A Touch of Zen - Hsu Feng (1971) - Whitehead Point, Ma On Shan

The second Hong Kong location, that makes up the second part of the finale of A Touch of Zen, is Whitehead Point. After leaving Commander Hsu (Hang Ying Chieh) tied to some trees in the forest, the group continue their walk and it's here where they find him again, kneeling in the sand, with his two sons, in an apparent gesture of repentence.

This was a location that King Hu would return to use later in the finale of The Fate of Lee Khan and The Valiant Ones, but has also been seen on several other occasions. I usually refer to this place by its English name, Whitehead Point, but I believe its proper name in Chinese is Wu Kwai Sha Tsui (烏溪沙咀 - lit. dark creek sandy point).

I'm still not sure if this place was a quarry or not, but it was later turned into a Vietnamese refugee detention centre before being given over to storage. Currently it contains a cycle velodrome run by the HK Sports Institute and a golf driving range.

A Touch of Zen - Hsu Feng (1971) - Shing Mun Reservoir, Tsuen Wan

While we're on the subject of King Hu films supposedly shot only in Taiwan, I thought it is worth including some shots of the last 30 minutes or so of A Touch of Zen. The Chinese title 俠女  (Haap Lui in Cantonese) means "chivalrous woman" and refers to the main character, Yang Hui-ching (Hsu Feng), who has escaped the clutches of a corrupt eunuch who has had her family killed. Most of the film was indeed shot in Taiwan, but the last half hour of extended finale - as the righteous fugitives battle the eunuch's military commander (Han Ying-chieh) and his two sons (one of them played by Sammo Hung) - was shot at two locations in Hong Kong.

This first location is when Mr Gu, along with his newly-acquired baby son, falls asleep among some trees next to what looks like a river. The river is in fact Shing Mun Reservoir and the trees are a cluster of paperbark trees which are quite famous at this location and have featured in numerous films over the years. In fact, King Hu returned here the next year to shoot scenes for The Valiant Ones.

This area is located at the northwest side of the reservoir and is fairly easy to get to. It has changed a bit (and the reservoir is never quite this full these days) but the paperbark trees are still there.

The film's star, Hsu Feng, retired from the film world a while back and now runs a large property development company in Hong Kong set up by her late husband (Tomson Group).