Shanghai Surprise - Madonna (1986) - Kennedy Town Waterfront, Hong Kong

It's changed significantly over the past few decades, but back in 1986 Kennedy Town waterfront was still considered aged enough for the purpose of filming this period set comedy. Most of the old buildings seem to have gone and there has been a proliferation of high rise development making identification of the exact place quite difficult. However, the hills at the back as well as the appearance of Green Island in the background confirms where this was shot.

The hillside in the background of the top grab is actually the eastern flank of Mount Davis and the small hump in the back of the lower two pictures is Green Island. The modern view for comparison is below courtesy of Streetview. It shows the New Praya where I am fairly certain this was filmed, however, pretty much all of the waterfront property here has been redeveloped in the past 20 years.

Lord Jim - Peter O'Toole (1965) - Green Island, Victoria Harbour

Just as Jim and his equally yellow-bellied fellow crew are drifting into port after the storm where they abandoned ship, their small life craft bobs past Green Island at the western end of Hong Kong Island. It's recognisable for the lighthouse that still sits up there.

There are actually two lighthouses in the picture, the tall white one (completed 1905) and just to its right is the original Victorian structure built in the 1870's - all are now protected monuments.

Given Brooks' (Richard Brooks, the director) attempts to conceal modern elements from the film by obscuring them with passing junk sails, a non-Victorian element is acceptable here given that it is only out of era by about 4 years.

As an update to this post, I was passing Green Island the other day on the way back from lunch on Lamma and took a snap of the same area. It's not the same angle, but it's close enough.