Legacy of Rage - Brandon Lee (1986) - Chater Road, Central

The exchange goes down on Chater Road so we get some views of the Supreme Court Building.

Love in Hong Kong - Pauline Teutscher (1983) - Chater Road and surrounds

Here's a few shots of one of the actors walking to his car, parked in front of the Hong Kong Club, but he takes a rather roundabout way of getting there. He starts off near the Supreme Court building with the Bank of China Building in the background.

Next up we see him, as expected, walking through the entrance to Chater Garden.

But then, after Chater Garden, we see him now to the north of the Supreme Court Building and picking up his car in front of the old Hong Kong Club - which was knocked down soon after this film was made.

Speaking of the old Hong Kong Club, note the archways of the club's front portico in the background. As far as I am aware, these arches are the only surviving bits of the old building, and they are now located inside, on the first floor above the main entrance of the current club building. Here's a snap I took a few weeks ago (no, I'm not a member, they would never accept riff raff like me as one).

Anti-Corruption - Bill Lake (1975) - The Court of Final Appeal, Central

The final court scenes were shot at the colonial court building that is now the Court of Final Appeal but has had former identities as the Legislative Council building and original Supreme Court. At the time of filming it was still the Supreme Court before that function moved to the "new" court building at the end of Supreme Court Drive. Since the 1997 handover, Hong Kong no longer has a Supreme Court.

Something Good - Luca Barbareschi (2013) - Des Voeux Road Central, Hong Kong

After finding out that his Indian competitors are undercutting his dodgy milk product, Matteo assumes that they are the ones responsible for the murder of his business partner and goes to confront the Indian company boss on the streets of Central. The altercation occurs outside the Supreme Court Building.

Narazumono - Ken Takakura (1964) - The Cenotaph, Central

A further meeting between Minami and the Japanese lady takes place at the Cenotaph in Central. Lots of nice views around the whole area including the elegant former Hong Kong Club. Sadly, Queen's Building had already gone by this time, replaced by the Mandarin Oriental Hotel a couple of years prior to filming.

A Queen's Ransom - George Lazenby (1976) - Central, Hong Kong

A Queen's Ransom is the last of the three films that George Lazenby was obligated to complete after he had signed up to Golden Harvest expecting to work with Bruce Lee back in 1973. It revolves around an assassination plot against Queen Elizabeth II during her famed 1975 trip to Hong Kong. You may remember that the French film, Bons Baisers de Hong Kong, also used this trip as the plot for the film and both that and A Queen's Ransom use archive footage from that trip to establish scenes and follow the plot as the police try to protect their Royal guests.

And so the introduction to this film uses quite a bit of archive footage shot around Central, showing some of the sights and sounds going on at the time. So here are a few screengrabs.

Noble House (Mini series) - Pierce Brosnan (1988) - Des Voeux Road Central, Hong Kong

For the sake of completeness, here is a brief snippet of the junction in Central that marks the beginning of both Des Voeux Road and Queen's Road. I might be wrong, but the angle suggests this may have been snapped from somewhere around the former Hongkong Hilton (replaced in the mid-90's by the Cheung Kong Centre).

Lord Jim - Peter O'Toole (1965) - Old Supreme Court Building, Central

It's difficult to know how to refer to this building these days. It's now officially the Court of Final Appeal but for many years was the home to the Legislative Council and that is how it stood when I arrived here to live ten years ago. However, before all that it was the Supreme Court and, I suppose, this is the role it plays in the film because the exterior was filmed for the marine court building where Jim's tribunal is taking place.

Hong Kong 97 - Robert Patrick (1994) - Chater Road, Central

Well, the view from Chater Road rather than Chater Road itself. We can see The HSBC HQ, one of the MTR exits, The Mandarin Hotel in the background before finally stopping right next to the entrance to the Hong Kong Club.

Largo Winch - Tomer Sisley (2008) - Chater Road, Central

Central features a fair amount in this film, this is one of the first scenes as we see one of the execs cars as it makes its way to the Winch building. This is Chater Road at the junction where it joins with Pedder Street. We then follow the car down Chater Road to the old Supreme Court Building (formerly LegCo and now the home of the Court of Final Appeal as of 2015).

Noble House (Mini series) - Pierce Brosnan (1988) - The Cenotaph, Central

This area is off-limits to pedestrians these days but it does appear, at some point in the past, to have been freely accessible to the public. The other thing to notice in this scene, which I had failed to do previously, is that the Standard Chartered building is missing beside the HSBC building. This puts a date on the filming sometime around 1987. According to wiki, the Palmer and Turner (now P&T) designed current building didn't start construction until March of that year. In this scene it looks like an empty space, so whether or not that counts as construction started I have no idea.

Although I failed to capture it in the screen grabs below, the Cenotaph was only recently (Nov 2013) declared a protected monument. Modeled on the very same Cenotaph back in London, this one was originally erected in 1923 to commemorate the Great War, but obviously has since been changed to remember World War Two as well - quite apt seeing as the structure still shows obvious signs of damage from bullets fired during the defence against the Japanese invasion in December 1941.

Flatfoot in Hong Kong - Bud Spencer (1975) - Chater Road, Central

We are suddenly spirited back to Hong Kong-side as Rizzo and the Japanese boy walk along Chater Road with the old Hong Kong Club building behind them, as well as the Cenotaph, City Hall and the Supreme Court Building. Rizzo sits the kid down on the side of one of the Statue Square pools.

Flatfoot in Hong Kong - Bud Spencer (1975) - The Cenotaph, Hong Kong

Just a brief shot here as Rizzo walks across the Cenotaph garden. Of course these days it's off-limits to the public but at least we get a nice view of the previously mentioned HSBC building and Standard Chartered Bank HQ and the current version of Prince's Building (and just a glimpse of the corner of the Supreme Court/ex-LegCo building peeking out behind the Cenotaph).

Flatfoot in Hong Kong - Bud Spencer (1975) - Des Voeux Road Central, Hong Kong

Some scene setting takes place - as it does in any film that wants to show its viewers that they really did go to HK - and we get a few shots of a 1975 Central including the following view down the tramlines along Des Voeux Road Central.

The spire-like construction was the old Bank of East Asia building - sadly demolished in 1980 to make way for their current HQ. Sadly, we can't blame the current HK Govt for the loss of so many great buildings in Central because most of them disappeared under the Colonial Administration - however, the current Govt seems to be increasingly willing in continuing that short-sighted policy.

As the camera pulls back we can see some old favourites - including rather oblique views of the old Chartered Bank Building and of course the previous incarnation of the HSBC HQ - both now gone. On the right you can see the current version of Prince's Building, and at extreme right in the lower shot we can see the edge of the former Supreme Court/former LegCo building - also still around.

The World of Suzie Wong - William Holden (1960) - The Chartered Bank, Hong Kong

The south side of Statue Square was - and still is - fronted by the various major banks. There is a point in the film when Lomax (Holden) realises he needs a bit of cash - strapped as he is as a freelance artist - so off he heads to try and get a loan. Where does he go? The Chartered Bank. Formerly known as The Chartered Bank of India Australia and China (it went on to become Standard Chartered circa 1970).

The first shot shows Holden standing on a very familiar spot (familiar to anyone in HK at least because the building in the background is the former Supreme Court building, subsequently the former Legislative Council Building and soon to reappear as a law court when the Final Court of Appeal moves there from the former French Mission building at the top of nearby Battery Path.

Both the Chartered Bank building and HSBC behind it have since been rebuilt but the Bank of China building at the far end of the row is still standing. The BOC created their new HQ on a different site (the site of the Murray Building that now - or at least a 70% new version of it - stands in Stanley).