Double Impact - Jean Claude Van Damme (1991) - Sai Yeung Choi Street, Mongkok

Just a quick grab from a pick up shot taken somewhere in Kowloon grabbed my attention because it looked very familiar to me but I could place it. Along to the rescue comes Thomas again with the identification of Sai Yeung Choi St near Soy Street.

Here's what Thomas had to say in his comments...

...is Sai Yeung Choi Street in Mong Kong. The building on the left showed 新時代電器中心。 That building still exist and is between Soy and Dundas. The ground floor of it is littered with mobile service carriers and mobile device vendors. The second floor for some time was a Gym, but is not vacant. It would seem the Sasa chain would occupy it in no time...

There is actually another give away. In the background there is a red vertical business sign saying 中喬國貨 (Chung Kiu China Products Department Store). The store is long gone but the building still exist. That was the corner of Shan Tung Street.

So there you go, pretty definitive I would say. Once again thanks to Thomas. Here is a modern comparison (at least an approximate one).

Double Impact - Jean Claude Van Damme (1991) - Wong Nai Chung Road, Happy Valley

Here's another that had me scratching my head, on the positive side the place confirmed (again by Thomas, many thanks) was one I had pondered for many days but in the end gave up because the road layout didn't match despite it being one of only a small handful of places that have a single tram track.

Anyway, thankfully Thomas' rather more expert local eyes have spotted a shop sign that belongs to a dispensary that can still be found today: Regal Dispensary (義成藥房). So, here we are anyway at the intersection between Wong Nai Chung Road and Sing Woo Road next to the Happy Valley tram terminus.

The first shot shows the camera looking east along Wong Nai Chung Road with the prominent Salem advert to the right hand side (that marks the entrance to Sing Woo Road. Here is a modern day comparison and as you can see (and this is why I dismissed it initially) the road has been completely rerouted and shifted several metres to the north of its old position. The old position now nicely paved and our only clue to its relation to the film is the curvy white corner building just past the trees. Look carefully on the screen grab and you'll see it in the background, albeit shrouded in darkness.

The next shot has the car driving up Sing Woo Road. You can see the tramline in the bottom of the screen and look carefully to the right of the traffic lights poles and you can just make out the 'Regal Dispensary' that Thomas spotted and confirmed our location.

Once again here is a modern day comparison but taken much further from the north due to the limitations of Streetview (no, I haven't been to Happy Valley in about 5 years so have nothing in my photo collection that will help). Again you can see the extent of the road rerouting.

But where is Regal Dispensary (義成藥房)? Well, moving in a bit closer  we can see it on the right hand side (just to the right of the traffic lights) - seemingly occupying the same spot it did 20+ years ago when the film was made.

Big thanks go to Thomas.

Double Impact - Jean Claude Van Damme (1991) - Link Road, Happy Valley

Many thanks to Thomas Ngan for spotting this one (and many more) on Link Road. It was featured in the initial car chase scene in Double Impact (well, not really car 'chase', more of a car 'following') and we caught a glimpse of what looked like a school on the opposite side of the road.

Well, it turns out that it was a school and still is albeit with one of the most convoluted names I have ever come across: The Po Leung Kuk Gold and Silver Exchange Society Pershing Tsang School. It doesn't really flow off the tongue, does it, and I suspect it costs them a fortune in letterheads.

The location is unsurprising given that other scenes were filmed nearby around the Happy Valley racecourse and further to the south near the tram terminus, but still sometimes finding things like this are like a needle in a haystack, so many thanks to Thomas for lending his expert eyes. Here's the current view but looking up the hill instead of down.

Double Impact - Jean Claude Van Damme (1991) - Tsim Sha Tsui Star Ferry, Kowloon

I'm gonna kill a few birds with one stone here. As the number 1 thing to do on a foreign film shot in HK - we get the requisite shot of the famous Star Ferry ferries (now under-utilised and under threat due to stupid, but expected nonetheless, Govt planning and bureaucracy) and their Kowloon-side berth.

