Beyond Hypothermia - Jacklyn Wu Chien-lien (1996) - Minden Avenue, Tsim Sha Tsui

On one of her visits to the noodle stall, Long surprises her by taking her to the top of his building where he has installed a swing set on the roof terrace. The building is supposed to be located next to the noodle stall but when we get to the roof it's quite obvious we have crossed the harbour and are adjacent to the Blackhead Point Signal tower (centre left, first image). Where the "Harbour Pinnacle" building now stands on Minden Avenue was a row of low-rise tenement buildings, and it was on the roof of one of these that this scene was filmed. The buildings have long gone but you can get a glimpse via this old post. In the top image on that link, if you look immediately below the signal tower you will see the row of buildings in question.

Signal Hill/Blackhead Point - Now and Then

I took a side trip up to Signal Hill in Tsim Sha Tsui the other day because I remembered that Ryan O'Neal shot a brief scene here for Oliver's Story back in 1978. I was able to capture some reasonable comparisons on my phone and you can see them below compared to the film captures.

As you can see below, the pavilion is still there but the red tiles have been removed from the columns (I think that's a recent thing because I'm sure they were still there when I was last here a few years ago) and the balustrade finials have also been removed and just replaced with a pyramid style point.

Looking east from the battery. In the distance you can see Yau Tong/Lei Yue Mun area. The block behind Ryan O'Neal's feet is actually a granite boundary stone that has the letters W.D.L 54 etched into it. I think W.D.L should stand for War Department Lot. I think the railings are still the same ones.

This is looking towards the east side of the battery. I actually had to climb on a wall/fence for this shot because as you can see in the modern images, the battery is now fenced off for being "dangerous". I have no idea what danger it poses other than someone could potentially slip and sprain an ankle (hey, that's why the Govt have concreted miles of hiking trails in the hills).

The next angle shows the west side of the gun battery. Not much of a view today though, is there?

Das Mädchen von Hongkong - Joachim Fuchsberger (1973) - Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon

Here is an interesting set of shots for those wondering what Tsim Sha Tsui looked like before the so-called "The Masterpiece" was constructed with the URA's usual scant regard for sympathetic design.

This scene is a follow on from when Fuchsberger is cornered in his friend's office (with the cold storage warehouse in the background that was actually in Kwai Chung!). He escapes from the room and all of a sudden ends up on the Tsim Sha Tsui rooftops.

The cluster of buildings where the chaps are scuttling over the rooftops are the exact buildings that were removed to make way for the redevelopment. Actually, they're looking in reasonable shape in this film but by the time came for demolition they were looking pretty sketchy - but nothing some TLC couldn't have fixed.

The view has changed drastically with additional high rise development now obscuring the signal tower on Blackhead Point (that;s still there thankfully), but there are some familiar buildings to be spotted around in the background including Chung king Mansion, Mirador Mansion, Peninsula Apartments and the Lyton Building. All those nice looking balconied low rises have all been redeveloped. 

Noble House (Mini series) - Pierce Brosnan (1988) - The Regent Hotel, Tsim Sha Tsui

What we now know as the rather plush Intercontinental Hotel, used to be called The Regent Hotel and was owned and operated by New World Development (Cheng Yu-tung's company - he also owns the Chow Tai Fook jewellery chain) before being sold off to the Intercontinental Group circa 2001. It was rebranded and has operated as the flagship Intercontinental since then.

Funnily enough, Intercontinental have also just recently sold off the hotel to another owner. But all is not lost for your IC fans because the brand will continue thanks to a deal they struck to retain management of the hotel for at least the next 40 or so years...

In the above picture we are looking back the other way towards Salisbury Road and it's quite interesting to see (if you can just make it out) the old signal tower on Blackhead Point (top right). The grey building beyond the van is the Mariner Club along Middle Road. Suffice to say the open sky at the back is now filled with high-rises.

The two shots above are snipped from Episode 2, but we also return to the hotel during Episode 3 when Dunross goes to meet Brian Kwok, only to find out he is 'indisposed'. So in Epsiode 3 we also get a brief look inside the hotel lobby. From what I can remember of the place it hasn't changed much.