Bruce Lee: True Story - Ho Chung Tao (1976) - Beverly Heights, Kowloon Tong

The movie opens and closes with the events surrounding Bruce's death and we see a bit of footage of an ambulance arriving at the real-life location, Beverly Heights, where Bruce died on 20th July 1973.

Sunset - Paul Chin Pei (1971) - Lung Cheung Road, Kowloon

It's been several years since I covered the locations for this film and it was also done while I was still living in Taipo. Now I've been in Kowloon for the past four years it's a good time to go back and 1. update the screen grabs and 2. suss out some of the locations I couldn't get the first time round. You can see the newly updated (screen grabs from a DVD rather than the VCD version I initially used) posts here.

Here's a great example of a missed location. It's the section of Lung Cheung Road that runs past the north end of Kowloon Tong.

This part of Kowloon hasn't really changed at all and all the buildings you can see on screen are still there and fairly unchanged. The main building in the top picture, alongside the road, is Pearl Court. Built around 1966 it's one of the older buildings in this area but not by much as most of this estate was completed by around 1970. Compared to today's shoebox flats these older buildings had much higher ceilings and more space and tend to still go for a tidy sum.

Far right of picture two is the edge of Beverly Heights, a name that should be familiar with Bruce Lee fans because it's where he died about 2 years after this film was made. The yellow podium next to it belongs to Chermain Heights which sits on the opposite side of Beacon Hill Road.

The playground (called Lung Cheung Playground) is also still there but now the view is interrupted by sound barriers and tree growth.

Bruce Lee & I - Betty Ting Pei (1976) - Beacon Hill Road, Kowloon

Well, it doesn't get any more real than this does it? Fake Bruce (Danny Lee) continues his journey up the slopes at the back of Kowloon as he heads towards Beverly Heights on Beacon Hill Road - the actual location of Lee's rather sad demise all those years ago. Not much has changed here as mentioned before. Many of these buildings are old for HK standards - Beverly Heights, where Ting Pei lived and where Bruce died (IMO of course - I subscribe to the theory that he was dead long before the ambulance arrived which is why it made no difference which hospital he was taken to...) was built in 1970 - but still sell for a ton of money due to the relatively large amount of space and ceiling size.

Here we see the car driving up the road.

The concrete slope is still there, as is the small staircase, the low wall and the little line of tree that comes diagonally down the slope. The building at the far end of the road (the Luso Apartments) are also still around as is that little hillock next to them. All that has changed really is that the local district council have added some tree saplings along the pavement.

Then as the car goes past the camera we get a glimpse of the corner at the top of the road and just beyond is the edge of Beverly Heights (the white building).

As you can see from the current Streetview, other than some tree growth this place has changed very little. And just in case there is any doubt as to where we are...the road sign is actually pretty much the only thing that has been removed :-)