The Ghost - Julie Lee Wah-yuet (2001) - Kai Tak Airport

When the main, supposedly Hong Kong-based, characters eventually leave for Los Angeles, the movie gives us some footage of a Dragon Air plane taking off from Kai Tak airport. Another big clue that we are watching library footage because the old airport had closed down two years prior to this movie being made. What happened to Dragon Air? Well, it was taken over by Cathay Pacific and rebranded to Cathay Dragon, and then the Covid pandemic saw a complete end to its operations in October 2020 when Cathay restructed their services following what was essentially the closing down of Hong Kong that year.

The Ghost - Julie Lee Wah-yuet (2001) - Wanchai Waterfront

In what I suspect is a direct continuation of the earlier waterfront footage - although this sequence is shown later in the film - we see some more aerial views of the Wanchai waterfront. This time Wanchai "proper" as we pass Central Plaza and the Grand Hyatt Hotel.

The Ghost - Julie Lee Wah-yuet (2001) - Causeway Bay Waterfront

Some more library footage, this time it's a nice aerial shot of the Wanchai waterfront around Causeway Bay. The white building in the centre of the top image is the now demolished Excelsior Hotel.

The Ghost - Julie Lee Wah-yuet (2001) - Prat Avenue, Tsim Sha Tsui

Some generic neon signs are always useful when you want to pretend your film is taking place in Hong Kong, so here is a brief view we get in the film before the camera suddenly edits to a street in Los Angeles (or wherever it was filmed). The large red sign at the top says (reading r-l) "奧運桌球會" which is basically a sign for a table tennis club that used to be located on Prat Avenue. This is a view of Hong Kong that no longer exists because the Govt had a blitz starting about ten or so years ago and removed all the old, and very cool looking, signboards all over the territory.  

The Ghost - Julie Lee Wah-yuet (2001) - Victoria Harbour

Welcome to the wonderful world of dodgy B-movies, not that I have ever really strayed too far from there. This one is utterly bizarre because despite its obvious low budget, it has a plethora of well-known actors who were already quite well known at the time including Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Michael Madsen, Brad Dourif, James Hong, George Chung, and Michael Paul Chan (I was a big The Closer fan). I suspect someone was calling in some favours somewhere. Oh, and of course no US movie with Asian gangsters is complete without the amazing and ubiquitous, Al Leong!

The premise is that a gang war is taking place in Hong Kong and a female Triad assassin, Jing (played by Hong Kong Cat III star, Julie Lee Wah-yuet), is tasked with putting a rival gang boss, who also happens to be Chief of Police, Chang (Tagawa), in his place. Chang wreaks his revenge and Jing has to flee to the US to escape his wrath.

What follows is a pretty awful movie to be honest, although the choreographed fight scenes and stunts actually show some potential. What is fairly hilarious though is that Hong Kong is shown via stock footage, but the film makers also threw in what looks like some stock footage of Shanghai showing trolley buses and the distinctive green uniform outfit of the mainland Chinese national police force, which they then have to stick on their US-based actors for continuity purposes. Oh boy.

The Chinese title for this movie (I guess it was released here because of the main star being local) is 霹靂女殺手 (aka Thunderbolt Female Killer). Oh, and I forgot to mention the double leg amputee kung fu master (no, not joking) played by someone called Henry Smalls. That bit reminded me a little of The Crippled Masters. 

You can watch the whole film here: https://youtu.be/yYcQ2VV8Rtg?si=dsuPDH-NjlCGt7Wp

Anyway, despite not being actually filmed in Hong Kong, I figured it was worth including the few shots of stock footage for completeness. The opening shot is this panning shot of the harbour.

Spy Game - Robert Redford (2001) - Central, Hong Kong

The final sequence is the one that sells us the lie that the HSBC building in Central is actually the US Consulate. In fact, not a single on-site shot was done here and all of David Hemmings' scenes were filmed back in London - at Lloyd's of London on Lime Street. The various shots of Hemmings in the external glass lift quite clearly reveal Leadenhall Street in the background and not downtown Hong Kong as we are supposed to think. On the plus side we do get brief glimpses at the former Prince of Wales building in HMS Tamar, the Furama Hotel and Ritz Carlton. Both these latter two have since given way to redevelopment.

Spy Game - Robert Redford (2001) - Victoria Harbour Part 2, Hong Kong

The second sequence is one that swoops across the harbour from the opposite direction and is the sequence over which the film title is overlaid. We see the Convention Centre in the first image and the camera quickly zips by to focus at the same point that was reached in the initial sequence - in front of Elizabeth House with its Panasonic advert.

Spy Game - Robert Redford (2001) - Victoria Harbour Part 1, Hong Kong

It's a slow time for my chosen selection of films at the moment, so maybe it's time to dig out some classics. Case in point is Tony Scott's Spy Game released in 2001. This really isn't a made in Hong Kong film at all, there are really only three very brief snippets of Hong Kong - all of them essentially establishing sequences that set the scene for what follows. What follows is usually David Hemming's character, supposedly base in Hong Kong and speaking from what is purported to be the US Consulate.

