Yellow Emanuelle - Chai Lee (1977) - More Ching Chung Koon, Tuen Mun

The reason that I didn't include these screen caps with my earlier post on Ching Chung Koon is because it took me a while to figure out where this was. In the context of the film, this is supposed to be Emy's home where she lives with her father. In the last post we saw that in the movie she points up the hill towards Green and White Jade to indicate her house, but these garden scenes were all shot at the aforementioned temple. In the top image, the purple and white walled building in the background is called Man Ching House (晚晴樓) and is located on the west side of the temple complex. I believe it is the part of the complex that is designated as an old peoples' home.

There has been a bit of development since this film was made though. The Man Ching House and octagonal gateway, seen in the top image, are still around, but the ornate wall with its 9 dragon motif has been replaced by another structure.

Yellow Emanuelle - Chai Lee (1977) - Ching Chung Koon, Tuen Mun

George and Emy go out on a date. The first place they hit is a perennial favourite with foreign movie companies, Ching Chung Koon. It's perhaps best known as being Bruce Lee's "Shaolin" temple, in the very first frames of Enter the Dragon.

La Fine Dell'innocenza - Annie Belle (1976) - Ching Chung Koon, Tuen Mun

Annie gets invited to audition for a film and low-and-behold, in the middle of an erotic drama, we are treated to some kung fu fighting courtesy of Charlie Chan Yiu-lam (Chan should be familiar to anyone who has watched The Man with the Golden Gun - he's the kung fu dude in the black uniform that fights Roger Moore in the Thailand fight scenes). The premise is that Annie is wandering around looking at the bonzai trees when she is grabbed by a bunch of hoodlums and is about to be assaulted when Charlie jumps in and defends her honour. Charlie also gets involved in another type of "action" later on in the film.

Harry's Hong Kong - David Soul (1987) - Ching Chung Koon, Tuen Mun

Harry is waylaid by the local Triad gang because their boss (played by James Hong) believes he was party to the theft of their money by his disappeared buddy. The boss gives Harry a time limit within which he needs to return the money. This meeting between the two occurs at Ching Chung Koon in Tuen Mun.

The Peking Medallion - Robert Stack (1967) - Ching Chung Koon, Tuen Mun

The occupants of the car that was following Stack along Lai Chi Kok Road are members of a local Triad (led by Nancy Kwan) who also want the medallion. So they inite Stack to their HQ on the pretext of him doing a photo shoot for their boss. The HQ turns out to be Ching Chung Koon in Tuen Mun, quite a popular location on this blog already. The circular moon gate is still around and you can see the more famous ornate archway (Pai Lau) in the gap through the moon gate.

Spider-Man: The Dragon's Challenge - Nicholas Hammond (1979) - Ching Chung Koon, Tuen Mun

It looks as though the film makers didn't just shoot film in HK and the US, because there is a sneaky bit of footage from Singapore that has been snuck in there in the hope that no one will notice. The scene involves the heroes setting up a meet between themselves and a family uncle. The temple in question is actually Ching Chung Koon in Tuen Mun as we see at the end of the sequence when they all get into a car parked in the forecourt. It's been used a couple of times on this blog before for Enter the Dragon and That Man Bolt.

It's a bit difficult finding interior photographs at this temple, but the few I found do seem to confirm that they filmed inside, but to be 100% I will need to make a return trip. However, the exterior shots are definitely there as you can see below.

And to finish off, here is the opening shots of the sequence that was actually taken at the main entrance to the Chinese Gardens at Jurong Lake in Singapore. I'm not sure if this is stock footage or shot specifically for the film, I suspect the former but you never know.

Not Hong Kong!

That Man Bolt - Fred Williamson (1973) - Ching Chung Koon, Tuen Mun

Used briefly in the introduction of Enter the Dragon (see here), in That Man Bolt we get a glimpse of the area behind the large pai lau (also known as a pai fong - they're the large ornamental gateways that are seen in temples and some more established villages).

Believe it or not, that nice hilly area at the back of the first picture is now a 6-lane highway called the Tsing Tan Road! Tuen Mun has undergone a massive change into a 'New Town' with most of its bay reclaimed and a whole bunch of housing estates being built. I guess we should be thankful that this place has remained fairly unchanged in the last 40 years even if everything around it has been transformed.

Look, it's Geoffrey again!

The Lions by the archway have been moved, but other than that everything else looks pretty much the same, including that small pavilion in the bottom picture. Anyway, now you have two reasons to take the trip out there.

Enter The Dragon - Bruce Lee (1973) - Ching Chung Koon, Tuen Mun

Blink and you'll miss it, but the very opening shot of the film shows a very famous local temple called Ching Chung Koon. In the film it is used (the first of three separate locations) to represent the Shaolin Monastery where Lee's character is some sort of top kung fu disciple. In reality it's a temple and columbarium (an ash storage and worship facility) of the HK religious type (sort of a mix of Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism with elements of superstitious folk religion thrown in for good measure). The image we see on the film is of the main temple ceremonial gateway (a pai lau in local parlance) and the main temple building behind.

However, in the intervening years a few more buildings and roads have been created making this same angle almost impossible to attain. The lower front part of the roof of the main temple has also been extended and if you look carefully in the snaps below you will see what I mean (incidentally, I also heard the main roof was widened, but this could just be a misinterpretation of the bit I have just mentioned). These are my best efforts that sadly didn't make it into my Time Out Hong Kong article of various locations from the film due to a lack of space.