North Kowloon Magistracy - Now and Then

I used to live in the area and was always walking past this rather magnificent building on the way to and from Shek Kip Mei. Before moving apartments I made an effort to actually stop and try to capture some comparisons with some of the screencaps I took from Donnie Yen's excellent Flash Point. He may not be the world's best actor but Donnie has been and still remains, even in his 60s, one of Hong Kong's foremost action movie stars. I for one am looking forward to John Wick: Caine (currently filming in Hong Kong as I write this in August 2026 - along with Henry Cavill's Highlander reboot, apparently).

The North Kowloon Magistracy building was constructed in 1960 and served as the main courtroom for most of Kowloon - particularly following the closure/repurposing of the South Kowloon Magistracy on Gascoigne Road which now serves as the Lands Tribunal. For several years the building was leased to the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) but that rather useful repurposing came to a shuddering halt following the imposition of strict Covid regulations in 2020. Other than a bit of a touch-up the following year - mainly to remove the SCAD sign from above the main entrance - the building appears to have just been sitting empty for the past 6 years. It's such a shame because it's a great building, but I suspect the internal layout and location might make it difficult to repurpose as anything other than some sort of adult education centre.

If you have seen Flash Point, you will know that the main antagonist, Archer (Ray Lui), goes to court after being caught by the police. He has to surrender his travel documents but otherwise can go free.

Flash Point - Donnie Yen (2007) - Nam Sang Wai, Yuen Long

The gang have taken Wilson and his girlfriend captive in a remote location and Ma takes the newly captured older brother (Ray Lui) to exchange hims for them. The remote location is of course the Nam Sang Wai wetlands just north of Yuen Long. This place has been used plenty in both local and overseas productions. I wonder how long it will stay this undeveloped though as developers on both sides of the border have been eyeing this area up for redevelopment for years. According to Dan Thomas' old (and sadly neglected) Hong Kong on Film blog, the old house was a proper relic and not just built for the movie. The last time Streetview was updated in this location was 2015 and the house was still standing, but quite a lot has happened in Hong Kong since then so there's no guarantee it's still there now. 

Flash Point - Donnie Yen (2007) - North Kowloon Magistracy, Shek Kip Mei

The elder brother (played by Ray Lui) is due in court at the North Kowloon Magistracy and it is also outside here where Ma decides to beat him up. This place was built in 1960 and is in a similar style to several other remaining magistracy buildings of the same era. It closed as a legal building in 2005 (hence why it could be used in the film) and was later part of the Govt's adaptive reuse project and leased to the Savannah College and Art & Design (SCAD) for several years. SCAD abruptly closed down in 2020 - just after the start of the pandemic - and pulled completely out of Hong Kong leaving quite a lot of students in the lurch. 

Anyway, the building is still standing, albeit now empty, and I'm not sure of any plans to lease it to a new user. I live not far from here in fact and walk past it most days, so the bottom image is one I snapped the other day.

The Magistracy, snapped by me July 2023

Flash Point - Donnie Yen (2007) - Eastern Street, Sai Ying Pun

Despite making a rather long detour over to Glenealy, the foot chase returns to Sai Ying Pun as the pair run down Eastern Street - right next to the previously mentioned Dental Hospital. The top image shows the corner with High Street.

Flash Point - Donnie Yen (2007) - Glenealy, Central

After the attempt on Wilson's life by Tiger, Ma chases him out of the hospital. The large slope they run down is located at the top of Glenealy in Central. The gate posts behind the actor in the third image mark one of the entrances to the Zoological and Botanical Gardens.

Flash Point - Donnie Yen (2007) - The Prince Philip Dental Hospital, Sai Ying Pun

Even though the establishing shots for Wilson's hospital stay involved the St Teresa's Hospital in Kowloon, according to the film credits, the hospital scenes were in fact filmed at the Prince Philip Dental Hospital over on Hong Kong Island. The capture below appears to have been filmed in the basement carpark.

Flash Point - Donnie Yen (2007) - St Teresa's Hospital, Prince Edward Road

We were here just a few posts (and 50+ years) ago. The original building has long since gone and replaced by a much larger complex. This is the hospital Wilson is supposedly taken to following his accident. The caption in Chinese on the screen capture says "3 months later".

Flash Point - Donnie Yen (2007) - Island Eastern Corridor

Several parts of the car pursuit scene were filmed along the Island Eastern Corridor highway on Hong Kong Island.

