Cosa Nostra Asia - Chris Mitchum (1974) - Hong Kong Harbour

The story flits from (supposedly) Chicago to Hong Kong as various gang members travel between the two places. However, all subsequent scenes with the actors supposedly in Hong Kong were actually filmed in Taiwan. This just leaves us with a variety of establishing shots that may or may not have been shot specifically for the movie. Our first one is a view across the harbour from the Peak. Unfortunately the picture quality means there isn't much detail to see as the camera starts with a view of the old Yau Ma Tei Typhoon Shelter before panning down towards Central on Hong Kong Island.

Old YMT Typhoon Shelter

Ferry Point Estate and former Govt dockyard

Kowloon Docks and Ocean Terminal

The "new" Connaught Centre

Looking over Central with Furama Hotel and HMS Tamar dockyard

Love in Hong Kong - Pauline Teutscher (1983) - Man Cheong Street, Yau Ma Tei

A big thanks to Dave in TST for letting me know and providing me with this next title. Just when I think that the "HK-shot semi-erotic" film genre has been exhausted (I've already covered Emmanuelle: L'antivierge, Black Cobra Woman, Vanessa, Felicity, Les Fruits de La Passion, Love Circles and La Fine Dell'innocenza, so nothing is below my "locations" purview) another pops up out of the blue, so to speak. It's a good job because there are a couple of new locations here that make it worthwhile.

I'm not sure why Pauline Teutscher doesn't get top billing seeing as she is the main character in the film. She plays a journalist, Julie, who has been tasked by her boss to help stimulate the circulation of their newspaper by getting hold of something that will sell papers. For the film this means getting her two mates to Hong Kong and then getting them snapped in compromising positions with a variety of men.

The film starts with Julie standing on Man Cheong Road, in front of the Ferry Point Estate, getting hold of a scoop about some collapsing buildings. In the background is the old typhoon shelter - before it was completely reclaimed - and across the water you can just make out the Yau Ma Tei Police Station and buildings beyond.

Bamboo Gods and Iron Men - James Iglehart (1974) - Ferry Point Estate, Yau Ma Tei

As mentioned in the last post, as the Jeffersons get into a cab on Aberdeen Praya Road following the rescue of Charley, there is a brief shot of a soaking wet Charley supposedly running towards their cab which was filmed elsewhere. As you can see from the image below, this was filmed at Yau Ma Tei Typhoon Shelter with the Ferry Point Estate in the background. Maybe the film crew just ran out of time and Aberdeen was too far away to return to for a brief pick-up shot like this?

The location shows the additional reclamation of the typhoon shelter that was going on in the early 1970s and the kink in the sea wall behind tells me that Charley (Chiquito) was standing roughly on the opposite side of the road to where the Public Square Street Playground is located (next to the old YMT Police Station). It's a busy road junction here now.

Heisser Hafen Hongkong - Horst Frank (1962) - Jordan Road Ferry, Yau Ma Tei

This one is a bit more interesting compared to the usual Jordan Road ferry pier because of the red painted sign that appears in the background.

I might be wrong but this looks to me like an advert for the yet-to-be-built Ferry Point estate, or at least the first buildings on that estate that were erected. The smaller writing on the left in the lowest pictures says 建築地盤 (gin juk dei pun) which basically means "construction ground". But if you look at the larger characters on the left I believe they say 文英樓 (man ying lau) i.e. Man Ying Building which is the name of one of the blocks within the estate. Along with the neighbouring Man Yuen Building these two were the first in the estate to be built and were open by 1964 - two years after this film was made. The picture on the wall is the artists impression of how the estate would look after completion. It's a pity we can't see it in higher resolution.

So it looks like the movie caught the area just prior to the building work being started for the Ferry Point Estate.

