Bullet for Hire - Simon Yam (1991) - Blue Pool Road, Happy Valley

On the way back from the kidnap, their car can be seen driving down Blue Pool Road in Happy Valley.

She Shoots Straight - Joyce Godenzi (1990) - St Margaret Mary's Church, Happy Valley

The next film is another local one, this time from 1990, She Shoots Straight starring Joyce Godenzi (the future Mrs Sammo Hung) as Police Inspector Mina Kao (Mina is Godenzi's real middle name) who marries into a police family and faces a little bit of push back from her husband's younger sister, Ling (Carina Lau), because of her mixed-race (Godenzi is Eurasian in real-life). A Vietnamese gang, led by Yuen Wah, is running rampant in Hong Kong and following an incident at a nightclub where one of them is killed, they take revenge on the police by killing Kao's husband, Bo (Tony Leung Ka-fai). All bets are off as Kao and Ling put aside their conflict and join together to take revenge on the gang.

The film starts with their wedding which was shot at the St Margaret Mary's Church in Happy Valley, it's the same location that we saw in Rich and Famous a couple of years back.

Awarapan - Emraan Hashmi (2007) - Hong Kong Cemetery, Happy Valley

Shivam meets with his right hand man, Kabir (Shaad Randhawa), to explain why he can't kill Reema and her boyfriend. The meeting takes place at the Hong Kong cemetery with the Chapel of Resurrection in the background.

Anak - Vilma Santos (2000) - Winner Building, Happy Valley

Josie is employed (and therefore lives) with a family in the Winner Building next to the Happy Valley Tram Terminus. She gets off the tram to go home and walks through the building's main entrance. The 7-11 is still there, by the way.

Happy Valley Tram Terminus

We later see Josie wistfully looking out of the window of the apartment following her incarceration by her employers. The blue paint scheme on the outside of the building was removed (according to historical Streetview imagery) sometime between 2011 - 2016 when the building was renovated.

Hacker - Callan McAuliffe (2016) - View of Happy Valley

Just before the trio arrive at their hotel we are treated to a nice view across Causeway Bay and Happy Valley. The camera looks to have been located at or near the top of "The Hennessy" at 256 Hennessy Road.

Black Mask - Jet Li (1996) - Hong Kong Cemetery, Happy Valley

The scene where Inspector Shek goes to put flowers on the graves of his fallen colleagues was shot along a row of Commonwealth war graves (you can tell by the shape of the headstones) located in the Hong Kong Cemetery. It's here where he and Chui Chik finally go "mano a mano" and Shek realises he is way out of his league.

Rich and Famous - Chow Yun Fat (1987) - Broom Road, Happy Valley

Despite the fact that Lam and Mak had parked their scooter down on Wong Nai Chung Road, when they jump back on it to give chase to Yung, the shot of them driving off was shot upon Broom Road with #7 in the background (before it was given a jolly good spruce up). I'm not sure why this was done but most likely it was a shot that took a few takes and was more easily done away from the main road? Just a guess. You can get a pretty good match up on GoogleEarth here. I guess the filmmakers thought the retaining wall was a good match for the one down on Wong Nai Chung Road.

Rich and Famous - Chow Yun Fat (1987) - Wong Nai Chung Road, Happy Valley

Lam and Mak pull up and park their scooter in the small car park on Wong Nai Chung Road, opposite St Paul's Primary Catholic School. Yung and the hitmen park their old red Jaguar not far away near a circular tree planter. In the film this is supposed to give them a view up to the church, but in reality is at least 100m up the road from where the church is located on Broadwood Road. In the last image you can see a low canopy in the top right of the frame.This was located in the playground of the school and was still there until just a few years ago. It was removed sometime between 2016 and 2020.

Rich and Famous - Chow Yun Fat (1987) - St Margaret Mary's Church, Happy Valley

Ah Chai and Carina get married at St Margaret Mary's Church (often abbreviated to just "St Margaret's") on Broadwood Road in Happy Valley. The long set of stone steps up to the churchs front making a great location for a bit of a brawl and Yung and his hired, Filipino hitmen start shooting indisciminately.

