Emmanuelle 2 - Sylvia Kristel (1975) - Queen's Road Central, Central

Another identification from the recent flurry of activity over on my help page. This time it was Thomas once again piecing together various bits of information to help identify the following location from Emmanuelle 2.

I was fairly certain it was along Queen's Road somewhere but just lacked the knowledge to say where definitively. Anyway, the key to identification turned out to be a shop name on the column that rises up from the front of the taxi. It contains the words 大吉毛毯. 

Thomas managed to find a photograph with the same shop but taken from the other end of the street. Here is his comment.

I believe I have a confirmation here (http://www.oldhkphoto.com/?page_id=4231). Please scroll down to the Sheung Wan section, There is a photo showing the photographer looking NE on Queen's Road East with shop houses on both sides. One of the pillars showed 大吉毛毯 , which was also visible in your screen capture.

Edit: As is inevitable in this day and age, the original link provided by Thomas no longer works so I have removed it until I can find an alternative URL for the image.

Anyway, Thomas also goes on the mention that the text under the photo in question says that the picture was taken very close to the "hundred step stairs" (百步梯) which lead from Queen's Road Central up to Gough Street.

So what we are looking at in the Emmanuelle 2 screen cap is the view down Queen's Road Central from somewhere near to the junction with Wellington Street and Bonham Strand. If you remember my Emmanuelle 2 posts, you should recall that I had already found one screen shot also shot here courtesy of the pillar box. Here is what it looks like today courtesy of Streetview.

Another big thanks to Thomas!

Emmanuelle 2 - Sylvia Kristel (1975) - Hennessy Road, Causeway Bay

Here's one that caused a fair amount of speculation between myself and Thomas, but in the end was solved when Thomas noticed one of my Ein Sarg aus Hong Kong screen grabs showed some of the same shops' signs. So once again thanks to him and his keen eyesight.

Well actually, truth be told, Thomas had already identified this exact location when the screencaps had originally been put up, but it had just slipped my mind to follow up. Here are Thomas's original comments:

I believe it was the last leg of Hennessy Road, opposite present day Hysan Place. I believe all four captures might be in a series along Hennessy Road...

...I may have identified one of the store fronts...See the white on red signage just behind the light pole? That would seemed to be Kam Lung Company (錦龍公司). They sell ready to wear stuffs. If you are able to locate old photos of that same length of Hennessy Road, look for this company. As far as I could recall they were already there in the 1960's...

...Hennessy Road from another angle: Might be able to catch some of the signage, I think.
http://www.oldhkphoto.com/?p=3894

The following sequence of screen captures was taken in one brief scene where the camera was most likely on a car moving along Hennessy Road towards the west. If you look in each screencap you will see elements of the next one in the distance.

But it was the last screen cap above that appears to show a couple of shops/signs that were also present a decade earlier when Ein Sarg aus Hong Kong was being filmed, including the Kam Lun (錦龍) sign mentioned by Thomas (FYI it's the blue sign with white writing centre-screen in the lower picture). So where was it then? Yup - just where Thomas originally said it was - opposite the current Hysan Place.

Emmanuelle 2 - Sylvia Kristel (1975) - Hennessy Road, Causeway Bay

Here is a great find by Thomas Ngan from my "help me" page. It's a seemingly unidentifiable piece of the tramline with generic buildings here and there - the usual problem for me when it comes to HK, because everything looks the same.

However, Thomas has a very keen eye and has been able to identify the actual street corner courtesy of a shop sign that looks to be almost unchanged in 40 years...unbelievable!

Take note of the Rolex and Tudor signs in the top picture - here is the same sign today, taken from streetview on the northern side of Hennessy Rd where it joins with Percival Street. The buildings at the back right include the still-standing (as you can see) Po Hon Building (built 1967) further up Percival St. The shop the sign belongs to is (still) called the "La Suisse Watch Company Ltd" and the building itself is the East South Building at 475 - 481 Hennessy Road.

Anyway, once again many thanks to Thomas for his keen-sightedness.

Emmanuelle 2 - Sylvia Kristel (1975) - Hong Kong and Yaumatei Ferry

More commonly recognised as HYF, this company provided cross harbour services for many years alongside the Star Ferry. The cross harbour tunnel(s) put paid to much of the company's business and as such it has since diversified into the usual property development sidelines, but it does still run some ferry services, notably the dangerous goods vehicle ferry (vehicles carrying potentially hazardous or explosive loads still must get a vehicular ferry service from Kwun Tong <> North Point) and what better way to reuse the now defunct general vehicular ferries than turn them into the Bauhinia Cruise boats. Okay, not a ferry service as such, but good enough.

Anyway, here we see Emmanuelle crossing the harbour in one of the old HYF double-decked double-headed passenger ferries (or 雙層雙頭渡輪). Similar in style to the famous Star Ferry.

Sadly, I can't tell which specific ferry this was. The film was shot in 1975 and at that time the company had quite a few of these boats in service. According to this rather excellent Chinese Wikipedia article there were 15 ferries, of this style, in service during 1975 (take your pick).

