The Fighting Dragon - Yasuaki Kurata (1975) - Hilton Hotel, Central

Lung is at the hotel to inquire about ferries to Macau when he is attacked by the blowpipe wielding "Purple Snake" (yes, that is the character's name). 

The Dragon from Russia - Sam Hui (1990) - HSBC Main Building, Central

Oops, I forgot the previous location. Mr Kushido is apparently based in the Norman Foster monstrosity otherwise known as "HSBC Main Building". Bring back the previous art-deco version of this building please because it was just so much nicer to look at.

Anyway, there are several shots of the building including the void on the ground floor. But most of the action takes place on the Queen's Road Central side (i.e. the main entrance) of the building which faces Battery Path. Look out for the old Hongkong Hilton and Beaconsfield House in the background as Yao leaps across Queen's Road Central. Both now gone of course.

Hongkong Hilton and Beaconsfield House in the background

The Big Game - Brendan Boone (1973) - Hilton Hotel, Central

Jim is staying at the Hilton when he is approached by the terrorists and coerced into helping them obtaining his father's project. The Hilton is one of the most frequently used hotels for the films covered on this blog.

Tokyo Gang vs Hong Kong Gang - Ken Takakura (1964) - Hilton Hotel, Central

Kirahata's hotel room is inside the Hilton and the view from his window looks down on Garden Road. The old Murray Barracks building can be seen opposite and features in close up because there is someone watching the hotel from the shade of the building's verandah.

The room window looks down onto Garden Road with the Murray
Barracks building in view. It's now the site of the BOC Tower.

According to gwulo, the white building was a Govt Archive building and
later a firestation.

Hilton carpark in the background

Die Sieben Masken des Judoka - Heinz Drache (1967) - Hilton Hotel, Central

This location has popped up a few times now and it took a while before I worked out it was an inner courtyard at the Hilton Hotel. No one seems to have been able to confirm or deny it so far, but the fact that it keeps popping up confirms it was a real location and not any kind of studio set. We've already seen it previously in The Million Eyes of Sumuru but it was The Yin and Yang of Mr Go that helped actually place it properly.

Die Sieben Masken des Judoka - Heinz Drache (1967) - Hilton Hotel, Central

The Hilton Hotel has featured a few times before on this blog, but I think this is the first time we've seen it from this angle. The hotel was an L-shape and it looks as though this scene was filmed in a top floor bar of one tip of the "L" looking over to the other tip - hence why you can see the hotel name outside the window. Sadly my very first visit to HK was in November 1995 and I missed the hotel by about 6 months. It had close in May of the same year but by the time I had arrived it was already completely gone and the piling work for Cheung Kong Centre had already commenced.

The Million Eyes of Sumuru - George Nader (1967) - Hongkong Hilton, Central

Well, following on from the last post for The Yin and Yang of Mr Go, I think I can now safely remove this location from the unknown list and post it here. As suspected, it appears to be an inner courtyard within the Hongkong Hilton hotel. I had hoped the distinctive wall decoration would be able to jog someone's memory but in the end it has taken the other film to confirm where it was.

So it looks like this was a Japanese garden within the hotel grounds. I had initially assumed the Japanese style arches were temporary for the purpose of filming but the appearance in two films over a space of 2 or 3 years tells me they were slightly more permanent. Anyway, another mystery solved.

The Yin and Yang of Mr Go - James Mason (1970) - Hongkong Hilton Hotel, Central

The Hilton was a popular spot for filming in the 60's and according to Chaplin it was also where the production company were based for the filming of The Yin and Yang of Mr Go. We see it a couple of times, first is the entrance as Irene Tsu walk s out and second involves the confirmation of a location seen in another film that I thought was the Hilton but had nothing to compare it to until now.

Here is the entrance (Jack Palance and Aldo Ray were here a couple of years previously).

The next location appears to be a rear inner courtyard of the hotel, notable for its Japanese arches and the internal wall having what looks like a large ceramic mosaic attached to it. The only reason I now know it's the Hilton is because of a brief glimpse of the old HSBC and Bank of China through a gap as the camera pans down at one of Burgess Meredith's quirky (and possibly alcohol induced) camera angles.

HSBC & Bank of China seen through the gap

The courtyard looks like a Japanese garden and in the film it is supposed to be part of the Bank of Tokyo where the manager (King Hu) meets the US agent for some clandestine talks. Note the wall decoration in the background.

Les Tribulations d'un Chinois en Chine - Jean-Paul Belmondo (1965) - Hong Kong Hilton Hotel, Central

For some reason the Hongkong Hilton was the number one place to shoot films during the 1960's. It features a couple of times in this film, initially as an office where Belmondo goes to meet someone (could be a lawyer, could be a bank manager - unfortunately I don't know because I can't understand French). Later on, one of his buddies (one of several expecting to benefit financially from his death) tries to shoot him from one of the hotel windows.

I'm fairly certain that this room/suite is the same one seen in Five Golden Dragons and again in The Million Eyes of Sumuru.

The last shot also gives us a nice bird's eye view of the previously mentioned Cricket Ground. You can probably get a similar view today but would need to head into the Cheung Kong Centre which replaced the hotel in the mid-to-late 90's.

The Million Eyes of Sumuru - George Nader (1967) - Hong Kong Hilton, Central

Like the other Harry Alan Towers'-produced Five Golden Dragons, Sumuru also uses the Hilton quite extensively through the film and it looks as though they used to same high level suite for the filming in both movies. Both inside and outside of the hotel can be seen on film. We'll start with these pictures taken outside the entrance and showing the Hilton's very own rickshaws.

Actually, I wasn't convinced of the provenance of these rickshaws and wondered if they had been created just for the film,but a very helpful chap called Chan Tse-leung was able to confirm that they were indeed the real deal. Of course since then I have also noticed they make an appearance in one of the screen grabs I have for Five Golden Dragons (see second picture on the link).

In tye following pictures we can also see the oppiste side of Queen's Road. The top picture shows the lower portion of the old Bank of China and in the second picture you can see the rear entrance of the old HSBC building as well as the old Govt offices west wing in the distance.

A couple more Hilton-related shots include the same bamboo furniture in the hotel suite (check out the link I already posted for the rickshaw shots and scroll down).

And in case you hadn't spotted it in the last post about Queen's Pier, the boat that Frankie Avalon boards with his female contact was the Hong Kong Hilton's very own Wan Fu. We haven't seen the Wan Fu since we looked at another Hilton-centric film, Kill a Dragon, a couple of years ago.

Five Golden Dragons - Bob Cummings (1967) - Hong Kong Hilton Hotel, Central

Sadly, I missed ever seeing this iconic building by just a few months as my first trip to HK was in November 1995 when the building had already been demolished and the construction work had already started on the piles for what would become the Cheung Kong Centre.

What you can see is Bob Cummings running onto Queen's Road Central to grab a cab. However, one of the most interesting pictures for me is the view from the hotel room window. It sparked a recent memory and I suddenly realised I had seen a version of that view before.

Five Golden Dragons: 1967

Bruce Lee and I: 1976

Even if it's not quite the same room (though it could be) the view is comparable in terms of aspect if not content. Look how much it has changed!! In case you are wondering where the latter screen grab is from, it's from 1976's Bruce Lee and I starring Betty Ting Pei. The difference of around 10 years is quite staggering but not surprising. Also look carefully and you can see that the Hilton looks as though it didn't change its furniture very often. The rattan settee in the foreground is exactly the same!