The first establishing sequence we see involves the camera zooming along the harbour from the east towards a building in Wanchai, Elizabeth House in Causeway Bay.

Rush Hour 2 - Jackie Chan (2001) - Tai Nan Street, Sham Shui Po

Okay, I know I should've included this on the last post but I only started looking a few minutes ago before realising that this next screen grab was taken a one block to the east of the last Tai Nan St post. Anyway, as before you can still see a few remnants from the shop signs despite the fact that most have been removed. This is actually at the junction with Wong Chuk Street looking east down Tai Nan Street. Lower picture courtesy (as always) of Google Streetview.

And with that we can finally bid farewell to Rush Hour 2.

Rush Hour 2 - Jackie Chan (2001) - Tai Nan Street, Sham Shui Po

Well, I guess I am getting better at identifying these seemingly generic local streets because here is one from Rush Hour 2 that I was expecting to take me longer (it actually took me about 5 minutes). It's just another one of those shots that shows off a bit of local life in HK but is irrelevant to the plot. It's a busy street somewhere, adorned in shop signs of a magnitude in number that is rarely seen since the Govt decided to crack down on them (too dangerous/illegal blah blah blah).

It is in fact Tai Nan Street in northern Kowloon and, as you can see from the Streetview below, its number of signs has been drastically reduced, although there are still a few key ones that help identify the location (if you look closely enough you'll see which ones they are) along with the columned shophouse that can just be seen centre right in the screencap.

Coincidentally, this is the second time we have seen this exact location on this blog because it was this same stretch of road (at the junction with Shek Kip Mei St) that was used in Transformers: Age of Extinction a while back.

Rush Hour 2 - Jackie Chan (2001) - Hong Kong International Airport, Chek Lap Kok

Fittingly, the final scene involving Hong Kong is outside the Terminal 1 building at HKIA as Carter is ordered back to the USA. You can just see the Zone 4 sign on the top picture which is actually the furthest drop of area, so the camera was placed at the very far end of the building (as you can see from the Streetview grab below).

Rush Hour 2 - Jackie Chan (2001) - Graham Street, Central

On his walkabout, Carter (Chris Tucker) performs an amazing feat by walking all the way from Yau Ma Tei Police Station to Graham Street and then Gage Streets in Central (not forgetting the scene afterwards when he also manages to walk all the way back to Marsh Road) - quite an impressive bit of footwork.

Anyway, the first street we see him walking down is Graham Street. Currently being redeveloped for some reason which will no doubt ruin the original character of the place. At the bottom of Graham Street, after visiting a tailor and getting a new shirt, he turns onto Gage Street and starts to talk with the chicken vendor.

Graham Street looking south (up the hill towards Hollywood Road)

The Graham St intersection with Gage St

Gage Street - where Carter ends up rescuing a doomed chicken.

Rush Hour 2 - Jackie Chan (2001) - Public Square Street, Yau Ma Tei

Some of the action takes place in the famous Yau Ma Tei police station on Public Square Street. It's long been a popular location for filming and has recently been decommissioned (May 2016) and it's future doesn't look very clear at the moment which is a big shame for everyone. Let's hope sense shines through and the building can be retained.

Anyway, there's also a lot of the scenes involving the explosion at the station where we are out and about on Public Square Street following Carter as he wanders off in general ignorance of the events unfolding around him. The top picture shows us looking east up Public Square Street, the building on the right is the Henry G. Leong YMT Community centre.  

In the third picture we can see a residential building behind Carter with a Wellcome shop at the bottom. This is Block 5 of Prosperous Garden and according to Streetview the Wellcome is still around. I've stuck a Streetview image below to try and match the angle in the lowest picture.

Rush Hour 2 - Jackie Chan (2001) - Marsh Road, Wanchai

The junction between Marsh Road and Jaffe Road features quite a bit because it's where we first encounter Ricky Tan and his entourage. The scenes supposedly outside the sauna were filmed on Jaffe Road but we also see Carter walking down Marsh Road when he accidentally stumbles across the same location later on. The top picture shows us Jaffe Road looking east towards Marsh Road with the latter's road ramp. The same ramp behind Carter as he walks north towards the junction with Jaffe.

The last picture above is looking in the other direction down Jaffe Road and you can see the Canal Road flyover at the far end. There's been a significant amount of redevelopment in this small section of Jaffe Road, most recently with the completion of the Mira Moon Hotel on the corner south east corner of the junction - next to where Carter is standing in the picture below.

Rush Hour 2 - Jackie Chan (2001) - Tai Wo Street, Wanchai

One of the standout set pieces of this film is the fight on the scaffolding where Chan prematurely proclaims the robustness of Chinese bamboo. The building on which all the action takes place is called Wanchai House (built 1959) and stands on the corner of Tai Wo Street and Wanchai Road.

Here are some recent images I took - coincidentally with scaffolding erected around the building.