Roaring Fire - Hiroyuki Sanada (1982) - Liberty Theatre, Jordan Road

As you can probably tell, I am playing a bit of catch up here as I go over some older stuff I had forgotten about. This one should've been put up a year ago but slipped my forever ageing memory.

It's a brief glimpse of a since demolished cinema called the Liberty Theatre that used to sit on Jordan Road between Temple Street and Woosung Street. As you can see, at the time of filming it was showing some classics...

It seems that Zombi Holocaust is indeed the 1980 Italian film Zombie Holocaust (the Chinese name - 鬼食鬼 - means 'ghost eats ghost'). According to the Cinema Treasures (link above on the theatre name) this cinema showed first run foreign films and Zombie Holocaust this film according to IMDB was released in May 1981. It gives you a rough ballpark of when filming for Roaring Fire actually took place. Patricia was also released the same year (1981) but I can't seem to find a specific release date for HK.

Anyway, the cinema closed in 1997 and has since been replaced by a residential block by the name of Liberty Mansion, so its name lives on even if the building itself has gone. Here's the current Streetview. The building on the left still survives but has been covered up by the bank's banners.

Roaring Fire - Hiroyuki Sanada (1982) - Shanghai Street, Jordan

Here is another one courtesy of the rather keen eye of Thomas Ngan who managed to identify a watch company shop sign on the screen capture leading to the identification of this street scene as a section of Shanghai Street in the Jordan Road area. So once again thanks to Thomas.

One of the things that really threw me off the scent is also the seemingly rather wide nature of the road here. The camera angle is obviously playing some tricks because this part of Shanghai Street is really no wider than any other part as you'll see in the Streetview capture below.

You can see the buildings are pretty much unchanged, but there is much less overhead signage (although I can one sign is still there in the distance) and of course there has been massive high-rise development at the far end. Look carefully and you can also see the black characters can still be discerned on the lower floor wall of the corner building (on the corner of Nanking Street).

Anyway, credit where credit is due and I've pasted Thomas' comments below so you can see where the information came from.

Hi Phil, 

I might have found something. There was another Watch company captured in the foreground called 廣濟表行. I googled it and found someone posted a photo of a Rolex with invoice in discuss.com.hk showing three addresses on the invoice. Two in Kowloon ...http://www.discuss.com.hk/viewthread.php?tid=14690593&page=3
Address one reads #126 Shanghai Street and address 2 reads #224-226 Tai Po Road. I remember there was a Kowloon Watch Co. Store around the location about 20 years ago. Might have to check other older photos of the area for clues. 

T

Roaring Fire - Hiroyuki Sanada (1982) - Tiger Balm Mansion, Tai Hang

It's not been such a popular location for the films and shows I've covered on this blog (only I Spy has directly used it previously), but here is the Tiger Balm Mansion (a.k.a Haw Par Mansion) standing in as the evil guy's HK HQ.

Sadly no vast shots of it from a distance because in this film the building is supposedly in the middle of nowhere, so all we get are a couple of close angles as Joji runs through the garden.

Actually, even a close up shot like this wouldn't be enough to hide its surroundings these days because the grassy slope behind the mansion has been completely replaced by Cheung Kong's The Legend. Yes, another cheesy OTT name for a residential complex.

But luckily for us, the mansion was preserved when the redevelopment was done and the Govt are currently deciding what to use it for. Personally I think it would make a great location for a school, but that's just me.

And so ends our look at this film for now until I can get some of the more difficult places identified.

Roaring Fire - Hiroyuki Sanada (1982) - Kau Yi Chau, Outlying islands

A popular island that has been seen on quite a few films featured on this blog, most memorably as the island supposedly occupied by Mr Han in Enter the Dragon. In Roaring Fire it just serves as a background to Joji's speeding boat mission to get to the villains' lair. It's a brief glimpse but enough for us to recognise where it is.

