Yakuza on Foot - Tomisaburô Wakayama (1969) - Fui Sha Wai, Tai Po

More than ten years ago I posted about some of the sites the first season of I Spy visited in Tai Po and one of them was a walled village, Fui Sha Wai, about a mile or so north of the main town. Well, just four short years after those scenes were shot, the crew of this film turned up and shot a huge sequence in and around the village. This is the location chosen by the triads to confront the Yakuza for stealing some of their 'flower boat' prostitution earnings via the Yakuza's brothel in town. What ensues is a sword fight, Japan v China, before the gang from Oriental Travel show up and start shooting at everyone. It's here where the two gangs decide to settle their difference and come together to get rid of their common enemy: foreigners!

As I mentioned in the old I Spy post, the main gate of the village has been remodelled since the 1960s, but other than that the area looks more or less the same (albeit with rather more houses in the vicinity).

I Spy (TV Series) - Robert Culp (1965) - Fui Sha Wai, Tai Po

After a bit of searching I have managed to locate the walled village that can be seen in the Affair at T'sien Cha episode. You shouldn't be surprised to hear that it has changed drastically - like many other similar villages in HK - with the addition of modern houses within the ancient walls, as well as a whole new gate house. Anyway, here are the grabs.

Note the hillside in the background because it helped me identify the village.

There are also some shots that were (I am assuming, I haven't been able to confirm) taken inside the village itself.

And another grab from a scene that looks to have been filmed in the surrounding village, called Tai Hang (not to be confused with the other Tai Hang - and no doubt several others - located in Happy Valley).

I've taken a quick grab from Streetview to show what the place looks like today - as you can see the gatehouse has been replaced and some remodeling has occurred where the top of the external wall meets the sides of the gatehouse (was curved, now square). But if you look closely and compare with the very first screen grab at the top, you will notice that some of the original buildings inside the wall are still there (in specific I am talking about the pointed roofs to the left of the gatehouse - they can also be seen in the screen grab). The clincher was of course the background hillside which is in fact the NW side of Cloudy Hill.

Anyway, now I know where it is I will take a couple of screen grabs up there one day and ask if anyone remembers the filming. Keep watching...