Double Dhamaal - Sanjay Dutt (2011) - The Venetian

Kabir's casino is called "The Four Jokers", no doubt an in-film joke referring to our trusty conmen. However, the exterior of the casino features a bit of digital mainpulation. Other than having the fake name emblazoned down the side, one of the fake buildings on the hotel exterior has been extended three times its real height. This same fake building - the yellow one we see in the close up - is used in the film as the location of Kabir's office and is used in a gag later when someone dives out of the window into the water below. In case my explanation isn't clear, GoogleEarth has some imagery from a while back.

Double Dhamaal - Sanjay Dutt (2011) - Galaxy Hotel, Cotai Strip

Kabir's casino looks suspiciously like the Galaxy Hotel on the Cotai Strip. This scene is an example of the merging of Hong Kong and Macau. In the film, the four conmen turn away from the harbour where they have just crawled out of the water and see Kabir arriving nearby in a stretch limousine. Of course, in reality the limousine was filmed pulling into the main entrance of the Galaxy, not in Hong Kong at all. This scene reminds me a little bit of Mr Hercules Against Karate which features a scene - supposedly in a single location - that was filmed at both Sydney Opera House and Hong Kong's Victoria Peak.

Ballad of a Small Player - Colin Farrell (2025) - The Venetian, Macau

This is the last post for Ballad of a Small Player (unless I can identify some of the more obscure interiors). It's been a while since I stayed here (10+ years) but I think I recognise some of the interior at the Venetian including the food court where Doyle sits down and gets given a bit of reality by Cynthia Blithe (Tilda Swinton). The last time I was here it still had a Fatburger!

This is the small garden/putting course on the hotel podium

Ballad of a Small Player - Colin Farrell (2025) - Macau Light Rapid Transit Taipa

Doyle returns to Macau with Dao-ming's stash of money and we next see him riding the LRT line back to the casinos. This is another of Macau's recently added features that I have yet to experience (I've only been back once since the end of Covid).

Ballad of a Small Player - Colin Farrell (2025) - The Cotai Strip, Various locations

I've mentioned the colourful cinematography of the film, so it's worth including some of the general establishing shots used, the following being from around the casinos on the Cotai Strip.

Ballad of a Small Player - Colin Farrell (2025) - Rotunda do Istmo, Taipa

Although the film starts with Doyle in his hotel room at the Wynn, the following few minutes is occupied by a montage as Doyle narrates his circumstances. There are lots of views from all over Macau so I thought it would be nice to see them, starting off with this view of the Rotunda do Istmo - the main traffic roundabout at the north end of the Cotai Strip. If this shot looks familiar it might be because it is an almost exact replica of one I posted from the Strangers series several years ago. The only real difference to be seen between then and now is the addition of the faux "Big Ben" in front of "The Londoner" (yes, I know it's not really called Big Ben but as an often part-time resident of Westminster, I have special naming privileges...).

The Thieves - Kim Yoon-seok (2012) - City of Dreams, Macau

The opening scenes of the film were shot on the casino floor at what was the Hard Rock Hotel (now the Countdown Hotel). Much of the heist is based around the same area, all under the banner of the "City of Dreams", which I believe is the ground floor mall/casino area that connects several hotels including the Crown Towers, Grand Hyatt and Countdown (please feel free to correct me).

There has been quite a lot of digital manipulation of several of the backgrounds in this film (the most obvious one I will include as a post later), so it's hard to know what's real and what isn't. But there are a few - what appears to be genuine - shots of the heist being set up at the the top of the Countdown Hotel (images 2 thru 4) as well as some general views of that cluster of hotels. 

An example of digital manipulation can be seen in the lower image which shows us looking across the City of Dreams towards the Venetian and Four Seasons hotels, but in the distant background you can see the Galaxy, which is located elsewhere! This film is full of subtle little changes here and there and some locations have had me scratching my head as to where they could be, only to realise that the distant background, from which I am taking my bearings, has been added in post-production.

The whole night sequence, of which these two lower shots are part, is just one big massive digital composite showing the location of City of Dreams to be somewhere completely different to its real one. It's very reminiscent of the extreme digital tomfoolery witnessed in 6 Underground.

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

This film is filled with lots of shots of many seemingly random locations as an accompaniment to the narration. One of these is a brief shot inside the mall located in the lower levels of the Venetian Casino Hotel Resort. In case you haven't been there, there's a huge shopping mall at ground level adorned with fake sky, fake building facades and a fake Venetian waterway replete with its own gondolas and singing boatmen. It's probably one of the most hideous places in Macau (and these days it has a lot of competition).

Strangers - John Simm (2018) - Rotunda do Istmo, Taipa

Episode 5 has fewer locations on offer than previous ones and many of them are part of general travelogue style shots to fill the gaps between scenes. We start off, unsurprisingly, where #4 left off - with Jonah on the private boat at a Macau marina. However, we have already established that the marina was in fact back in Hong Kong. The film makers are seeking to show otherwise by opening with an establishing shot of Macau. This is another shot of the Rotunda do Istmo. The top image showing an angle looking slightly to the west. The body of water in the right is the lake/wetland (former sea now encapsulated by the reclamation and, no doubt, swapped with freshwater) that sits between the Avenida de Praia on Taipa (where the Taipa houses museum now stands) and the Cotai Strip.

You may have spotted the bottom image is the same one used in the previous episode.

Strangers - John Simm (2018) - Rotunda do Istmo, Taipa

Another quick shot that doesn't really show us anything other than some of Macau's sights. This time it is a roundabout on Taipa called the Rotunda do Istmo. I guess it, and the roads that lead to it, mark where the southern Taipa shoreline once stood before it was all filled in to create the Cotai Strip. You can see a few of the resort casinos in the background. The Venetian is on the right, followed by the Four Seasons and then you can just make out the Parisian and its fake Eiffel Tower. On the left is the Crown Towers part of the City of Dreams, followed by the cluster of the St Regis / Holiday Inn / Conrad / Sheraton.