Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Adam Baldwin (2000) - Yau Ma Tei Police Station

No longer a Police Station because it was decommissioned a couple of years ago. I did make a trip here last year with David Bellis from Gwulo and, after seeing a gathering in the rear carpark area, we popped in to have a look around only to be instantly told to get the hell away. Such is life in the new National Security-conscious Hong Kong.

In the movie this is the exterior used for the Police station in the film where one of the gangsters is set free after he refuses to talk. So Mr. Hyde follows him back to his opium den (yes, quite a few of these Hong Kong cliches pop up) to extract the information he needs.

One of the things I can gather from this sequence is that this was before the local police stations were all given a new grey/dark blue coat of paint. Back in 2000 it was still the white/light blue colour scheme (seeing little things like this please my nerdy brain).

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Adam Baldwin (2000) - Aberdeen Harbour

Mr Wong, the enigmatic tour guide, berths his boat in Aberdeen Harbour, just across the water from the Jumbo Kingdom restaurants, which can be seen in quite a few shots. Don't forget I did a radio show a couple of years ago when the Jumbo was "eliminated".

Jumbo Palace in the background 

Jumbo (R.I.P)

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Adam Baldwin (2000) - View from Bowen Road

Another transition sequence, this one is over Wanchai from Bowen Road. This is a panning shot that begins by looking across to the Sun Hung Kai Centre (top image - tallest building left hand side) and pans right, passing the cylindrical Hopewell Centre, and ending on Camelot Heights on Kennedy Road below. This should give you a good idea of where the camera was located (i.e. somewhere close to the latter).

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Adam Baldwin (2000) - Tseung Kwan O Chinese Permanent Cemetery

Following the death of one of the gang members, and Dr. Jekyll's inability to save him, the gang hold a burial ceremony for him on the eastern slopes of Junk Bay where the Chinese Permanent Cemetery is located. The cops turn up to keep an eye on things. There's now a big bridge that crosses the bay in the background of the top image.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Adam Baldwin (2000) - Nathan Road, Mongkok

One of the transitions between scenes includes this rather colourful display along Nathan Road.The identifier in this case is the sign for the Sino Centre (信和中心) on the right hand side (second image). This place is great because it contains one of the second hand DVD shops where I have obtained a great number of films featured on the blog. All of this signage has been taken down now.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Adam Baldwin (2000) - Duk Ling

Anyone who has been reading this blog for any length of time knows that I also like to sometimes include "moving locations". In this case it's the famous "Duk Ling" tourist junk that was once a very common sight moving up and down the harbour. When I first moved to Hong Kong in 2006, I was told that the boat was owned by a guy (Pierric Couderc) who was paid a large amount of money by the Government to just sail it up and down the harbour everyday so that people could take photos of it. It was then later, up to 2014, used a few days a week to provide harbour tours until it sadly sunk in Aberdeen Harbour during a particularly nasty typhoon that same year. Don't worry, it was sold, raised from the depths, restored and relaunched the following year.

We have actually seen it before on the blog because I featured it nearly 10 years ago when I was covering Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story. Long term reader and friend, Gweilo8888, has a very informative comment on that post which details a it more about the boat's background, so please click the link and have a read.

In this film, it is owned by Mr Wong, the enigmatic tour guide (played by veteran Chinese actor, Tseng Chang) who turns out to be a master of Chinese medicine as well as a kung fu master charged with protecting the "Tiger" (yeah, another part of the overly complicated plot).
 

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Adam Baldwin (2000) - The Regent Hotel, Tsim Sha Tsui

Once the Regent, then the Intercontinental, and now back to the Regent again. This well-known hotel has been a feature in many films (and shows) I have covered in the blog. In this movie it is where the happy couple are staying while they are on vacation.

I'm not a big fan of the building but despite its age it still looks a lot nicer than the new monstrosities that have been built next to it (K11 Musea & Atelier).

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Adam Baldwin (2000) - Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

The couples' hired Rolls Royce takes them down Nathan Road on the way to their hotel and we catch a brief glimpse of the very southern end of the road as the car turns onto Salisbury Road. In the background you can see the Sheraton Hotel and 26 Nathan Road (formerly known as Oterprise Square) on the corner of Middle Road where the Ambassador Hotel used to be located.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Adam Baldwin (2000) - Kwong Wah Hospital, Kowloon

The bad guys, looking for a character called the "tiger" from some mystical prophecy, go into a local hospital to checkout the new borns. The establishing shot is the main entrance of Kwong Wah Hospital.

The hospital has a really cool museum located behind the main building, set up in one of the hospital's original Chinese-style buildings. Well worth a visit if you are in the area.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Adam Baldwin (2000) - Junction of Pedder Street and Des Voeux Road Central

Another one of the travelogue-style transitional shots shows some trams making their way down the tracks along Hong Kong Island. This location is the section of Des Voeux Road Central where it intersects with Pedder Street. In the distant background can be seen the pedestrian walkway that crosses the road between Central Market and the Hang Seng HQ, and the stepped/tiered building further on is the China Insurance Group Building (at 141 DVRC). Although it looks like it may have been under scaffolding at the time for a facelift?

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Adam Baldwin (2000) - Hau Wong Road, Kowloon City

Despite being filmed in 2000 (actually, August 1999, according to IMDB) - at least a year after the old airport closed - the film has decided to use some library footage showing a plane flying overhead on its approach to Kai Tak. You may recall that Johnny English Reborn did the same, despite being filmed more than ten years after the airport closure). This is the view from Hau Wong Road looking up. The vertical restaurant sign is for a famous restaurant on this road called Lok Hau Fuk (樂口福酒家) which is still around - as far as I am aware.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Adam Baldwin (2000) - Various Harbour Views

I will kick off the next film with a selection of views around the harbour that are interspersed into this film in travelogue-style transitions from one scene to the next. This is a TV movie starring Adam Baldwin and is a modern "take" on the Robert Louis Stevenson short story (I read it in a few hours which, to me at least,  means it's a short story) which details the strange occurances around the titular character/s.

In this film our good doctor is a burnt-out US surgeon who decides to give up to pursue a career in cosmetic surgery. He and his wife take a holiday to Hong Kong and by pure misfortune are caught up in the nefarious doings of the local triads who are operating an illegal organ donation operation. The rather more psycopathic nature of the good doctor appears after he mistakenly ingests a Chinese herbal concoction whilst being cared for by a mysterious local guide/Chinese medical practioner/kung fu master.

It's about as good as you can expect from a movie like this: heavy on the Eastern mysticism, overly complicated plot and lots of places supposed to be Hong Kong that aren't (does anybody want to go to the "Colonial Cricket Club"?).That said, there is a fair amount of location shooting here to warrant a good delve. You can judge for yourself by viewing it on YouTube here (hat tip to Jesus Wept. Movies channel).