Code 46 - Tim Robbins (2003) - Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong

When Robbins finally returns home (after an accident that winds him up in hospital), the shots indicate he is in a hospital right in the middle of Central. Cue some rather nice images of the buildings surrounding the harbour before the zoom in (lower photo) between Jardine House and Exchange Square to indicate where the hospital is supposed to be.

Code 46 - Tim Robbins (2003) - Riviera Gardens, Tsuen Wan

On his return home, we see a shot of what appears to be Riviera Gardens in Tsuen Wan (seen from the south) as Robbins' car makes its way back home.

Code 46 - Tim Robbins (2003) - View from the Peak, Hong Kong

Here's another one of those films with a very limited connection to Hong Kong. It's set in a future where the population is controlled via screening and travel is limited to those who can get temporary insurance cover (issued as small cards called "papeles") in order to enter and exit major cities around the world. Tim Robbin's is a fraud investigator sent to Shanghai to find out who is behind the issue of some fake cards.

Towards the end of the film, Robbins' character mentions that he has to return to Seattle where his family live, but on film the establishing shots for his home life are all of Hong Kong. The credits mention the movie was shot on location but Hong Kong really seems to feature in a very small way.

Anyway, the first glimpse of Hong Kong we see is a night shot from the Peak area looking down to the harbour. The angle looks as though the camera was most likely positioned close to the junction with Peak Road and Magazine gap Road.

The Medallion - Jackie Chan (2003) - HMS Tamar, Central

Okay, I'm being a bit cheeky by referring to this place by its former Colonial name. HMS Tamar was the naval base located at the Central harbourfront. These days though it is known as Central Barracks.

The Medallion - Jackie Chan (2003) - Tsing Yi, New Territories

There's a helicopter sequence that starts off flying over the Ma Wan Channel with Tsing Yi Island at the bottom and the unmistakable shape of the Tsing Ma Bridge below.

The Medallion - Jackie Chan (2003) - Wing Lok Street, Central

Well, okay, not quite Wing Lok Street but basically the open space that sits between Cosco Tower and Grand Millennium Plaza.

The cafe where Chan is served by Edison Chen and Nicholas Tse looks as though it is the place at the bottom of Grand Millennium Plaza, but I'm not 100% sure. It seems to make sense though given the location of the opening shot.

The Medallion - Jackie Chan (2003) - Kam Sheung Road, Pat Heung

There is a scene, an establishing shot, that is intended to make us think the Kwun Yam Temple is far out in the sticks. Well, we already know it is actually slap bang in the middle of Hung Hom, but this particular stretch of road can be identified by the village "pai lau" at the side of the road. It says - reading right to left - Yuen Kong Tsuen (Yuen Kong Village) and is located in the Pat Heung area of Yuen Long district. Why was this place filmed at as opposed to any other? I haven't got the foggiest idea.

The Medallion - Jackie Chan (2003) - Station Lane, Hung Hom

The temple where the police/Interpol raid takes place is a Kwun Yam Temple in Hung Hom, on Station Lane to be precise. The film makers managed to get the street so clean that it almost looks like a film set. The pawnshop sign is a real one, but is looking a bit worse for wear these days.

I have to say that this raid scene is one of the most annoying ever made as Lee Evans' character essentially goes through the same gag about 5 times, each time less amusing than the previous one. So whoever wrote that part of the script should be taken out and shot.

The actor who plays the female undercover cop is Diana Weng, who is probably more famous for her role on multiple JC films as his English dialogue coach!

Diana Weng

The later scenes, when the bad guys make their escape, were filmed in the alleyway at the back of the temple, and the shot of the car coming out onto the road was around the corner, on Gillies Avenue South, next to what was the old Hung Hom Govt School campus (pink building, bottom photo) which was since taken over by Kowloon Junior School and looks to be currently occupied by the French International School.

The Medallion - Jackie Chan (2003) - Fa Yuen Street, Mongkok

I found this one a bit too late to go into the original Soy Street post, but actually, the area of Fa Yuen Street where the police truck pulls out into the road is just a little way down from the junction with Soy Street.