The first few shots show the ferry heading off to Kowloon-side, the film camera being positioned on HK Island looking north across the harbour. We know this because in the background we can see the Man Buildings (aka Ferry Point Estate) again.

On the last grab we can just see the gold buildings of the 中港城, or China Hong Kong City building that stands on Canton Road in TST - they are the 4 patterned glass buildings top right. Then we see the ferry pulling into the TST pier, this time with the camera on Kowloon-side looking south towards HK Island with Victoria Peak in the background. Look through the haze and you will see Jardine House just to the right of the ferry, and further to the right of that building are those that we just saw along Connaught Road. as mentioned in previous posts, this whole view has changed immensely and is now dominated by the IFC development which includes IFC2 - HK's second tallest building.

Finally we disembark the ferry and take a right along the sea front right next to the public piers. If you have ever caught a shuttle over to the restaurants on Lamma Island - this is the place you are usually picked up. The round metal railings you can see are still there, as is the ferry building behind.

The last shot shows us looking back towards the bus terminus behind JCVD. This was for a while under threat of being redeveloped into a sterile plaza - the bus terminus was going to be relocated to the other side of Nathan Road - almost certainly the final nail in the coffin of the Star Ferry. Thankfully, in this case the uproar was so loud that the Govt suddenly woke up to the nonsense of the idea and the Star Ferry lives on...until the next time that is.

Double Impact - Jean Claude Van Damme (1991) - Connaught Road, Central

I'm just rounding off the Double Impact locations with a few no-brainers - odd shots that are easy to place but should be included anyway - starting with some of the buildings that line Connaught Road in Central.

For obvious reasons, filmmakers like to include helicoptered shots of the HK skyline and here is one in which we can see a few recognisable landmarks. Starting with picture one below we can see the east tower (i.e. Block 3) of Exchange Square and next to it the towering blue-glassed oblong of the Hang Seng Bank HQ. Incidentally, this latter one stands where the old Central Fire Station used to stand.

Believe it or not even this angle from a helicopter is no longer possible because right smack bag in front of  the Hang Seng Building now stands IFC1 - part of the IFC development that includes what was once HK's tallest building (until the ICC was built in Kowloon) - the IFC2 - and a huge mall.

In these next couple of shots we can see some much smaller buildings to the right of the Hang Seng HQ. It looks as though the next 4 buildings have already all been demolished - up to and including the gold one with the red sign at the top. What stands in their place now is the new Hong Kong HQ of the Agricultural Bank of China.

All other buildings (including Chinachem Plaza with the red top) on the right hand side still remain, as can be attested by this Streetview grab.

Double Impact - Jean Claude Van Damme (1991) - Tsing Yi Container Processing Terminal, Tsing Yi

Yes, that's right, the same place I just posted used in the finale of The Protector was also used 5 years later for a scene in Double Impact when JCVD is taken by the gang boss to a deserted area and promptly beaten up inside a container by Yang Sze (aka Bolo).

I had been wondering where this place was for a while although I already knew it was the same location for both films, but have finally seen some clues on screen that link Tsing Yi with this place.

This was a toughy, but the combination of the yellow derrick, the raised appearance of the area and the nearby slopes, as well as the glimpse of the NW corner of Lantau Island in the background mean that this area is the upper storage level of the container processing terminal along Tsing Keung Street on the west side of Tsing Yi.

Of course, as I mentioned in the The Protector post, this whole area has changed significantly with much of the cargo processing moving to the Kwai Chung side of Tsing Yi as well as the creation of the Lantau Link (i.e. Tsing Ma Bridge et al) which now occupies much of the skyline in the background.

Double Impact - Jean Claude Van Damme (1991) - Canton Road, Kowloon

An easy one to identify the street but very difficult in [pinpointing the exact spot along, what is, a very long and similar road. Canton Road to be precise. The signboard clutter has been cleared up significantly in the intervening years but Canton Road is still very popular for 1). its Jade Market at the southern end and 2). its metal workshops (usually containing the two characters 五金 'five metals', which is Chinese for 'metal work').

