That Man Bolt - Fred Williamson (1973) - Aberdeen Harbour - flipped again!

Another later shot taken from the skies above Aberdeen Harbour, this time from the western end. But look closely and you'll see there is something funny about this view too...

 ...yup, another horizontal flip. For those unfamiliar with Aberdeen geography the old Aberdeen Power Station that can be seen lower left, was on the westerly tip of Ap Lei Chau - now the site of the South Horizons development. The angle on the sea wall next to the oil/gas containers can still be seen today in front of Phase 1 of the development (where blocks 3 and 1 currently stand).

The reclamation occurring on the opposite side of the harbour has some long-roofed structures at the top, this is the Aberdeen Wholesale Fish Market and the market building, along with the Aberdeen Fisheries and Marine Office just below it, are still around. The rest of the reclamation became the Tin Wan Praya Road and cold storage facilities.

Look carefully in the distance and you will make out the yellow-coloured building that was previously identified Aberdeen Harbour Mansion, it's reasonably prominent on the lower picture and its possible to see the Shek Pai Wan housing estate behind it (to the right on the screen grab). Anyway, once again, I have no idea why the film has been flipped but I have flipped it back and you can see what the film should have looked like below.

That Man Bolt - Fred Williamson (1973) - Aberdeen Harbour, Hong Kong

Many thanks to AP once again for supplying me with more classic 70's HK-shot material as I turn to look at the rather excellent That Man Bolt starring the Black Cobra himself, Fred Williamson. Reviewing the film and its various locations I have discovered that the film makers have been a bit cheeky and the film seems to have been reversed. I'm not sure if this is intentionally done to give the locations a more varied look, or whether it was just incompetence on behalf of whoever initially processed and developed the film. Either way, it has made me scratch my head a few times before realising that I was looking at a location in reverse.

My first post for this film is therefore a great example, and luckily it's also one of the first scenes in the film. We are given a rather impressive aerial shot of an area that we are told is Macao. Here are the grabs.

 My knowledge of Macao isn't the best, but even I know enough to see that this isn't there, and the closely packed boats down there look familiar, right? Yes, of course it is Aberdeen Harbour in Hong Kong's southside, but a weird angle. The angle is weird because this is what it should really look like.

The giveaway for the flipped angle are the buildings on the right hand side and the curve of Aberdeen Praya Road around to the town centre. The big yellow one is called Aberdeen Harbour Mansion. The smaller one this side of it is Yip Yee Mansion and the small row of buildings closer still are part of a row numbered  30 - 46 Aberdeen Praya Road. All are still around.

The mound on the left of the top picture is actually part of Ap Lei Chau and currently houses Sham Wan Towers as well as the Ap Lei Chau part of the bridge and the bit of coast on the right of the second picture is the hillock that still houses the Aberdeen Seminary.

So, intentional film flip or just a mistake by someone who didn't really know which way round the film should have been printed? I suspect the latter, because ultimately these locations are fairly anonymous except to über geeks like myself and to reverse the film to disguise an are makes no real sense.

Anyway, you heard it here first, and it is the first of several examples throughout the film - but I should say the film is pretty good and worth watching.