camera left)

You can see the floating restaurant in the background of both these shots

Siu Tin Toa Home for the Aged with the red paint.

The Lady Professional - Lily Ho Li-li (1971) - Stanley Prison

Chan Shen plays Shi Yun Pu, the recently released prisoner who is now the target of the criminal gang because he is about to testify against them in court. He is released from Stanley prison and is given a couple of police officers for protection. It looks as though the film makers used the real prison interior -  confirmed when the actors walk towards the main front wall through a courtyard area (image 6). The courtyard is still around according the GoogleEarth, but the surrounding buildings have been expanded to encroach on it a bit over the years.

Chan Shen may be familiar to anyone who has seen Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold, as he plays Soo Da Chen (sounds like a made up name) and was the subject of the long foot chase in the middle of the film that starts off in Tsim Sha Tsui and ends on Hollywood Road in front of Man Mo Temple. He died at a very young age of 44 when he suffered a heart attack in the showers of the Shaw Dormitories at Movietown.

This courtyard still exists but the surrounding buildings have grown

The Lady Professional - Lily Ho Li-li (1971) - Kai Tak Amusement Park, Kowloon

In The Lady Professional Lily Ho stars as Ge Tian-li, a cafe owner who is coerced into a contract kill. It turns out later that Tian-li took revenge on the man that killed her father but was recognised by someone (Chang Pei-shan) and he has been blackmailing her ever since. He finally takes it further and uses his leverage to convince her to kill again. The target is a recently released criminal (Chan Shen) who is about to turn key witness in a court case against a criminal gold smuggling syndicate involving a high level businessman.

It looks as though some of the scenes were filmed in Japan - specifically a mid-film sequence when Tian-li follows Shi to a bowling alley. The scenery, as she drives up the hill to "Hotel Paradise", is not Hong Kong and production notes mention Japan, but not exactly where. The same hotel building and its exterior spiral staircase are also seen in other brief scenes. If anyone knows the location, please feel free to share.

The film starts with what we later find out is Tian-li's first kill, where she takes out her target on a rollercoaster using a specially adapted makeup compact. The sequence was filmed at the former Kai Tak Amusement Park in San Po Kong. The old terraces that formed the park are still there but are now part of the Choi Hung Road Playground. Old readers may recall the park appeared on the blog many years ago as part of my Sunset deep dive (one of the first local films I ever covered on the previous version of the blog in 2012).
 

Tai Po Market KCR Station - Now and Then

I recently took a trip back to Tai Po, my former home of six years when I first moved to Hong Kong, and coincidentally the very first place I ever stayed when I first visited Hong Kong back in November 1995. One of the best places of interest in Tai Po is the Railway Museum, based in what is the former Tai Po Market KCR station.

Sadly, the days of cows wandering around in the background are long gone, but it's a good example of how over-developed Hong Kong has become.

The Merry Wife - Li Ching (1971) - Garden Road, Central

I'll finish this film off with a nice, not often-seen view looking north down Garden Road, from a vantage point around where the road bends...most likely from the pavement on Robinson Road. The first image below is actually a stitch of a vertical panning shot. 

In the background you can see the upper floors of the Murray Building - former Govt offices recently turned into a hotel - "The Murray". In the foreground on the right hand side (with angular balconies) is the previous YWCA building. I'm not sure when it was redeveloped but the YWCA now has a much bigger property at this location. There's still a pedestrian bridge at the same location but I'm not sure if it's the same one. If it is (I think it is) then the footprint of the YWCA has changed slightly because in this image it looks as though the slope of the bridge finished flush with the side of the YWCA. These days the YWCA site is slightly to the right, freeing up some additional pavement.

The building in the right foreground is the old St John Ambulance building on the corner of Macdonnell Road. Again, this has since been redeveloped into a much larger HQ building called St John Tower.

This image below just shows the view past the bend in the road. The small hut is long gone and I think it was probably related to the St John Ambulance building. Feel free to comment if you know.

The Merry Wife - Li Ching (1971) - Brunswick Bowling, Middle Road

Zhenzhen's classmate follows her to Brunswick Bowling Alley on Middle Road. I believe this place was operating from the mid-60s on the ground floor/basement of the former Middle Road Multi-storey carpark. The carpark was knocked down circa 2015 to make way for a new high rise office block, but I have no idea when the bowling alley disappeared.

The zig-zag wall in the background of the second image was located in front of the former Mariners Club building. I'm not sure if it survived the recent development so I'll be sure to have a look next time I am down that way. On the left of the last image (with Li Ching looking past the camera) is the former Ambassador Hotel on the corner of Middle and Nathan Roads.