Ghosts Can't Do It - Bo Derek (1989) - The Regent Hotel, Tsim Sha Tsui

Despite Bo going skinny dipping in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel's pool, this isn't the hotel she appears to be staying at. The hotel where we see her in her room is actually on the other side of the harbour and is The Regent. The Regent was owned by New World (of Chow Tai Fook, Citybus, First Bus, First Ferry, Rosewood etc fame) but sold to - what became - the InterContinental group in 2001 when it was renamed. InterContinental sold the building again in 2015 but have retained the management contract.

This time we get both a shot from inside Derek's hotel room as well as the more recognisable forecourt.

Anyway, this is its third appearance on the blog under the Regent name (previously featuring on Noble House and Detonator 2: Night Watch - both starring Pierce Brosnan).

Ghosts Can't Do It - Bo Derek (1989) - Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Central

The swimming pool scene, when Derek is held at gunpoint and forced to eat a sleeping pill, was filmed in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. I have no idea if the hotel pool still looks like this but you can find pictures of it with this decor if you look hard enough. The problem I have with this scene is that it seems to have been cut just after Derek takes the pill. The following scene has her suddenly waking up in her hotel room with no real explanation as to what just happened. It feels as though there are some key scenes missing and I wonder if they are the ones involving Jon T. Benn that I couldn't otherwise find. If anyone knows the answers, please feel free to comment.

Ghosts Can't Do It - Bo Derek (1989) - Aberdeen, Hong Kong

One of Quinn's older business partners tries to woo Bo during an intimate dinner on board a junk in Aberdeen Harbour. It's quite a nice scene with the brightly lit Jumbo Kingdom filling out the background. Notice that in 1989 the Jumbo "Kingdom" still consisted of all three restaurants (Jumbo, Tai Pak and Sea Palace), you can see the Sea Palace in the background of the top image. These days the sea palace has gone and the Tai Pak has been moved over to that side.

Ghosts Can't Do It - Bo Derek (1989) - Star Ferry, Victoria Harbour

I first heard about the Hong Kong connection of this movie from Jon T. Benn (Mr Big from Way of the Dragon) when he was still making visits to Hong Kong a few years back (I believe Jon is now State-side). At the time of filming Jon was asked to help chaperone Bo Derek during her HK stay and it looks as though he was given a small role in the film (at least according to IMDB - however, I can't for the life of me see him in there and suspect it may be related to the fact that a section in the middle of the film appears to have been cut).

Anyway, to cut a long story short Jon was around during the swimming pool scenes (see a later post) and swore blind that Bo gave him a longer than necessary flash of her..."equipment"...after the filming had wrapped. It's actually one of the stories he includes in his book (still available from Blacksmith books) that is well worth a read if you want to find out how he went from Russian language specialist in the US Army (I kid you not) to starring next to Bruce Lee in Way of the Dragon. The guy is certainly an interesting individual with a very colourful life.

But back to the film, shot in 1989 it is about a couple played by Derek and Anthony Quinn. Quinn has a heart attack and can no longer "do it" so he kills himself to become a ghost so he can occupy the body of someone else in order to be able to do it with his wife again...yup!

His ghost follows her around the world giving advice in various situations - including during a business deal with Donald Trump (I'm not kidding about that either) in Hong Kong.

Not too much was filmed here, but there are some shots filmed in Aberdeen and the Mandarin Oriental Hotel etc. So we'll kick this film off with a post featuring Bo Derek trying to eat noodles with chopsticks on the Star Ferry and getting noodles on her face.