Largo Winch - Tomer Sisley (2008) - The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, Wanchai

So we know the fictitious St John's Hospital was actually the Langham Place office tower, but when we see Largo leaving on the ground floor, it's another location entirely. So here we see the access road to the main entrance of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, or APA for short.

This place is the closest thing HK has to Fame (remember that?) and its alumni include various local show business notables including Anthony Wong Chau San (aka Anthony Perry) and...erm...a bunch of glorified Karaoke singers more commonly known as 'Cantopop' singers. The lyric theatre here is always hosting the international touring kiddy shows, so of course I've been here a lot.

In the screen grab you can see the institute's name has been covered up using what looks like a fairly convincing Tung Wah Group of Hospitals hospital name plaque. The Streetview picture is a fairly good match for the film angle for a change.

Yellowthread Street (TV Series) - Bruce Payne (1990) - Fenwick Pier Street Elevated Road, Hong Kong

A fairly easy one to pinpoint here but the location, much like the rest of the harbour front, is undergoing significant changes as the latest reclamation nears completion. This is the flyover that takes you from Fenwick Pier Street up and over onto Harcourt Road in front of Admiralty Station. Looking at these pictures makes me miss the low-rise version of Kowloon...

The lower picture shows the HK Academy for Performing Arts on the right. Those of you who have read my Noble House posts will know that building was used to portray the Ho Pak Bank a couple of years previously. Here is the same area today - lots more greenery at least.

Noble House (Mini series) - Pierce Brosnan (1988) - HK Academy for Performing Arts, Hong Kong

The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (APA for short) is a veritable HK higher education institute dealing with degrees and diplomas in performing arts: music, acting, opera, dance, film production etc. In Noble House the main campus building along Gloucester Road doubles as the HQ for the suffering Ho Pak bank which undergoes a run thanks to some malicious rumours spread by a certain Quillan Gornt.

The Academy was founded in 1984 and not so long ago (2003) also managed to obtain a second - extremely attractive - campus in Pokfulam in the form of the Bethanie building.

If you have kids in HK then without doubt at some point you will come to the Academy to visit the various Childrens' shows that play at the Lyric Theatre (so far we've watched things such as Barney, Thomas the Tank Engine, Room on a Broom, The Gruffalo, Mr Ben and many more).

Anyway here it is as it appears on film as the Ho Pak Bank.

And here it is looking exactly the same (minus the fake bank emblem) courtesy of Streetview.