Amor e Dedinhos de Pé - Joaquim de Almeida (1993) - Avenida da Praia, Taipa

There are a few scenes in this film shot along the Avenida da Praia in Taipa, however, it's easily missed because it appears that the production crew went to great lengths to construct a large facade that covered the Taipa Houses (collectively known as the "Taipa Houses Museum") to give the appearance of more houses, and greater height, connected in a terrace. So in the screen shots below you can see that the street does look very familiar, but the houses on the right of the frame are all completely fake.

Given that the production appears to have constructed a colonial-style house on the seafront in Coloane, then the creation of a facade here to give the impression of more, taller properties is not that unbelievable.

Zegen - Ken Ogata (1987) - Avenida da Praia, Taipa

A brief journey (i.e. a single post) into the Japanese film Zegen, filmed in 1987 and starring Ken Ogata. Ogata is most perhaps better known to western audiences for his portrayal of the adult Mishima in 1985's Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters but he was also in The Pillow Book playing "The Father".

In the film, Ogata is Iheiji Muraoka, a poor fisherman who swims from Japan to Hong Kong in the hope of a better life. However, after settling down he is forced into service as a spy for the Imperial Japanese Army and ends up being inspired to create a network of brothels - the Japanese National Brothel - to service the ever expanding number of colonising soldiers. Apparently, Zegen (女衒) is a Japanese term for a philanderer.

This is one of those films that has been uploaded to the Internet Archive website, so you can view it at the following link: https://archive.org/details/zegen.-1987

Even though some scenes are set here, the film wasn't actually filmed in Hong Kong as far as I can tell. Instead, for some of its Hong Kong scenes, the film used Taipa in Macau as well as another location - a hillside village - that definitely wasn't Hong Kong or Macau (where though? I have no idea. Edit: it's Jiufen in Taiwan, see comment below). In the top image you can see the former waterfront along the praya on the left. All the area of sea behind it in the background is now part of the Cotai Strip.

In the story, Iheiji and his fellow swimmers have just arrived in Hong Kong and their local contact has instead told them to go to the Japanese Consulate for help. The house used as the consulate is the first house in the row and is now the "Museu Vivo Macanese" (although this is spelt as "Macaense"on Googlemaps). 

Pedicab Driver - Sammo Hung (1989) - Avenida da Praia, Taipa

On the journey back from the temple, Malt Candy takes Siu Choi along Taipa's own Avenida da Praia - in front of the popular Taipa Houses Museum.

Isabella - Isabella Leong (2006) - Avenida da Praia, Taipa

The pair hang out next to the famous "Taipa Houses Museum" when they are sudddenly chased by some local gangsters who want to speak with Ma.

China Cry - Julia Nickson (1990) - Avenida da Praia, Taipa

The pair of lovers embark on a bike ride that takes them seemingly all over Macau (though don't forget we are actually still supposed to be in Shanghai). This reminds me of the fact that Macau has stood in for Shanghai on a couple of occasions on this blog previously - for Fist of Fury, Shanghai Surprise and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Anyway, part of this bike ride takes place a few metres away from the location of this post along the road that is more famous for being the location of the Taipa Houses Museum: Avenida da Praia*

The top picture shows that although all the houses along the strip are now nicely restored, it wasn't always the case with the one on the right hand side looking quite unloved. The lower picture is actually from a later scene with Nickson looking over towards what would have been Coloane on the other side of a body of water. These days she would be staring straight into the Cotai Strip.

* Some maps refer to this as Avenida da Praia, Google calls it the Estrada de Cacilhas.

Shanghai Surprise - Madonna (1986) - Avenida da Praia, Taipa

Despite getting universally panned on release and failing dismally at the box office, Shanghai Surprise is worth watching for HK film fans because it includes lots of locations, some never seen on the blog before. We kick off proceedings with the opening scene shot around the Taipa Houses museum in Macau. If you've never been it is a recommended excursion to catch some breeze along what was then a waterfront location - now landlocked due to the unbelievably tacky and naff Cotai strip reclamation with all its resort casinos.