Roaring Fire - Hiroyuki Sananda (1982) - Victoria Harbour

On his way to the gangster's hideout, Joji (Sanada) grabs a boat and goes speeding through the harbour. This was in the early 80's before much of the reclamation that is evident today and so we have a fairly unfettered view of Connaught Road, or at least the buildings that line its southern side.

These days there are several hundred metres worth of reclamation blocking the view.

This first screen capture above shows the white General Post Office in the background - at a time when its northern side still fronted the harbour. Behind it just peeking out is the circular windowed Jardine House (previously Connaught Centre). At the far right is a row of buildings ending in the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce. Most of these buildings are still around including the art-deco C.G.C.C.

As the camera pulls out we get a wide angled view of the same area. The low-rise cream-coloured building behind the ship's mast is the old fire station. This was demolished and replaced the the Hang Seng HQ.

For those with a keen eye, you might also notice the Marine Office with its small tower. We got a closer view of this place at the beginning of the film - another great looking building that has fallen victim to redevelopment. Now the site of Infinity Plaza.

Roaring Fire - Hiroyuki Sanada (1982) - Public Square Street, Yau Ma Tei

Well, actually Nathan Road where it intersects with Public Square Street, but if I just wrote Nathan Road it could mean anywhere along that rather lengthy piece of tarmac. Anyway, after hopping onto another bus via the hanging Emperor Jewellery sign, the two buses are side by side each other at the traffic lights.

No bus hopping occurs and Joji (Sanada) heads down Public Square Street whilst his pursuers are whisked away north up Nathan Road.

You can just see the green roof of the Yau Ma Tei Tin Hau Temple on the right hand side of the last picture. I wonder what all those pedestrians were thinking when they saw those crazy guys go by on the top of the buses?

Roaring Fire - Hiroyuki Sanada (1982) - Nathan Road, Kowloon

In possibly one of the greatest action scenes from the early 80's - and in what appears to be a scene later heavily borrowed from by Jackie Chan in Police Story 2 - Joji (Sanada) jumps on board a double-decker bus to escape his pursuers.

What follows is some pretty cool fighting and some impressive physical stunts being played out along the lower section of Nathan Road in TST. Yes, this IS the same chase scene that just a few seconds ago saw him jumping over the wall of Man Mo Temple over on HK Island - movie world geography once again taking liberties with physical geography.

So, first Sanada climbs out of the window of the upper level (he's already had a fight on the lower one) and onto the roof.

Notice the planetarium dome in the background and the corner of the Peninsula Hotel just visible on the right of the screen. In 1982 the rest of the Cultural Centre and Museum of Art had yet to be built. He's then followed up there by his numerous attackers and a big fight ensues with no one falling off.

On this second shot we can see the Peninsula at the end of the road and immediately behind it (the next building along towards the camera) was most likely the former Peninsula Court hotel in its very last year of operation before being demolished to make way for the Kowloon Hotel. Somewhere closer to us behind that would be Prestige Tower and the building with the extended part jutting over the pavement looks to be Alpha House. That would make the MTR exit at the bottom right exit E.

At last we make it up to where the old Hyatt Hotel stood (formerly The President Hotel) and the rather well-known Emperor Watch and Jewellery sign that used to hang outside. The flags on the left side mark the Nathan Road entrance to the hotel - nowadays the hotel site is occupied by the iSore...sorry, I mean iSquare Mall. Sanada grabs onto the bottom of it to escape.

He then hangs on twenty feet above the road and waits for another passing bus before dropping on to its roof.

Roaring Fire - Hiroyuki Sanada (1982) - Des Voeux Road Central, Hong Kong

A quick one here. Another part of this film's epic chase scene sees Sanada running past the old Bank of China Building in Central. That's the bank building on the left of the first screen capture.

Roaring Fire - Hiroyuki Sanada (1982) - Man Mo Temple, Sheung Wan

One of the standout scenes in this film is the chase sequence when Joji is seen by the guys who murdered his brother. What follows has to be one of the most crazy chase sequences I've watched for a long time, and it proves that Sanada can out-Jackie Mr Chan himself and was doing it several years before Chan's contemporary-set action films became the vogue.