These days the ferry licences have been taken over by New World First Ferry (owned by Henderson Land) but even then the routes in operation are few by comparison, though that's not surprising given the number of cross-harbour and cross-island road routes there are now.

Emmanuelle 2 - Sylvia Kristel (1975) - Postbox #47, Junction of Wellington St and Queen's Road, Central

Another post where I shall, perhaps stupidly, go out on a limb and make a stab at a location without any real firm evidence. The location revolves around the number on the postbox which currently refers to a spot where Queen's Road Central and Wellington Street meet up.

As you can see from the screen captures below, the postbox number is #47 and according to this rather excellent blog, it puts the current postbox of that number at this location. If this is a valid assumption then the building at the background would be the pre-cursor to the current Hong Kong Jewellery Building, built in 1984.

Anyway, I leave this one out there in case anyone has any firmer evidence that can confirm either way.

Emmanuelle 2 - Sylvia Kristel (1975) - Aberdeen Harbour, Aberdeen

What 70's film (or 80's, or 90's for that matter) would be complete without at least one scene of Aberdeen Harbour. So we get to see a nice view of the, then, two floating restaurants: Tai Pak and Sea Palace. If you read this and my other blog then you'll know which one is still around.

Actually, the angle of the restaurants is very similar to the angle we see in Enter the Dragon (follow this link and scroll down to the bottom picture), and knowing that Chaplin Chang was involved in both films, it wouldn't surprise me if the camera was on the same building rooftop for both films.

Emmanuelle 2 - Sylvia Kristel (1975) - 15 Kennedy Road, Wanchai

This building is a bit of an enigma and now that it has been demolished and seems to be mistaken as being part of Tung Chi College. However, courtesy of the ever helpful 'C' we can set the record straight here with the information he provided over at Gwulo.com.

15 Kennedy Road was the residence of WOO Hay Tong (胡禧堂), the father of the late WOO Pak Chuen (胡百全, lawyer, ExCo and LegCo member). After the Woo family moved out, the house was the location of an art exhibition in 1987, and was the set of some films in the late 1980s. WOO Hay Tong was murdered by his nephew in 1932, and the content of his will is found in the Dec. 1, 1932 issue of the Hongkong Telegraph. It is interesting to note that he wanted his estate to be invested until 21 years after the death of his last surviving children and grandchildren who were born before his death.

Indeed, it looks as though the building was also featured in films during the 70's as our post here confirms. In Emmanuelle 2 it is the location of the ballet school where Emmanuelle visits the daughter of her husband's friend to invite her out. It's also where...*ahem*...well, best not to go into that here :-o

Sadly, the spot where this (and its neighbour, 15a) stood are simply empty spots with wooden hoardings hiding what was probably once part of their hillside foundations (what you can see on film is the upper floor of the building -  the rest of the building was underneath following the downward slope of the hillside). I believe they have been demolished as part of the never-ending site formation for the new Hopewell Centre. Big shame.

It could be wishful thinking on my part, but I believe the distant tree in the current Streetview grab (to the left and back of the large central one) might be the same one Sylvia is walking underneath in the first screencap. Getting closer reveals some common features.

Emmanuelle 2 - Sylvia Kristel (1975) - Flagstaff House, Central

Here's one that hasn't been used before, and the fact that it was in what was, at the time, still part of the Victoria Barracks in Central (since turned largely into Hong Kong Park). Flagstaff House is now the Museum of Tea Ware and well worth a visit, even if you aren't too interested in tea - but it's worthwhile remembering that Hong Kong was pretty much founded on the British quest for tea and the subsequent means of funding it...(by trading opium - in case you are historically challenged)

In the film it's the house where Emmanuelle lives with her husband and their entourage of servants and hangers-on. I can't vouch for the interior rooms but it's quite possible they were used for filming as well - either that or there was a very convincing studio set.

So, I did eventually make it back to Hong Kong Park over the summer (2016) and took a few comparative pictures. One thing I did notice is that in the second screen shot with the car, the building had extra columns extending beyond the front entrance. It was a small portico that has since been removed. Why? I have no idea because I don't think its position interfered with anything there currently. What a shame.

Emmanuelle 2 - Sylvia Kristel (1975) - Chung Shan Ferry

In the second installment (Emmanuelle 2 a.k.a Emmanuelle: L'antivierge) of Sylvia Kristel's outing as the titular character, we see her arrive at our fair shores on a boat called the 'Chung Shan' (松山 in Chinese).

It appears this was the real name of a boat that shuttled around the local waters. Originally built in 1950 and called the 'Tai Loy', it was renamed in 1968 to the 'Chung Shan' and later still to the romantic name of 'Hong Xing 801' on being sold to the Chinese Govt in 1978.

According to some blurb I found online, the HK Maritime Museum has a model of this vessel somewhere, so I may pop down one day and hunt it down. In the meantime, you can make do with some reasonable views of her from the film.

On deck

Chung Shan (read R>L)