Blood, Sand and Gold - Aaron Costa Ganis (2017) - Garden Road Flyover, Central

We were here just a few months ago, except that time we were following a couple of an epic walk from SoHo to Lan Kwai Fong via Katmandu (or at least that's what it felt like). This time it's just a quick scene as a car drives down Garden Road down towards Queensway.

Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong - Jamie Chung (2015) - Queensway, Central

The next location is a much larger area compared to the narrow streets that have taken up much of the last few posts. This is the stretch of Queensway in front of the Cheung Kong Centre and Bank of China Tower just before it turns into Queen's Road Central. The scene starts off with the camera positioned on the Garden Road flyover looking down as the two cross the road.

We then get some nice views looking up at the various tall buildings here including the much smaller (but more stylish) Bank of China Building (the older BoC), HSBC HQ, Cheung Kong Centre and the Bank of China Tower.

There is a brief shot of the pair as they enter Chater Garden...

...and then inexplicably (though keeping with the illogical way the walk has gone up to now) they end up all the way back over to the Garden Road flyover where the camera was located for the opening shot. The spiral staircase is the same one that you can walk down from Garden Road back onto Queensway by the entrance to Chater Garden.

Battleship - Taylor Kitsch (2012) - Bank of China Building, Central

Unfortunately for the poor people working in the BOC building, they are right in the path of the oncoming spaceship and are duly incinerated when the ship cuts the top third of the building off and sends it crashing to the street below. I seem to remember the building was in for a bit of wear and tear when the Transformers came to town a few years later.

 The remains of the ship then crash into the harbour next to the Convention Centre.

Noble House (Mini series) - Pierce Brosnan (1988) - Des Voeux Road Central, Hong Kong

For the sake of completeness, here is a brief snippet of the junction in Central that marks the beginning of both Des Voeux Road and Queen's Road. I might be wrong, but the angle suggests this may have been snapped from somewhere around the former Hongkong Hilton (replaced in the mid-90's by the Cheung Kong Centre).

Transformers: Age of Extinction - Mark Wahlberg (2014) - Bank of China Building, Central

One of Hong Kong's iconic buildings gets a thorough seeing to when one of the dino-robotic thingymajigs flys around it and takes a fall.

Soldier, Soldier (TV Series) - Robson Green (1992) - Harbourfront, Hong Kong

Another TV series for the blog and this time one that I missed when it was originally shown back in 1992 - I was grotty student in Leeds at the time spending most of my time listening to music rather than watching the box. Strictly speaking the episodes I am looking at are from series 2, when the so-called King's Fusiliers move to Hong Kong. The first two episodes of the series were still based back in the UK but the remaining 4 episodes were filmed in their entirety in Hong Kong.

One of the first scenes we are shown an army helicopter flying along the harbour front with a few sights to look at including the Shun Tak Centre in Sheung Wan (pic 1), the old vehicular ferry pier (pic 2 & 3) and finally the Bank of China and its surrounding buildings such as the Furama Hotel, the Ritz Carlton (both redeveloped), Hutchison House, Bank of America tower etc.

Roaring Fire - Hiroyuki Sanada (1982) - Des Voeux Road Central, Hong Kong

A quick one here. Another part of this film's epic chase scene sees Sanada running past the old Bank of China Building in Central. That's the bank building on the left of the first screen capture.

Men of the Dragon - Jared Martin (1974) - HK Cricket Club, Central

Not many modern visitors, or even residents for that matter, realise that Chater Garden in Central (and the term 'garden' is applied in the liberal HK sense of the word here i.e. no grass, just concrete) was once actually a nice wide open cricket ground (with real grass!!) used by the HK Cricket Club. It's quite ironic that a large piece of grassy land should be need to be concreted over in order to get the name 'garden' bestowed on it, but I guess care of all things natural and green weren't (and still aren't) of great concern to those in Govt.

The club moved up to its current location at Wong Nai Chung Gap Road ('The Gap') above Wanchai when its lease on the ground was not renewed by the Govt and the 'Gap' site was offered as an alternative. It moved pretty much around the time this film was made (circa 1974/75) so it is quite possible that the producers of Men of the Dragon caught one of the last few games of cricket being played on this pitch.

Anyway, once again the grabs are not the greatest of quality but if you would like to see some better pictures of the ground, Gwulo.com has a decent selection here.

In the first picture below you can see Garden Road in the background where it hooks up with Queens Road Central. The building on the corner right there was the old Hilton Hotel - demolished around 1994 to make way for the Li Ka-shing monolith that is the Cheung Kong Centre. When I first visited HK back in 1995, I had just missed the hotel by a few months and the workers had started to do the pile driving for the new building.

As the camera pans from left to right across the pitch, the last screen grab shows the side of the old Bank of China, and look carefully you can see a little bit of the decoration that adorned the front of the Hilton. Chater Garden was officially opened in 1978 and these days seems to be a focal point for protest march gatherings. It's named for the road it sits next to, Chater Road, which is itself named after Sir Paul Chater who was a central figure in HK development. Some of the businesses he founded or helped found are still around including Hongkong Land (now controlled by Jardines) and Hongkong Electric.

Double Impact - Jean Claude Van Damme (1991) - Garden Road Flyover, Central

An easy one to identify here but still worthwhile including 'cause you never know when a building may disappear...

It's just an establishing shot with no actors on screen and is used a couple of times in the movie (though both times at slightly different angles). The first one shows a good view of what is now called the Lippo Centre, but at the time of filming was only a few years old (completed in 1988) and still called the Bond Centre.

The second time the shot is used we see it from a location slightly further to the south so that the front part of the Bank of China building can be seen on the right.

Soldier of Fortune - Clark Gable (1955) - Queen's Building, HK Island

Here is another shot from the intro taken from the harbour right in front of Queen's Building - once again showing the large COOK'S sign on the harbour-side of the building.

It's not just the old buildings that I find fascinating, but also the almost complete lack of development on the hillside at the back. It's difficult to see anything through the hundreds of high-rises these days. There are a few other things to spot though including the old HSBC building, the old Bank of China building, The Hong Kong Club (far left), what looks like the pitched roof of Blake Pier in the foreground and the former LegCo building (aka Supreme Court) behind it.