Shirley's World (TV Series) - Shirley MacLaine (1972) - Canton Road, Kwun Chung

Back in the 1970's the area now occupied by the "Grand Austin" and "The Austin" residential developments - the stretch of Canton Road between Austin Road and Jordan Road - was a Government dockyard. The dockyards outer wall, running along Canton Road, appears to have been used by various businesses to advertise their premises in large painted characters.

The top picture below shows the wall looking north along Canton Road towards the junction with Jordan Road. Look carefully and you can see the Ferry Point Estate poking above the barbed wire by Shirley MacLaine's shoulder. Actually, the two other buildings seen at the back are also still around. The one with the large Phillips advert on it is Lee Shing Mansion on the corner of Wai Chung Street and Jordan Road.

This second picture appears to be advertising a business based at 41 Argyle Street in Mongkok. I'd be very interested in seeing any photos of this wall if anyone has one.

Thanks to Thomas for helping with this one and Paul Li (one of the world's top experts on Bruce Lee) for telling me the exact location.

Shirley's World (TV Series) - Shirley MacLaine (1972) - Public Square Street Playground, Yau Ma Tei

The playground scene when Shirley is snapping pictures of the band's singer playing on the slide and roundabout with the local kids was filmed at a playground right next to the famous Yau Ma Tei Police Station. You can see the back wall of the station in the first screencap. The playground is still there but the childrens' rides have long gone and now it is more of your typical Hong Kong-style rest garden (i.e some planters and seats and not much else other than a view obscured by the flyover)

Also quite prominent in the background is the Ferry Point Estate which can be seen in almost its full glory in the lower picture. That waterfront ceased to exist about 20 years ago. It has since been reclaimed and redeveloped.

Ultraviolet - Milla Jovovich (2006) - Ferry Point Estate, Yau Ma Tei

William Fichtner turns up in a few scenes with a hi-tech lorry container kitted out with medical equipment. The first time we see him he is parked on a bit of grassland next to the Ferry Point Estate in Yau Ma Tei.

The Million Eyes of Sumuru - George Nader (1967) - Yau Ma Tei Typhoon Shelter, Kowloon

When the police are about to launch their attack on Sumuru'a fortress island, they first assemble at a pier in the Yau Ma Tei Typhoon Shelter. Once again the nearby Yau Ma Tei Police Station gives us a rough indication of where the pier stood. You can see the station in the top picture, it's the white building in the background. 

The position of the pier/waterfront where the actors are seems to tally with the north side of Man Cheong Street. A large portion of the Ferry Point Estate was already completed by 1966/1967, so I think I am probably correct in saying this most likely filmed on the north side of man Cheong Road in front of the Man Wai Building (completed in 1966). The low rise buildings along the road at the back (it's still Ferry Street by the way) have since been replaced by one of China Light & Power's substations and the Saigon Street Playground.

In the lower picture you can see the old tenements that used to line Ferry Street that have since been replaced by Prosperous Gardens, but the building at the back between Maria Rohm and Paul Chang's head (he played the Police Inspector) is the still-standing Wah Tak Building along Waterloo Road.

The Chairman - Gregory Peck (1969) - More Harbour views

The last of the scenes from The Chairman (at least until I can get a street scene identified) showing various views taken from the harbour. I guess this was all Thompson (the director) could take without attracting unwanted attention from the authorities after being given the old heave ho.

The first shots shows one of the old HYF vehicular ferries plying the route between Central and Jordan Road by the looks of the way the boat is facing. In the background we can see Ocean Terminal with the Hongkong Hotel immediately behind it and Star House. Now, officially, the Hongkong Hotel didn't open until 1970 so I guess the filmmakers managed to capture it when it was still being fitted out - it certainly looks like the building was already completed. Star House and Ocean Terminal were fairly new at this time anyway.

Here's another angle of Ocean Terminal - probably taken from the Mandarin Oriental Hotel using a telephoto lens. The angle certainly matches the view we saw in the earlier post. In the closer shot below though we can see Yau Ma Tei Typhoon Shelter behind Ocean Terminal and the Ferry Point Estate at the far end of it on the left hand side of the lower picture.

