Magnolia Road - Now and Then

Another comparison post from A Cause to Kill seeing as I was in the area anyway. The first view is looking from the top of the stairs (more or less) back towards the Yau Yat Chuen School. By pure luck there was a car parked at the same place (again, more or less) when I visited a few weeks ago. The school remains unchanged for the most part but the old building with the circular balcony behind the car has since been replaced by a newer (and less attractive) version - "Marigold Court". The Yau Yat Tsuen estate was built in the 1950s when Hong Kong was undergoing an art-deco boom and many of the original properties have art-deco/streamline moderne styling. Sadly, only a few are left.

The next images show the view looking north up Magnolia Road. Again, most of the original properties here have been redeveloped. Along the whole road there are only two original houses (numbers 6 & 7), the rest replaced circa the 1980s.

Steps to Magnolia Road - Now and Then

Here are the steps that connect Tai Hang Tung Road with Magnolia Road in Yau Yat Tsuen. It's right next to this place. The balustrades at the side remains the same but many things have changed including the adjacent property - "Royal Magnolia" - which replaced the earlier building in 1988. The steps also have a dividing rail in the middle now to split the up/down parts for when the school kids are streaming down it at the end of school. The recreation ground is still in the background as is the petrol station (although now there is two).

The view up the steps is pretty much unchanged, even the school balustrade is the same one.

A Cause to Kill - Ivy Ling Po (1969) - Magnolia Road, Yau Yat Tsuen

The steps lead on to Magnolia Road and it is here where Hsin Li has parked her car. Unbeknownst to her, Inspector Sheng is keeping a close eye on her movements. Yau Yat Tsuen was originally developed in the 1950s as a Chinese/local "version" of Kowloon Tong and as a result the original properties were all built in the same art-deco style that was popular at the time. A few of these properties remain but most have, for the large part, been redeveloped into low rise mansion blocks of three or four storeys. In the lower image you can see the original building that stood at #4 Marigold Road. It's now an unimpressive block called Marigold Court, but the original building had lovely curved balconies and lots of style.

The school (rhs) is still there

A Cause to Kill - Ivy Ling Po (1969) - Tai Hang Tung Road, Shek Kip Mei

After picking up the briefcase from the hotel, the taxi takes Hsin Li further north and drops her off on Tai Hang Tung Road, just north of Boundary Street. She alights right next to a set of steps that lead up into Yau Yat Tsuen. This area has actually changed relatvely little. The only big change is the redevelopment of the Tai Hang Tung Estate in the background. The estate still exists bit with more modern blocks replacing the old H-shape ones you can see here. Long time readers may remember that this very same road appears in Narazumono here. And I also did a modern day comparison here. This scene is actually filmed a little further to the south, opposite the petrol stations that still exists.

The steps lead up to Marigold Road in Yau Yat Tsuen and are mainly used by students at the adjacent Yau Yat Chuen school (note: Tsuen and Chuen are pronounced the same way and are just two ways of writing the same word. Cantonese sadly never underwent a uniform romanisation in the same way that Mandarin did with Pinyin and is one of the reasons why Hong Kong place/road names are all over the place in terms of spelling).

Tai Hang Tung Estate

Shell still has a garage here

Tai Hang Tung Recreation Ground in the background

A Cause to Kill - Ivy Ling Po (1969) - Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

There are a couple of scenes shot on the lower part of Nathan Road as Hsin Li drops off and picks up her attache case. The first image below shows her crossing Nathan Road to head to the Peninsula Hotel, the other images are from a later scene as Inspector Sheng (played by Chiao Chiao's real-life first husband Wong Chun-shun - he played the literal back-stabbing uncle in Way of the Dragon) drops her off in a ruse he has planned to prove her guilt. You can just about see the signs for Gaddi's underneath the hotel marquee.

A Cause to Kill - Ivy Ling Po (1969) - Middle Road Carpark, Tsim Sha Tsui

Hsin Li arranges for a taxi driver to pick up her unclaimed briefcase on her behalf and she sits in his taxi waiting for him to return. The taxi was parked on the carpark located on what is now the site of the Sheraton Hotel. This film was shot just a few years before the site was redeveloped into the hotel in the early 70s.

In the background of the lower image you can see the former Ambassador Hotel on the left (now a mixed use block called "26 Nathan Road") and on the right the still-extant Far East Mansions. The road on the left hand side is, of course, Nathan Road.