Look closely on the screen grab below and you will see several signs with these two characters included in the shop name.

However, luckily for us there is an English signboard that still exists. Look right and you can see a blue sign for "BONS DRY CLEANERS" - it's obscured but it's there.

Look at the screenshot below from Streetview and you can see this is one of the only remaining signs - the blue rectangle centre right. There are a few remaining white signboards but in general these have pretty much all gone - the Govt had a much publicised crackdown on them a couple of years back but I have no idea when Canton Road was 'tidied up'. Anyway, it looks like the circular cornered building in the left of the screen shot above (with the bat-holding-coin-shaped pawnbrokers signboard) may have been removed to make way for a 'sitting out area' (HK's ubiquitous drab concreted 'gardens' with seats for oldies to sit on) and a municipal toilet/refuse collection building.

Oh, I forgot to mention this is the section of Canton Road sitting between Nelson Street and Shantung Street in Mongkok.

Double Impact - Jean Claude Van Damme (1991) - Garden Road Flyover, Central

An easy one to identify here but still worthwhile including 'cause you never know when a building may disappear...

It's just an establishing shot with no actors on screen and is used a couple of times in the movie (though both times at slightly different angles). The first one shows a good view of what is now called the Lippo Centre, but at the time of filming was only a few years old (completed in 1988) and still called the Bond Centre.

The second time the shot is used we see it from a location slightly further to the south so that the front part of the Bank of China building can be seen on the right.

Double Impact - Jean Claude Van Damme (1991) - Wong Nai Chung Rd, Happy Valley

Back to Hong Kong again but staying with the tenuous link of Happy Valley and we have a quick snippet from the car scene at the beginning of the film as Frank follows his friend's car back to their house as he watches for anything untoward.

It's a brief glimpse but we see the cars driving down Wong Nai Chung Road on the west side of the Happy Valley Racecourse.

I must admit, I was a bit flummoxed by this place at first because the tram line made me spend a long time looking up and down the main tram route for a similar area - to no avail. It wasn't until I noticed that there is only one tram rail that I realised it must be a part of the line off the main route. My excuse is I haven't really explored this part of town other than visiting the nearby Muslim Cemetery

Anyway, the above Streetview grab shows the area today - hasn't changed a bit unsurprisingly other than the appearance of an extra high rise at the back. The wall on the right by the way marks the various cemeteries along this stretch of which the Muslim site is just one.

Double Impact - Jean Claude Van Damme (1991) - Aberdeen, Hong Kong

Aberdeen can be seen a couple of times in this film - the first time is when Frank (played by Geoffrey Lewis) smuggles baby JCVD away from the bad guys via a sampan in the harbour. He boards the boat on the Ap Lei Chau side of Aberdeen Harbour and we know this because quite clear in the background is the Hung Shing Temple that occupies the waterfront on Ap Lei Chau. Here is a screen grab from the sampan complete with a Hoklo boat woman working the controls. She doesn't look too amused about being filmed does she...

For a more modern view of the temple there is a nice picture here on Panoramio. When this was filmed in 1991 the waterfront was a bit of a mess but the govt has done a fairly decent job at beautifying it and making a fairly nice location. That side of the harbour also gives you better views across the Aberdeen (IMO).

On these two shots you can see the line of buildings that sit along the Aberdeen Praya Road, some of these buildings were there when Bruce Lee filmed Enter The Dragon twenty years previously and the wooded hillside behind them is the same hill that still houses the old Police Station (now a youth centre known as the Warehouse).

Aberdeen is also seen later in the film when JCVD is being pursued with his brother's girlfriend by the bad guys. The scene ends with them jumping into the water to escape but before that we see some of the usual hopping around the flotilla of boats. Then Cory Everson jumps into a chopper and follows the boat back to their hideout.