Royal Warriors - Michelle Yeoh (1986) - Tsoi Tak Street, Happy Valley

After cheesing off Michelle once again with his annoying personality, Michael goes to the nearby florists to order her more flowers. This was a real business, "City Flowers", located in the building at 38B Blue Pool Road (although the entrance is on Tsoi Tak Street). The building is still there but the business is no more (Streeview shows it's now a laundry).

Royal Warriors - Michelle Yeoh (1986) - Ventris Place, Happy Valley

Michelle seems to be doing quite well for herself because she lives on her own in an apartment in Ventris Place, overlooking the race track. The podium level driveway is the key identifier here and it is a leftover from the previous property on this location which popped up afew years ago when I was doing a deep dive into Narazumono.

Police Story 2 - Jackie Chan (1988) - Royal Villa, Happy View Terrace

This is the location of May's apartment where they are first harassed by Chu Tou's men and May accidentally soaks Ka Kui when she throws water off her balcony at them.

Love Circles - Michelle Siu (1985) - Blue Pool Road, Happy Valley

Despite just driving up Shan Kwong Road, the next shot shows the car driving up Blue Pool Road instead.

Love Circles - Michelle Siu (1985) - Shan Kwong Road, Happy Valley

Apparently, whilst still showing us views of Salisbury Road, the car manages to turn up Shan Kwong Road in Happy Valley. Most of the buildings you can see here are still around including Paramount Mansion (on the right).

Tokyo Gang vs Hong Kong Gang - Ken Takakura (1964) - View over Happy Valley, Hong Kong

The next establishing shot for this film is a panning shot taken from the area above Happy Valley. The football ground you can see at the bottom of the frame was the precursor to today's Hong Kong Football Club stadium. I have no idea if it was this also back in the 1960s but it wouldn't surprise me. The only difference back then is that it appears to have covered stands completely surrounding it. Sadly, my copy of the film, although legitimately bought from Japan, is not the greatest quality.

Police Story - Jackie Chan (1985) - Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Force HQ, Happy Valley

The police station where Ka Kui (JC) is based in the movie was actually the HQ for a famous local military regiment called the Royal Hong Kong Regiment aka HK Volunteer Defence Corps. The old HQ was located at the northern end of the Happy Valley racecourse but was demolished in the mid-90's to make way for the HK Jockey Club HQ.

All the scenes filmed in front of the police station were shot here, as well as a few from the beginning of the film as Ka Kui is being photographed for the police publicity drive following the arrest of the drug baron (Chor Yuen).

Anti-Corruption - Bill Lake (1975) - Happy Valley Racecourse

Inevitably some of the bent coppers are tracked down at the races where they are gambling all that ill-gotten wealth.

Something Good - Luca Barbareschi (2013) - Happy Valley Racecourse, Hong Kong

Despite being such a major land mark in Hong Kong, this is only one of a very small number of productions to have actually filmed inside the grounds (the others covered so far on this blog have been The Amsterdam Kill and Noble House). Most of the times it has been seen in this blog it has been exterior shots or simply shots with it in the distant background. Anyway, in this film it is where Matteo goes to meet Mr Feng to discuss who may have killed his friends.

Narazumono - Ken Takakura (1964) - Former Ventris Place, Happy Valley

Minami is given a key to the woman's apartment and he heads over there one day. The apartment is on Ventris Road and has a great view of the Happy valley racecourse and looks as though it was in a block that has since been replaced by the much taller Ventris Place residential development. I'm not sure what the older building was called but you can catch a distant glimpse of it on this image hosted over on FLICKR. It's the 7-storey double fronted block on the far centre right of the photograph. If anyone can suggest what it was called it would be appreciated (so I can change the title of the post). It was obviously standing in 1953 but how long it last I don't know. The current Ventris Place development was built in 1985 so the older building has been gone for at least that long. In one of the shots from the window though we are given the view down to the ground and the developments distinctive curved podium is still intact today.

The building may have been redeveloped, but the podium is the same

Boarding Gate - Asia Argento (2007) - View over Happy Valley, Hong Kong

The angle on this shot suggests the camera was position up on Stubbs Road next door to the famous King Yin Lei. The actual spot overlooking the valley is now obscured because the land there was handed over to the previous owner of King Yin Lei in a land swap deal to secure the aforementioned property as a protected monument.

Anyway, you can just see a corner of Tung Shan Terrace in the bottom right of the screen.