Anti-Corruption - Bill Lake (1975) - The Court of Final Appeal, Central

The final court scenes were shot at the colonial court building that is now the Court of Final Appeal but has had former identities as the Legislative Council building and original Supreme Court. At the time of filming it was still the Supreme Court before that function moved to the "new" court building at the end of Supreme Court Drive. Since the 1997 handover, Hong Kong no longer has a Supreme Court.

Anti-Corruption - Bill Lake (1975) - Happy Valley Racecourse

Inevitably some of the bent coppers are tracked down at the races where they are gambling all that ill-gotten wealth.

Anti-Corruption - Bill Lake (1975) - 16 Durham Road, Kowloon Tsai

When Taff is being given his lesson on the true nature of life in the HK Police Force, he is taken by his corrupt Sergeant to watch a surreptitious money drop off outside Kobert's house. Kobert's wife leaves the property to walk the dog and picks up a bag that has been left by the dodgy man walking in front of her. She then heads back home. This all goes on whilst Taff and co are watching from a car nearby.

In an amazing bit of good fortune, I was able to stumble across the house that was used in the film because, against all odds, it is still around. The address is 16 Durham Road in the Kowloon Tsai part of Kowloon Tong - that's the esatet to the east of Waterloo Road that was developed from the late forties and early fifties. The house in question was completed in 1955 and although it has had a bit of external repainting done, the owners don't appear to have bothered with the garden wall. At last not in the past 46 year since the film was made.

Anti-Corruption - Bill Lake (1975) - Shatin Heights Hotel, Shatin

Here's a location we haven't seen on the blog before, so it's a shame the picture quality isn't particualrly good because it would have been nice to see some good shots of this formerly famous hotel located on the Tai Po Road. Anyway, this appears in a scene where Taff is enjoying a morning coffee on the hotel's famous terrace when he bumps into Kobert and his wife and invites them to join him for a drink.

The hotel was demolished in the early 1980s and has since been replaced by a...can you guess?...residential development! Yes, such is life in Hong Kong. The development is still called Shatin Heights (in English at least) and is at the Tai Wai section of the Tai Po Road. This place is often confused with the equally popular Yucca de Lac restaurant that was located a couple of miles further north along the old Tai Po Road, but the view from each one is quite different.

Anti-Corruption - Bill Lake (1975) - Kai Tak Airport, Kowloon

In the initial stages of Taff's (Bill Lake) flashback reminiscence we see a plane landing at Kai Tak from the east. This is supposedly the plane that brought Taff and his fellow colleague, Kobert (this is the film character's name for Godber - remember, any similarity between the characters in this film and real life and purely coincidental!!!) to HK for their new careers in the HK Police Force. The pair have a chat waiting for a taxi before Taff decides he might just walk.

The airport also appears later in the film as Kobert makes a dash for freedom after realising the game is up. In real life, Godber was able to board a plane to the UK and ended up having to be extradited back to HK. Of course, recent events in HK's political landscape mean that most countries have now suspended their extradition agreements with HK. The last two images below are from the later scene.

Anti-Corruption - Bill Lake (1975) - Old Wanchai Police Station, Jaffe Road

The old Wanchai Police Station has ceased to be a functioning station for quite some time now (and it remains the only one I have ever been inside - unlike a lot of other HKers of late who have not had much choice in the matter). Anyway, if it looks a bit different to my usual images of the building, it's because this is the rear of the building on Jaffe Road. This is still part of the film's rather lengthy preamble.

Anti-Corruption - Bill Lake (1975) - Southorn Playground, Wanchai

The tour of Wanchai continues with this panning shot of Southorn Playground between Johnston and Hennessy Roads. The building at the edge of the ground is the former War Memorial Welfare and Recreational Centre so this means we are looking east again and the last image shows Hennessy Road on the left. The building has since been replaced by the Southorn Stadium building on the right and the Southorn Centre on the left (which houses the popular Wanchai Computer Centre).