Double Impact - Jean Claude Van Damme (1991) - North Street, Kennedy Town

Sometimes trying to locate certain streets in HK is a bit like trying to find a needle in a haystack and when so many places look the same having a small (but useful) knowledge of written Chinese can save a world of pain. A prime example was my efforts in tracking down the location of Chad's riff raff bar.

In the end it was a small sign for a noodle shop that gave the game away, so many thanks to Wing Hing Noodle (永興麵家) for at least still being registered on the English Version of Open Rice despite it being closed (for how long I don't know).

Anyway, here is a few screen grabs to jog your memory.

See the building above with the stop sign next to it? That's still there. Just to the left of the stop sign is a white/red horizontal sign with 4 chinese characters on it. That sign is for the noddle shop I just mentioned. here's the same(ish) view today.

Next we can now find out where JCVD was standing when he was accosted by a very seriously ugly Bolo Yeung.

I haven't quite managed to get the correct angle, but the place he was leaning is now a pet store called "Twinkles" (oh dear...). The alleyway by the side of the shop still has a metal cabinet parked in front - it's similar to the one that we see in the JCVD shot above and although I don't think it is the same one I am quite confident that it probably belongs to a hawker/street seller and is used as a street stall. This being HK it is very feasible that the person who runs it was the same dude running it back in 1991 (note to self: next time I am in Kennedy Town I will take a few pictures down and ask whoever is there is they remember the filming).

Oh Bolo, you IS ugleeeeeee

Next we see Corey Everson looking the worst I have ever seen her (must be the haircut) jumping out of a car just before the big showdown in the bar. See the white building opposite? Well, check out the streetview shot below. The building is still there (or at least was when Google sent there car around a couple of years back) and look carefully you can just make out the red Chinese characters that form the company name (of whoever was renting the place I guess). Look between the arm of the crane.

Finally, after all that running about down alleyways and markets streets, JCVD manages to get away from his pursuers by running around in circles and ending up back on North Street, but this time further up next to the stop sign and noodle bar sign (mentioned earlier).

Double Impact - Jean Claude Van Damme (1991) - Chi Ma Wan, Lantau

A small secluded bay on the south coast of Lantau Island served as the intrepid heroes base. The Chi Ma Wan peninsular is home to several bays, one is called Tai Long Wan, another houses the Sea Ranch development (some weird ghost town that was promoted as a seaside getaway) and another just around the headland is called Mong Tung Wan. It was this latter one that was used for JCVD's hidden lair.

 
Since I posted this particular location, my friend Andi from Germany (of the Hong Kong Movie Tours blog) has been along and taken a bunch of photos around the area. As usual he has done a great job at matching camera angles almost perfectly and he has also included many shots from the beach which are seen during the battle scene. Anyway, here is that post.

Sadly there is no public transport here, but you can potentially reach it via Lantau proper and hike as Andi did or get a ferry to nearby Cheung Chau and then pay someone with a kaito to take you there. There is a very sporadic ferry service to the nearby Sea Ranch development which sits in the next part of the bay (called Yi Long Wan).

Double Impact - Jean Claude Van Damme (1991) - Sai Ying Pun Community Complex, Hong Kong

Back in 1991 the former "Old Mental Hospital" on High Street was about to undergo a bit of a transformation, turning it into the modern complex that can be seen today. The fact is that only the bottom two stories' facade has been preserved and the rest of the building has been completely remodeled.

The shot above looks to have been taken at through the main entrance on High St. Here's what it looks like today from the front.

And the following shot shows the A-Mah (old HK name for a female helper/maid) carrying one of the twins up Eastern St.

Streetview hasn't been up this road, so until I go and get some shots of my own we will have to make do with this shot looking up from the junction with Eastern and High St.

I'm fairly certain that this last shot below is a studio mock-up. It has an air of falseness about it and I don't think there has ever been an entrance at this place where it is sunk into the ground with steps going down to it. Of course I could be wrong because I have no idea what was done here before the renovations (after this film was made) and Streetview doesn't let me take a sneak peek up the other side of the building. I'll head over there when I have some time and report back :-)