6 Underground - Ryan Reynolds (2019) - Central, Hong Kong

A final post from 6 Underground and this is really the last proper shot of the place before everything goes all CGI and completely fake. In fact, for the later shots in this set piece, it doesn't even look like the director (Michael Bay) has even bothered to make anything look like Hong Kong. So in the first image is the proper Hong Kong footage. The next images show how it was enhanced to put the dictator's brother's building into the location, and the final image from the same sequence...is an image of Abu Dhabi (hat tip to Marcus for his comment below). 

Hong Kong

Hong Kong with extras

Definitely not Hong Kong

Anyway, on that note I should probably say that this type of Hong Kong "location" filming was already getting quite prevalent of late. Several films over the past few years haven't even bothered filming in supposedly Hong Kong-set sequences because it's easier (and after today, definitely less risky from a political and personal safety point of view) to just create Hong Kong inside a computer. Expect more of the same in the future.

6 Underground - Ryan Reynolds (2019) - Wanchai Interchange, Hong Kong

Here's another shot for 6 Underground that I forgot about (the shots are edited into the HK sequence a little too fast to notice sometimes). It's the Wanchai Interchange at the norther end of the Canal Road Flyover.

6 Underground - Ryan Reynolds (2019) - Ki Lung Street, Sham Shui Po

This next establishing shot that 6 Underground uses for its "Hong Kong" scenes does actually appear to be new to me. It certainly didn't crop up in Transformers: Age of Extinction although I believe it was still probably shot at that time because that film did have a couple of scenes on adjacent roads.

Anyway, it is a brief shot along Ki Lung Street looking west. The shiny building in the distance is actually the Dragon Centre on Yen Chow Street. This was basically shot on the block between Shek Kip Mei and Wong Chuk Streets. I may have noted this fact during my Transformers posts but all the overhanging signage here was removed quite some time ago during a Govt safety drive.

6 Underground - Ryan Reynolds (2019) - Tung Choi Street, Mongkok

How many times have we seen this angle of Tung Choi Street before? Quite a number including  Vengeance, Strangers (where it was used for the view out of Anthony Wong's apartment window) and of course, it featured as a brief shot for Transformers: Age of Extinction.

So it looks like my theory of unused (and used) footage from the Transformers shoot was basically correct as this view of Tung Choi Street from the Mongkok Road pedestrian walkway is used again for Bay's 6 Underground. The same location appears a couple of times in this movie both before and after the main set piece. I love these colours, the place was a bit drab when I was there and took a photo last year (2019).

6 Underground - Ryan Reynolds (2019) - Stonecutters Bridge, Kowloon

Next up is another film from Michael Bay. You may recall that Bay was in Hong Kong circa 2014 to film scenes for Transformers: Age of Extinction. The filming caused a fair bit of controversy thanks to his merging a national park in China with the Hong Kong Island geography (which led to complaints from the Chinese park authorities) and also due to the extortion incidents that occurred in two major filming locations (Quarry Bay and Sham Shui Po).

The events here seem to have put Bay off from returning (and who could blame him?) because the Hong Kong scenes used in this film are a combination of brief establishing shots and the main set (which was actually in Italy) having a variety of locations, including Hong Kong, inserted into the background.

It looks as though Bay has basically reused footage he shot for Transformers and included some small shots that maybe were not originally included in that film but kept in store for such a purpose. My theory appears to be correct when you compare these opening HK shots for 6 Underground with a similar scene in Transformers: Age of Extinction. The opening shot is a view along the Stonecutter's Bridge that links Kowloon and Stonecutter Island with Tsing Yi Island.