A Cause to Kill - Ivy Ling Po (1969) - View of the Harbour

As Hsin Li starts to put her nefarious plan into place, she takes a briefcase of cash to the Peninsula Hotel and puts it in their lockers. This is where the killer will collect his reward once the deed is done. The establishing shot is this nice view taken from the top of the hotel's east wing, looking across the old train terminus and over to the island.

A Cause to Kill - Ivy Ling Po (1969) - Choi Hung Estate

Some scenery to take in during a driving home scene as Hsin Li's husband, Li De (Kwan Shan) and Su Su (Chiao Chiao) take a taxi home from the airport. Su Su has just arrived from Singapore to help with the screenplay for Hsin Li's new comeback film.

The scene starts with a view of the Choi Hung Estate from the view point of the adjacent road, but then we follow the couple for an in-car scene that was shot as the car drove along the first section Clearwater Bay Road that starts at the estate.

Savour the view because it was announced last year that Choi Hung Estate would be redeveloped very soon bringing an end to its 60+ year lifespan, although the latter stages of the plan won't be implemented until the 2040s.

A Cause to Kill - Ivy Ling Po (1969) - Glenthorne, Customs Pass

Hsin Li lives with her husband in a rather nice art-deco style mansion up in Customs Pass. This area appears to have been a popular filming location for Shaws productions in the 60s and 70s because we were here a few weeks ago for The Generation Gap.

In this film we carry on up the hill a bit further to a house called "Glenthorne" which, rather surprisingly for Hong Kong, still exists. I take my hat off to the owners for not selling up to a developer because the house is very stylish (and I have no doubt jinxed it by featuring it here). The interwebs tells me this house was built in 1958 and is one of only a couple originals.

On the way up we are treated to some views of Fei Ngo Shan Road as the car drives passed the previously linked to "Cairnmount". We also get brief glimpses of some of the neighbouring properties, but they are, sadly, only fleeting.

"Cairnmount" on the left

Glenthorne

A view of the neighbouring property "Devonia" (since demolished)

A Cause to Kill - Ivy Ling Po (1969) - Clearwater Bay Road, Pak Shek Wo

Up next is another from the Celestial Shaw channel on Youtube called A Cause to Kill. It's about a retired actress (Ivy Ling Po) who plots to kill her husband (Played by Kwan Shan - Rosumand Kwan's father) because he had a secret affair with one of their friends (Chiao Chiao). Apparently it's a Shaw version of Dial M for Murder but because I haven't seen (or read) it in about 40 years then I can't possibly comment, but suffice to say it's a great plot and the film showcases some nice spots in Hong Kong from the late sixties, some of which have changed beyond recognition and some that haven't.

The opening scene shows Hsin Li (Ivy) driving her car along Clearwater Bay Road through the section that goes through Pak Shek Wo (i.e. not far from Pik Uk prison). She's supposed to be driving home, but as you'll see in the next post, she is actually driving in the opposite direction.

It's hard to reconcile the images below with the modern day road which is a dual carriageway, but this is how it used to look.

A sign for Wah Lok Yuen (華樂園), a local eatery

This last image has some writing on the slope on the left. It says "Lot 1098 Pak Shek Wo". This relates to the current 1098 Clearwater Bay Road which helped me narrow down the location. Sadly, we don't see the property on film.

Tai Hang Tung Road - Now and Then

I took this one last year before my extended trip to the UK and simply forgot I had it. The Then image is taken from 1964's Narazumono, starring Ken Takakura. You can see my original post from 2 years ago here. The scene is a bit disjointed because the two characters in the shot, on rickshaws, have just descended from Victoria Peak on the tram and then the next moment they are all the way up in Sham Shui Po District (as it is now) and on Tai Hang Tung Road next to the old resettlement estate.

The old estate was similar in design to the nearby Shek Kip Mei Estate, so it's common to get confused between the two if you are not familiar with the area. They were built around teh same time following the 1953 Shek Kip Mei fire. The old estate was knocked down in the early 80s and rebuilt into the slightly larger buildings you can see today.

Funnily enough, until just a few years ago, the red-checked building of the Concordia Lutheran School (see in the background of the movie still) was still around and has only recently been replaced with a brand new modern building.

In an update to this post, I also noticed that A Cause to Kill - a Shaw movie from 1969 - also filmed along this street albeit a little further to the south (behind the camera). So here is a similar view from that film and my poor attempt to recreate it below.