Flash Point - Donnie Yen (2007) - Cheung Muk Tau Holiday Centre for the Elderly, Ma On Shan

The Vietnamese brothers' mum is taken to an elderly home by Ma. This is a real life elderly centre near Ma On Shan.

Flash Point - Donnie Yen (2007) - Stadium Path, So Kon Po

The Vietnamese gang decide to take out all of their rivals, starting with Sam (Ben Lam) who is located at Hong Kong Stadium. The scene starts with Wilson (Louis Koo) driving Tiger (Xing Yu) to the west gate via Eastern Hospital Road in front of the stadium before turning into Stadium Path and stopping in front of the West gate.

Flash Point - Donnie Yen (2007) - Empire Apartments, North Point

Here's another location that has cropped up in another film. This time it's the rooftop apartment of Louis Koo's character that gets bombed by the bad guys in their attempt to get rid of him as a key witness. If you have followed this blog for anytime then you may recall the same location was used for Mathilde's flat in Je l'aimais a couple of years later. Well at least it's the same rooftop because I think there might be two (illegal) structures on the roof that have been turned into apartment spaces. The one in Je l'aimais was at the front (facing King's Road) side of the roof and Louis' is the larger higher one. The strange concrete ribbing structure in the lower right of the second image is the roof of the State (former Empire) Theatre.

Flash Point - Donnie Yen (2007) - Cumberland Road, Kowloon Tong

Back to Cumberland Road and this is where the Chinese gang boss's son goes to school. This is the threat the Vietnamese use against him to back off. This kindergarten was located at #19 but has since been turned back into a private residence.

Flash Point - Donnie Yen (2007) - The Sun's Group Centre, Wanchai

The meeting between the two gangs, where the Vietnamese gang blackmail the other group into leaving them alone and minding their own business, was shot on one of the upper floors of the Sun's Group Centre on the corner of Marsh Road where it joins Gloucester Road. 

Flash Point - Donnie Yen (2007) - West Island School, Pok Fu Lam

The scene where Ma is practising with the Police band appears to have been shot in one of the halls at (the old block of) West Island School. I suspect a bit of refurbishment has gone on since then though. If you look at this image on wikimedia, you can see that this location was on the top floor of the old block. The glass pyramid-shaped skylight in the rear appears to have been removed in modern images.

Flash Point - Donnie Yen (2007) - Lido Beach, Tsuen Wan

The cops meet up out on a beach, away from prying eyes. This is Lido Beach in Tsuen Wan and has been seen before on the blog (albeit in a film shot several years later). There's a string of beaches along this part of the coast and for many years they all suffered from severe water pollution and so swimming was not recommended. In an amusing moment in this film, you see a sign on the lifeguard tower that says as much - I suspect it was a real sign - and a bunch of oldies have had enough and jump in anyway.

Flash Point - Donnie Yen (2007) - Asia Golf Driving Range, Cheung Sha Wan

The golf driving range scene was filmed at the former Asia Golf Driving Range in Cheung Sha Wan. There were at least a couple of mid-town driving ranges in existence when I first moved to Hong Kong, including this one. The other one was in West Kowloon and was replaced by the (not-so) High Speed Rail station.

This one in Cheung Sha Wan was erected following the clearing of part of the old Cheung Sha Wan estate in 2001. The empty site was leased to Asia Golf for a few years before the Lai Tsui Court estate was constructed on the plot. If you go back to historical Streetview images from 2009 - 2011, you can still see the driving range.

Flash Point - Donnie Yen (2007) - Central, Hong Kong

Next up in the local film category is Donnie Yen's Flash Point. I know he's not flavour of the month these days but there are some good locations included. The film is set pre-handover and stars Yen as Inspector Ma, a maverick whose violent methods would probably be more acceptable in today's Hong Kong. He works with an undercover partner (Louis Koo) who has managed to infiltrate a rather ruthless Vietnamese gang led by three brothers (Collin Chou, Ray Lui and Xing Yu).

The film starts with some shots around Central as Ma drives around in his car. The first image shows afew of the buildings located in Central including Jardine House, IFC 2 and Exchange Square. The second twoimages show the former temporary fun fair that was located on the waterfront on an empty plot of land that became the new Govt headquarters and Tamar Park.