DOA: Dead or Alive - Devon Aoki (2006) - Avenue of Stars, Tsim Sha Tsui

The last post from this film before the action moved over into Mainland China. It's a brief sequence made for the in-flight broadcast telling the entrants to bail out of the plane. The familiar stars from that classy not-tacky-or poorly-managed-at-all stretch of waterfront that is now known as the Avenue of Stars. In case you are still unaware of my true feelings about this place, you can read a bunch of stuff I wrote about it here.

Anyway, the place is currently closed whilst New World Development is redeveloping the area and some of the hand prints and statues (including the Bruce Lee one) have moved to the garden above East TST station.

DOA: Dead or Alive - Devon Aoki (2006) - Whitehead Point, Ma On Shan

Once every has received their flying bladed invites, they board a private plane to take them to the island where it is held. It's here that they are told via video broadcast that in order to get there they must immediately don parachutes and bail out of the plane. The three main leads drift off course and set down on a tropical beach. In this case though, I can confirm, it is only sub-tropical and a short trip from the first location in Tolo Harbour (in fact only about 500 metres to the south of that location).

I'm not sure if this beach has a name but it is located on the north coast of Whitehead Point. If you want to see the exact spot then please click on the location link at the bottom of the post. Once again you can see Pak Sha Tau in the background. If you look carefully in the second image and you can just make out the dam wall of Plover Cove reservoir behind Holly Valance, in the distance.

A note for die-hard kungfu fans. The headland in the background of the top image is the same headland that forms the north shore of Starfish Bay  a location used for a whole plethora of old kung fu flicks (as can be seen on the left of the last two images in Andi's post here).

DOA: Dead or Alive - Devon Aoki (2006) - Gloucester Road, Wanchai

A final shot from the bike ride and this particular bit is along Gloucester Road just before the walkway that joins up to the Causeway Centre. The dead giveaway here is the signage at the top.

DOA: Dead or Alive - Devon Aoki (2006) - Connaught Road, Central

More sights from the bike escape as we drive back towards Central along Connaught Road. The first image shows the bike heading east along Connaught Road right in front of the Admiralty Centre. This area has changed a fair bit due to the construction of the new Govt HQ building on the north side of the road. There is now a foot bridge that links both sides of the road almost directly above where the bike is. Also, for some reason the MTR decided to take down their large illuminated sign.

Then, all of a sudden we are heading back in the opposite direction, but along the same stretch of road. In the first image below, the illuminated building in the far right is Exchange Square and if you look carefully you can make out City Hall in front of it. On the left is the AIA Central building which replaced the Furama Hotel just a few years prior to filming. The second image shows the view looking back in the opposite direction with a bus pulling out in front of the Hong Kong Club building (far right of image).

DOA: Dead or Alive - Devon Aoki (2006) - Percival Street, Causeway Bay

One of the main characters, Christie (Holly Valance), gets her invite to the tournament as she is escaping from the HK Police on a motorbike. As she makes her escape, she drives down a road with a single tram line. There aren't too many places where the tram lines go single in HK so this was an easy find. It's Percival Street. Confirmation can be seen by the presence of the Lee Theatre Building in the background - or at least the 2006 version of it, it's had a bit of an update since then.

DOA: Dead or Alive - Devon Aoki (2006) - Tolo Harbour, Tai Po

DOA: Dead or Alive is a video game adaptation directed by one of HK's most accomplished action directors, Corey Yuen. It centres around a - by invitation only - fight competition where various character square off for a mega dollar prize, but the real motivation for the competition is so that the bad guy (Eric Roberts) can harness every one's unique abilities to become the ultimate fighter. It's basically a big pile of pants albeit a reasonably entertaining one with lots of wasted talent on show (Kane Kosugi - granted he gets to showcase his stuff which is good, Collin Chou, and Robin Shou -  wasted in a small cameo as a comedy pirate etc) and is dragged down by some really bad acting (Holly Valance et al).

The action begins somewhere in the South China Sea where one of the main characters is relaxing on her yacht, only to be interrupted by pirates who want to steal the boat. Something looked familiar about this particular section of the "South China Sea" and lo-and-behold, it was filmed slap bang in the middle of Tolo Harbour - a short stone's throw from my old stomping ground in Tai Po.

The same location was used for both the beginning and end segments of the film so I have included images from both. The top image shows the pirate boat approaching from the west. The distant hills are the coastline of Three Fathom's Cove  and the small flat isle (approximately centre left on the sea line) is Tang Chau.

This second shot above shows the former island known as Pak Sha Tau. I say former because it now forms the southwestern point of the Plover Cove Reservoir and is joined to the mainland by the main dam wall (off screen on the left) and the smaller west facing dam off screen to the right. The shot below shows Robin Shou about to take a dive into the not-that-clean waters of Tolo Harbour with Pat Sin Leng's very distinct ridge line in the background.

Pat Sin Leng far left

The final two shots again show Pak Sha Tau in the background which puts the boat about halfway between the reservoir and Ma On Shan on the opposite coastline.