The Thieves - Kim Yoon-seok (2012) - 98 Carpenter Road (rear of), Kowloon City

The gang leaves their HK hideout on a mission to return to Korea and track down Macao. The shot used for them exiting on to the street is the alleyway located at the back of an old block that once stood at 98 Junction Road. That said, the alleyway opens around the corner, on Carpenter Road, and this is what we can see in the images below. The old block has since been demolished but the alleyway is still there.

Asia-Pol Secret Service - Wang Yu (1966) - Kowloon City Aerial View

The final aerial shots are taken over the Kowloon City area just in front of the airport runway.

The government estate that can be seen in the upper part of both images is the old Tung Tau Estate before it was redeveloped into taller/higher capacity blocks. The sole remaining structure from this image was, until 2014, Block 22 - the taller building on the corner of the road junction. This has since been replaced by the newer, taller Wui Chi House. However, the smaller building in front of it survives and contains the Po Yan Oblate Primary School.

Directly below that is a squatter village that sat in between the notorious Kowloon Walled City (on the left) and Kowloon City area that is still around on the right. So the whole area encompassing the squatter huts and Kowloon Walled City are now all city park.

Shanghai Surprise - Madonna (1986) - Kowloon Walled City, Kowloon

Another site that seems to have satisfied the film makers with regards to being dilapidated enough to represent old Shanghai is the Kowloon Walled City. We don't get to see inside the "city", but the ramshackle illegal tenements that formed the outer walls of the place can be seen in the background of the next scene along with the shaved hillside at the back of the Tung Tau Tsuen Road.

The buildings at the back used to form part of the western edge of the slum which would put the filming action pretty much in the centre of today's adjoining Carpenter Road Park near (or perhaps on) the site of the Kowloon City Plaza mall (it was built in 1993).

The Pillow Book - Vivian Wu (1996) - Kowloon City Plaza, Kowloon City

We've not finished with Kowloon City yet because there was also some filming done on the rooftop carpark belonging to Kowloon City Plaza - now called KCP - on Carpenter Road.

The Pillow Book - Vivian Wu (1996) - Lion Rock Road, Kowloon City

Wu's character holes up in Kowloon City when she first arrives in Hong Kong. There are a few brief moments when we catch a glimpse of the northern end of Lion Rock Road where it joins with Carpenter Road.

As with elsewhere in Hong Kong, many of the overhead signs have been removed (a big shame in my opinion) but most of the buildings seem to still be around even if the businesses within have changed. The sole commercial remnant is the cafe with the blue/red sign seen above and in the Streetview grab below (now underneath the square sign with the cartoon face).

Roaring Fire - Hiroyuki Sanada (1982) - Kowloon City, Kowloon

I hadn't realised until I saw this film, but it seems as though the large area in front of the infamous Kowloon Walled City - now known as the Carpenter Road Park - was a small cottage area. In HK this means it was filled with small squatter huts.

Thankfully, the film makers seem to have taken their camera into the Walled City itself and put them up on the rooftops in order to get the following shots.

These first two shots give us a view from the top of Kowloon Walled City towards Nga Tsin Long Road (this is where we were in the last post) in Kowloon City - it's the road with the red shop awnings. The tree covered area is the previously mentioned dispensary.

A little later in the film, when Joji goes back to where his brother was killed, we get another similar view but of the area that is off to the right of these shots.

This first screen capture above shows the dispensary area on the far left of the screen and the white building in the centre is Chi Kam Court (built 1981 - virtually brand new when this film was made!) on the opposite side of Hau Wong Road. It's not white anymore...

 The next building with the brown rectangular pattern is the end of the Victory Building that fronts Lion Rock Road. It is also still around and isn't that clean anymore either :-)

The shanty town is long gone - as is the Walled City - the whole area being turned into one large park area encompassing Carpenter Road Park and the Walled City Park. Incidentally the Kowloon City Plaza has also been built on Carpenter Road right in that space in front of Chi Kam Coiurt and the Victory Building.