SPL - Donnie Yen (2005) - Cheung Sha Wan Beach, Lantau

Next up is the 2005 collaboration between Wilson Yip and Donnie Yen who would later go on to make a good film (and three not so good) about Wing Chun teacher, Yip Man.

The English title of this film is just an abbreviation of the initial sounds of the Chinese title 殺破狼 (saat po long or sha po lang depending on your Chinese preference of Cantonese or Mandarin) and it basically means to "destroy a wolf" albeit somewhat more poetically stated in the original Chinese.

The film's plot concerns the efforts of a policeman, Chung (Simon Yam), to bring down his arch nemesis, a triad leader called Wong Po (Sammo Hung) and the illegal methods he employs to achieve this. Along comes Inspector Ma (Donnie Yen) to inject  a bit of integrity back into his crew before realising that Wong Po is basically untouchable and he soon falls into the plan to bring Wong down by any means necessary.

The film kicks off (and ends) at Lower Cheung Sha Wan beach on Lantau Island. We've visited here before, although it was many years ago.

Felicity - Glory Annen (1978) - Cheung Sha Wan Beach, Lantau Island

In the last part of the film, Felicity is reunited with her beau on a deserted beach somewhere. Part of this scene was filmed in Hong Kong and I can only assume the shots involving the small brown hut he is staying in were shot back in Australia because the background terrain is too flat to be Hong Kong. So the first two images below show the Cheung Sha beach shot portion and the latter image shows what I am guessing is somewhere in Australia - the fact that the two of them go frolicking butt naked in the sea may have been the reason these later shots were done outside of Hong Kong (nudity is not allowed on Hong Kong beaches).

Above: Cheung Sha beach with Sha Tsui in the background 

Not Hong Kong (most likely Australia given the origin of the film)

Bruce Lee & I - Betty Ting Pei (1976) - Cheung Sha Wan Beach, Lantau

Betty is feeling a bit unloved and so drives off to a beach. It's an impressive feat when you consider the beach is actually on Lantau Island and not easily accessed by car in the mid-70's.

The more eagle-eyed HK film fans out there may recognise this place from another film - albeit one made 30 years later. You can see this beach at the beginning and end of SPL: Sha Po Lang starring Sammo Hung, Simon Yam and Donnie Yen. Dan's location blog has a post about it here.