Anyway, the initial part of the chase sees Joji being chased down Ladder Street and then into the Man Mo Temple itself. Climbing and jumping over the walls and causing all sorts of mayhem - it makes me wonder if the film makers had permission to do what they were doing.

Down the steps of Ladder Street

Once at the bottom of the steps he cuts across and leaps over the side wall of the temple garden. The postbox that used to stand here has been in quite a few films over the years, as has the temple itself. 

Once inside he takes out pretty much everyone who gets near to him including the following poor fellow.

Watch your step there!

After taking out the dudes, he sees his chance to escape and promptly jumps right up onto the front wall, runs along the length of it before jumping down and scarpering away.

Roaring Fire - Hiroyuki Sanada (1982) - Kowloon City, Kowloon

I hadn't realised until I saw this film, but it seems as though the large area in front of the infamous Kowloon Walled City - now known as the Carpenter Road Park - was a small cottage area. In HK this means it was filled with small squatter huts.

Thankfully, the film makers seem to have taken their camera into the Walled City itself and put them up on the rooftops in order to get the following shots.

These first two shots give us a view from the top of Kowloon Walled City towards Nga Tsin Long Road (this is where we were in the last post) in Kowloon City - it's the road with the red shop awnings. The tree covered area is the previously mentioned dispensary.

A little later in the film, when Joji goes back to where his brother was killed, we get another similar view but of the area that is off to the right of these shots.

This first screen capture above shows the dispensary area on the far left of the screen and the white building in the centre is Chi Kam Court (built 1981 - virtually brand new when this film was made!) on the opposite side of Hau Wong Road. It's not white anymore...

 The next building with the brown rectangular pattern is the end of the Victory Building that fronts Lion Rock Road. It is also still around and isn't that clean anymore either :-)

The shanty town is long gone - as is the Walled City - the whole area being turned into one large park area encompassing Carpenter Road Park and the Walled City Park. Incidentally the Kowloon City Plaza has also been built on Carpenter Road right in that space in front of Chi Kam Coiurt and the Victory Building.

Roaring Fire - Hiroyuki Sanada (1982) - Nga Tsin Long Road, Kowloon City

During the chase sequence at the beginning of the film, when Joji's brother (also played by Sanada) is chased and brutally killed, we catch a quick glance of various places. The glimpses are so quick that most are difficult to identify, but here is one where the camera lingered long enough to reveal some detail.

Just discernible on the right had side is a road sign that looks as though it says Nga Tsin Long Road, and a quick look in Streetview reveals it is indeed that road in Kowloon City. The low rise grey building with black trim at the back is the Lee Kee Memorial Dispensary. Leaky or not (ooh, can you see what I did there...:-)), it is still around and looks pretty much unchanged over the past 30 years - save for some additional rooftop railing. Even the paint job is the same. This is at the northern end of the road where it joins onto Carpenter Road. The dispensary was built in 1951 and opened for business in 1952.

It seems that quite a bit of the filming was done in this area so expect more Kowloon City shots over the coming posts.

Roaring Fire - Hiroyuki Sanada (1982) - Victoria Harbour

In the spirit of internationalism here is a Japanese offering starring the great Hiroyuki Sanada and (in a minor role) the equally superb Sonny Chiba. There are some interesting new angles (as well as old ones) to be seen in this film that was shot partially in HK.

To get started here is the requisite shot of the harbour from on high, just to establish the fact that the beginning of the story starts here.

We also get a brief glimpse of the harbour as seen from Kowloon-side. The interesting thing (for me, at least) here the fact that we can just make out the old Marine Office on Connaught Road at the junction with Rumsey Street. It was later replaced by what was Vicwood Plaza but has since been renamed Infinitus Plaza. If you want to see what the old building looked like in closeup, Andrew Tse has a fantastic picture over on FLICKR.