Anti-Corruption - Bill Lake (1975) - Hennessy Road, Wanchai

Another street level shot with a bar/cub sign that helps us place the location at the southern end of Fenwick Street where it joins Hennessy Road. The camera is on the south side of Hennessy Road and pans left to right. There's not much still around here other than the white building directly behind the buses on the right hand side in the second image. This building is still standing on the NE corner of the junction. At the time it was the "Hotel Singapore" but now it is the "Kew Green Hotel". This is the same building that was quarantined for a week in 2009 due to a Swine Flu outbreak with images of trapped guests waving out of the windows. It was the Wanchai Metropark at the time. The HK Govt sure seems to enjoy locking people up in hotel rooms (I'm speaking from experience after spending 3 weeks in one following my return from the UK).

Anti-Corruption - Bill Lake (197) - Lockhart Road, Wanchai

Some more street shots whilst the opening credit's preamble describes the state of corruption in the Hong kong police force at the time. The following is the view (looking east) along Lockhart Road between Arsenal and Fenwick Streets. The Pussycat Bar was located on the SW corner of Lockhart and Fenwick Streets where the Empire Hotel now stands.

Anti-Corruption - Bill Lake (1975) - Gloucester Road, Wanchai

The next scene in the opening of the film is a panning shot that starts on the (since replaced) Wanchai ferry pier on the newly reclaimed waterfront north of Gloucester Road. The camera then pans right to align with the road. The location of the camera - in an elevated position above the road, suggests it was placed on the newly built flyover that connected Fleming Road with the new ferry pier. So we are looking east from Fleming Road. If you look closely you can just make out a pedestrian bridge that crossed Gloucester Road at the end of Tonnochy Road.

Anti-Corruption - Bill Lake (1975) - Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong

One of the great encounters I have had over the past few years has been with a local military historian called Bill Lake. I met Bill one evening at a Gwulo.com get-together (pre-Covid of course) and although he now dedicates his time to researching Hong Kong's military past (Bill is an ex-soldier from the Royal Regiment of Artillery) and is one of its pre-eminent historians, he also has a fairly impressive resume of Hong Kong films under his belt.

Anyway, just after leaving quarantine on my return to HK, myself and David Bellis (the man behind Gwulo) headed out to Sai Kung to meet Bill for a coffee and chinwag. One of the things I departed with that day was a copy of one of Bill's larger films roles in the form of an Ng See Yuen film called Anti-Corruption. The film *fictionally* portrays the events surrounding the eventual prosecution of renowned bent copper, Peter Godber, and his fellow corrupt police officers. Bill plays the main character, Taff Hunter, who arrives in Hong Kong as an arrow-straight policeman who eventually gets overwhelmed by the constant pressure to accept bribes.

The film starts off as Taff is counting his weekly stack of bills and then goes into flashback as he reminisces about how it all started. Bill told me that at the time of release, it was really popular with local policeman who, after being kept in the dark about the events surrounding Godber's capture, were keen to see how everything had played out. It appears that the rank and file didn't know that most of the arrests were achieved through confessions taken by senior officers in return for dropping of charges or reduced sentences.

One problem with the film is that it appears to be the only copy available. The picture quality appears to be a pan-and-scan VHS transfer from the 1980s, so the screencaps I have aren't great, but there are some interesting locations so I thought it was worthwhile including here. I don't think this movie has had a release outside of the early 80s? If anyone knows differently, please feel free to comment because it would be nice to get Bill a better version.

The opening scenes start with this zoomed in view of a passenger liner berthed at Ocean terminal, before the camera lens pulls back to reveal the harbour and the main part of Central. Most of the right hand side of the loer image has been redeveloped - the Furama and Hilton Hotels disappearing a while ago. But most recently (whilst I was in the UK it seems) Hutchison House has also been demolished to make way for a more modern one now being constructed.