Karate from Shaolin Temple - Kazuma Kenji (1976) - Lisboa Hotel, Macau

Musashi goes to Macau with Reiko, not knowing that she is actually the girlfriend of Wu. The first Macau location we are shown is the famous Lisboa.

The Last Time I Saw Macao - João Rui Guerra da Mata (2012) - Casino Lisboa, Macau

Da Mata considers his options in getting to the rendezvous as he passes a bunch of pedicabs, but then remarks that they are just here for tourists now and no one actually rides in them anymore. The pedicab stand is located right outside the entrance to Casino Lisboa. The entrance also pops up later in a night scene in all its colourful glory.

Vengeance - Johnny Hallyday (2009) - Casino Lisboa, Macau

The eagle-eyed will have spotted a quick glimpse of the Lisboa casinos (both of them) in the last post, and soon the scene moves to a night time shot of the same area. Although the old Lisboa has a sort of appealing retro tack, the Grand Lisboa (in my opinion) is a massive blot on the Macau landscape. I just hate that thing.

Vengeance - Johnny Hallyday (2009) - Ponte Governador Nobre de Carvalho, Macau

The next film is Vengeance - a joint French/HK production directed by famed HK director, Johnnie To. It stars the French superstar, Johnny Hallyday (who just recently passed away in December 2017), as a former hitman who has come to Macau to exact revenge on the people that assassinated his daughter's family. It's a bit slow in places and slightly preposterous in others but overall a good story with lots of locations in both HK and Macau. It opens with a shot of a taxi driving over the Governador Nobre de Carvalho bridge towards the peninsula.

Challenge of the Tiger - Bruce Le (1982) - Casino Lisboa, Macau

Another of the famous Macau landmarks we see is the Hotel/Casino Lisboa. This is the original casino/hotel built by Stanley Ho and Henry Fok (and others) when they had the gambling monopoly. It's rather gaudy exterior seems quite restrained these days compared to its increasingly ridiculous neighbours (including the completely stupid looking Grand Lisboa).

Johnny English Reborn - Rowan Atkinson (2011) - Grand Lisboa, Macau

The action briefly moves over to Macau as the two spies head off to meet their contact at the truly, TRULY tacky Grand Lisboa casino. But before we go there we also catch a quick glimpse of the original Lisboa across the road. Here it is below looking colourful and relatively subdued compared to the monstrosity that sits across the road from it.

And here is the monstrosity just mentioned. One of the true great eyesores of the Macau skyline (at least all the other tacky resort casinos have been restricted to the Cotai Strip) that I would happily see demolished.

There looks to have also been some interior filming as well, a quick google reveals that the next shot (with the tasteful gold wall) is indeed inside the building, and I assume the second picture below is as well, however, I'm having problems finding anything online to match, so it could easily be a mock up back in a studio.

Real or not?

Detonator II: Night Watch - Pierce Brosnan (1995) - Casino Lisboa, Macau

A brief scene set inside the Casino Lisboa/Hotel Lisboa in Macau starts with a view of its rather colourful neon lit entrance. I must admit that despite the tackiness of it all, I actually quite like the quirky design of the place and it's infinitely more stylish than the new Grand Lisboa that sits across the road and was built in the shape of a giant golden lily flower.

The Streetview grab below shows us that the lights outside have since been changed but the place is still going strong - not surprising given the amount of dodgy activities that happen inside, and I'm not talking about the gambling.

Noble House (Mini series) - Pierce Brosnan (1988) - Lisboa Hotel, Macau

Continuing with a whistle-stop tour of Macau, we now see the regal Rolls Royce rolling past the very famous Lisboa Hotel and Casino. This was Stanley Ho's centrepiece of his gambling monopoly in Macau and I have to admit I find the garish colours and circular-styling quite appealing. This casino is still around although since the Ho clan lost their monopoly, Macau has just grown into a huge gambling territory with casinos and resort hotels popping up all over the place (though largely centred on a piece of reclaimed land between Taipa and Coloane called The Cotai Strip).

I have actually been in this casino back in 1996. It was interesting to see the various games such as fan tan and big/small, but the thing you really have to watch out for is that almost every floor is saturated with young Chinese prostitutes all doing the rounds. They rent rooms for the day and then head downstairs to ply their trade. Not the most salubrious of places to spend your time for many reasons. Just to the left of this shot is the location of Ho's new Grand Lisboa stands. It wins the prize for being the most gaudy, over-the-top, garish piece of architecture ever seen and truly ruins the Macau cityscape.

What we can see in the above picture though is the old statue of Joao Maria Ferreira do Amaral which stood at the centre of the roundabout in front of the hotel. Ferreira do Amaral was a bit of a thorn in the side of the Chinese and it's common knowledge that the statue was eventually removed (and shipped back to Portugal) so as not to piss off the Chinese when they retook Macau in 1999.

To be honest, the modern version of the roundabout is a complete mess as you can see courtesy of Streetview below (yes, that gold thing on the left is the Grand Lisboa...)