The Medallion - Jackie Chan (2003) - Soy Street, Mongkok

Quickly moving on to the proper location stuff and the main scene with JC trying to eat some fried squid was shot at the junction of Soy Street and Fa Yuen Street in Mongkok. One of the reasons I recognise this corner is because of the TCBY sign in the background - it was still there when I arrived full time in HK back in 2006. It disappeared soon after, mind you, along with all the other outlets - much to everyone's disappointment.

The small eatery where JC is feeding the dog was on the NW corner of the junction but has since been replaced by a 7-11 - or at least it was when the Streetview car passed by.

 Now a 7-11

JC then runs across Soy Street between passing cars. The shop in the lower picture was on the SW side of the junction. Also no longer there.

The Medallion - Jackie Chan (2003) - Nathan Road Neon, Kowloon

Let's start off The Medallion with some opening shots of neon signs. These are all part of the opening sequence that leads up to the raid (by Interpol) on a temple in Hong Kong. It's a jumble of establishing shots but most are a bit too blurry to work out.

I have mixed feelings about this film because on the one hand it really is crap. But on the other hand there are lots of familiar faces (including Jude Poyer, Scott Adkins, Brad Allen, and even a personal friend of mine who was in Ireland when they were filming and can be seen in the chase scene from the hotel) and we also get to see Christy Chung blowing bad guys away. 'Nuff said.

This first post is a bit lame because it's just a couple of the opening shots featuring some neon snapped at various points along Nathan Road. I'm all for sharing a bit of neon on this page - especially considering it is now a dying art form. The first image is from a business that was located in the Sun Hing Building in Mongkok (you can just see the building name in the blue characters). Pity I couldn't get a clearer snap.

This next strip of neon was taken a bit further south, down in the Yau Ma Tei area of Kowloon. The Windsor Palace Hotel sign tells us is was snapped outside the Buckingham Building between Ningpo and Nanking Streets.

Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life - Angelina Jolie (2003) - Aberdeen Harbour, Aberdeen

The last HK-set scene in the Tomb Raider film is a nice sweeping view of Aberdeen Harbour starting from the western entrance and flying in towards the east with the Aberdeen coastline on the left and Ap Lei Chau on the right.

Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life - Angelina Jolie (2003) - International Finance Centre 2, Central

So we have supposedly gone up to the top of 2IFC - which was the tallest building in HK at the time of filming (it was usurped a few years later by ICC) - and are now about to jump off it.

The BASE jumps were for real and the crew filmed 10 of them to get the shots they needed as well as an additional 20 jumps from a helicopter to grab some of the high level wing-suit flying. Anyway, there is a great BTS video here shot by Michael Nordqvist who also filmed the high level stuff - although I have to say there are definitely a few shots that look to have been digitally manipulated in order to get the characters to do very sharp mid-air turns to avoid buildings. Still it's an impressive stunt set piece and worth looking at because it also shows us the 2IFC prior to completion.

Heading up to the top

Jumping out

In the picture above, you can see how high the jumpers had to get in the helicopter. At this point they look to be double the real height of the 2IFC and there is a small sequence in the above linked video that shows you a similar height and angle. The next picture shows the section of the wing suit flight that looks to be digitally manipulated and includes a close bypass of the BOC tower before a sharp left hand turn to avoid the Lippo Centre.

And a boat landing to finish it all off.

Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life - Angelina Jolie (2003) - Inside Times Square, Causeway Bay

As well as the outside, we also get some glimpses of the interior of the mall and a major piece of film fakery. See if you can spot the deliberate mistake.

Escalators down to the MTR

Wait..hang on a minute...

That's right - look at the obviously fake Vivienne Tam store at the back of the lower picture! Oh, hang on, my wife say's Vivienne Tam is a real store, so I guess it must be the other fake picture showing the 2IFC in the middle of Times Square!

As a nice convenient way of steering the scene towards its rather vertiginous finale, the film makers decided to graft the 2IFC tower onto the Times Square mall. I guess the IFC mall wasn't ready in time for filming (otherwise, why use Times Square?).