The 5 Billion Dollar Legacy - Margaret Hsing Hui (1970) - Kowloon Government Offices

The Kowloon Goverment Offices in Yaumatei also contain the Kowloon Central Post Office and this is the next location we see on film as the letters are sent to the sorting office. The establishing shot shows a couple of buildings, the one in the background has the name 平安大樓 (ping on dai lau) which, for those who don't know, is the Chinese name of the Alhambra Building on the corner of Nathan Road and Kansu Street. The building in front with the grey paint is the Govt office. Both buildings are still around.

Asia-Pol Secret Service - Wang Yu (1966) - Nathan Road, Yau Ma Tei

After leaving the airport in the girl's car, there is a rather nice panning shot as the car travels south along Nathan Road at the junction with Gascoigne Road. In the top image the camera is looking north towards the junction with Public Square Street. The small building that looks like a house is actually the old Yau Ma Tei Government School. It was built in 1905 and demolished in the mid-70s - not a bad life span for a building in Hong Kong. The white building on the left hand side, covered in scaffolding, is the Kowloon Government Office building. It looks as though the film captured the building as it was being given its finishing touches as it was opened the same year (it's still there for the time being).

In the lower image you can see the Alhambra building on the right hand side on the corner of Kansu Street. The block of smaller shophouse buildings on the other side of the road was replaced by Honour House and the Hang Shing Building with the old Fortuna Hotel the next building along.

Something Good - Luca Barbareschi (2013) - Temple Street, Yau Ma Tei

Trying to draw out this film as much as I can (because I have nothing in backup after running out of sources) and figured I would give this rather difficult location a stab. After a few minutes (!) I realised this is the rooftop of a building located on the corner of the junction between Saigon Street and Temple Street.

You can't actually see Temple Street in this shot because it is below the frame of the shot but the rooftop the two are talking on has a Temple Street address (#151). The street that is implied by the gap in the buildings behind Gary Lewis is in fact Saigon Street running from bottom right to centre frame. The two buildings on the opposite side facing Saigon Street stand at either side of the junction with Shanghai Street.

In addition to the above rooftop shot, in another part of the film is a shot used as part of a transition sequence that shows what I believe to be the view to the north from this exact same spot. You can just make out the red/orange paint job of the Alhambra Building behind the netted scaffolding on the left, followed by Honour House in the middle (behind the green netting) and finally the stripey exterior of the Hang Shing Building on the right.

Narazumono - Ken Takakura (1964) - Nathan Road, Kowloon

After winning his prize, Minami heads over to Nathan Road with his bags of goodies. In fact, this is the section of Nathan Road in front of the Alhambra building. Before the West Kowloon Corridor flyover was built, Gascoigne Road intersected with Nathan Road via a traffic island and that is where Minami is subsequently stopped by a mysterious Japanese woman. As she engages him in conversation we are given a few glimpses of the surrounding area including the previously mentioned Alhambra Building (top image), the former Yau Ma Tei Govt School (second image), the Methodist Church with its minimalist spire (third), and (lastly) the Methodist College with its zig zag roof design.

Narazumono - Ken Takakura (1964) - Nathan Road, Yau Ma Tei

Some more of the intro takes us back down into Yau Ma Tei as the car drives by the camera along Nathan Road close to the unction with Gascoigne Road. We'll come back here for a later post but I wanted to show this because you can see what it looked like before a whole load of development over took this place, in particular the West Kowloon Corridor flyover that was constructed approximately where the low rise dirty white building appears behind the bus. The Alhambra building(built in 1960 and still standing) can be seen behind that. The empty site on the right of the screen is where the Kowloon Government Offices now stand.

In the lower photo we get to see what was north of this location and the rather grand building on the left is the former Yau Ma Tei Government School. This was demolished sometime in the 1970s and the site was turned into a playground/basketball court. That's Public Square Street where the two pedestrians are crossing on the left.

The Chinese Stuntman - Ho Chung Tao (1981) - Alhambra Building, Yau Ma Tei

Ho's character has a friend who is a karate instructor and he goes to his karate school to have a chat. The building where the school was is actually the Alhambra Building at the junction of Nathan Road and Kansu Street. In the first picture we are looking up Nathan Road and the white building in the background is the lower floors of the Kowloon Government Offices. You can also see the Gascoigne Road/West Kowloon Corridor flyover (the road which goes through the nearby Yaumatei carpark).

As you can see the part of the building used in the film is that most northerly bit, right next to the flyover. It looks as though the interior scenes were filmed on location because in the lower picture you can see the square character boards stuck on the outside of the building, as well as the flyover going past the window. It looks as though it might have been turned back into a private flat in the meantime and the front lattice work has all been filled in (actually, it looks like it may have once been a balcony that has since been enclosed - illegally - a common practice in HK to gain extra space).

Ghost in the Shell - Scarlett Johansson (2017) - Kansu Street, Yau Ma Tei

Another from the general area of filming, this time it's Kansu Street and an alleyway where the Section 9 members are preparing for their foray into the illegal "Enhancement" bar was filmed. Actually, it's a real alleyway and is directly opposite the continuation of Temple Street as it passes the rear of the Alhambra Building. The lights in the background are from a real Mahjong parlour, although they've been slightly embellished to look more holographic.

Das Mädchen von Hongkong - Joachim Fuchsberger (1973) - Nathan Road, Kowloon

Here's a quickie to illustrate again how some of these films have reused footage from earlier movies for their establishing shots. It's more common than I realised and even Robert Clouse was at it when he reused the famous panning shot of HK from the beginning of Enter the Dragon and inserted it into the beginning of Golden Needles. In fact, there is a large section of this film in the opening credits that was taken from the earlier 1960's German films that I have already covered.

Two shots here that we have seen previously in earlier films. The first one is the collection of neon lighting hanging off the Alhambra Building in Yau Ma Tei. We saw both of these shots recently in Heisser Hafen Hongkong.

This one can be seen in its original use in the top picture of this post.

And the following shot, already established as being on the corner of Nathan and Nelson Street in Mongkok can be seen as the second picture here.

Heisser Hafen Hongkong - Horst Frank (1962) - Nathan Road, Yau Ma Tei

Some more Nathan Road, this time looking south near the modern day junction with Gascoigne Road. We know this because the signs are for the (relatively) newly built Alhambra Building. The building replaced a same named art-deco theatre at the corner of Kansu St and Nathan Road in 1960. The building is actually still around although the nightclub and other businesses have long gone. You can see a daytime version of the top picture at this link.