Roaring Fire - Hiroyuki Sananda (1982) - Victoria Harbour

On his way to the gangster's hideout, Joji (Sanada) grabs a boat and goes speeding through the harbour. This was in the early 80's before much of the reclamation that is evident today and so we have a fairly unfettered view of Connaught Road, or at least the buildings that line its southern side.

These days there are several hundred metres worth of reclamation blocking the view.

This first screen capture above shows the white General Post Office in the background - at a time when its northern side still fronted the harbour. Behind it just peeking out is the circular windowed Jardine House (previously Connaught Centre). At the far right is a row of buildings ending in the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce. Most of these buildings are still around including the art-deco C.G.C.C.

As the camera pulls out we get a wide angled view of the same area. The low-rise cream-coloured building behind the ship's mast is the old fire station. This was demolished and replaced the the Hang Seng HQ.

For those with a keen eye, you might also notice the Marine Office with its small tower. We got a closer view of this place at the beginning of the film - another great looking building that has fallen victim to redevelopment. Now the site of Infinity Plaza.

The World of Suzie Wong - William Holden (1960) - Old Star ferry Pier, Hong Kong

This place has only just recently moved into the history books because it was still around until the Wanchai->Central reclamation started in 2006 when it was - after huge demonstrations by the public - finally closed and then demolished to make way for...a road *sigh*.

Anyway, immediately after alighting from the previous mentioned Star Ferry, we see Lomax (Holden) making his way towards Statue Square via the Edinburgh Place ferry pier. More on Statue Square later but here are some grabs of how the pier used to look.

There are still a few remnants of the old ferry area still being used such as the Edinburgh Place car parks but everything else has been ripped out and gone. Here is Holden crossing Connaught Road Central - not something I would recommend anyone attempt today.

See all the buildings in the background? A couple are still around and I talked about them here not so long ago. The one right next to Holden's head is the impressive and still standing Chinese Chamber of Commerce building. The most striking building for me is the old GPO - the smaller building on the left behind the lamp post - with its colonial style columns and you can see the mail tower to the left of Holden where mail was loaded on and off boats at the harbour front via a conveyor belt mechanism.