Finally, in order the demonstrate how clear everything used to be, compared to today's smoggy and hazy harbour views, here is a nice shot from the harbour looking over to the centre of HK Island (towards Causeway Bay and North Point area).

Five Golden Dragons - Bob Cummings (1967) - Jordan Road Vehicular Ferry, Kowloon

Lots of nice nostalgic footage of the old vehicular ferry terminal and surrounding area courtesy of this film as we follow a car from Kowloon side to Hong Kong.

This large open area (above) in front of the ferry terminal was also used as a bus terminus and has remained largely undeveloped even now. It now has the extension of Jordan Road running across it into West Kowloon and there is now a light bus terminus in front of the Ferry Point Estate. You can just see the corner of the Man Wah Building top left.

Entrance ramp for vehicles

The bottom picture helps us to see when this film was made because it shows one of the buildings of the Ferry Point Estate under construction. The one under construction is the Man King Building - completed in 1967. The one behind it is the Man Fai Building completed in 1966. Given that they have only just started building the Man King building and the time it takes to build these things it would seem likely that this film was made either late '66 or early '67 (though I reckon 66 more likely).

That Man Bolt - Fred Williamson (1973) - Western Harbour views

Some views that aren't reversed are shown over the opening titles as the camera pans anti-clockwise from Kowloon over to the island. A great view of Yaumatei Typhoon shelter including the Ferry Point Estate at the bottom of the screen. The typhoon shelter as we see it below is completely gone with all of that waterfront area reclaimed into West Kowloon and much of it now part of Olympic Station.

As the camera moves left we can see Stonecutter Island in its former isolated glory - now completely attached to mainland Kowloon courtesy of the container processing terminals around Lai Chi Kok.

Followed by a view over a relatively undeveloped waterfront around Central and Sheung Wan. The square building on the waterfront just left of centre is, I believe, the car park that still sits next to Rumsey Street. The area to the right of it became the Shun Tak Centre but at the time of filming was still a very low rise Macau Ferry terminal (we will see it close up in a later post). The ferry piers to the left were the variouys outlying island piers I believe with the Central vehicular ferry pier being the double pronged pier on the left. The piers area has been moved north over the years (i.e towards the camera) and of course the vehicular pier was removed in the 1990s.

The title sequence ends with a Macao hydrofoil heading away from HK with the western end of HK Island in the background and Green Island.

And a nice shot of the under construction Connaught Centre (now Jardine House) to round it off. This makes me think that this film was filmed pretty much around the same time as Enter the Dragon or perhaps slightly earlier as Connaught Centre in the latter film appears to be more complete.

Sunset - Paul Chin Pei (1971) - Ferry Point Estate, Yau Ma Tei

There is a part of the film when our young couple take a trip on a boat - I'm assuming it's a ferry but the route it takes is perhaps not the most efficient way across the harbour because it ends up at the waterfront in Yau Ma Tei (I guess it could have been the old vehicular ferry). Well, it doesn't matter but one shot does show some buildings that can still be found.

The buildings at the back of this shot are the Ferry Point Estate along Man Cheong St - a street that, as you can see, was once right at the water's edge. The west Kowloon reclamation has put a stop to that and they are now marooned 300 metres inland.

These buildings make up the Ferry Point Estate. All eight of them are called Man...something and were built in stages throughout the 60's - the oldest ones were actually built circa 1964 and the last completed circa 1970. So they were fairly new when this film was made.

Judging from the angle of this shot the boat must have been somewhere off the eastern side of Tsim Sha Tsui - probably the area where the iconic Arch now stands (on solid ground!). The nearest is the Man King Building followed by Man Fai, Man Yiu and finally Man Cheong Buildings. These four are the ones that used to face the water and another four older ones on the right of these facing Ferry St.