Hacker - Callan McAuliffe (2016) - Harbour Grand Hotel, Hung Hom

The trio finally arrive at their hotel, which turns out to be the Harbour Grand in Kowloon. This is not the first time this hotel has been used in a movie, and coincidentally was seen in another "hacker" movie released the same year, Snowden. In that film though it is pretending to be the Mira Hotel. The group rent the Presindetial Suite and I do believe it is the actual suite that you can see in the film so I have included those images below as well.

The bottom double screen shot is from the later sequence when Alex and Kira go on an ATM withdrawal spree. I think it is supposed to show Kira going to an ATM but it was obviously filmed in the front courtyard of the hotel.

The Head Hunter - Chow Yun Fat (1982) - Kowloon Public Mortuary, Hung Hom

This is the location the body of the murdered man is taken following the assassination at the Govt Offices. The mortuary is still around but has been superseded by a larger facility at Kwai Chung and is now used only for backup. It's tucked down a side street in amongst the various funeral parlour businesses in Hung Hom. We were very close to this location several years ago for Infernal Affairs.

Hitman - Jet Li (1998) - Bailey Street, Hung Hom

I didn't post this one when I should have because it was quite difficult to track down. Just after Fu loses his $5 coin and it rolls down the hill from the Tung Tai Supermarket, he manages to catch up with it just before a nearby beggar snags it for his collection tin. This was actually filmed all the way over in Kowloon on Bailey Street. The brown-tile building with the "Midland Realty" office in the background is the lower levels/podium of Bailey Garden. That's quite a roll for that little $5 coin. We were last in this vicinity about a year ago for The Big Game.

The Magic Crystal - Andy Lau (1986) - Zung Fu Car Park Building, Hung Hom

After leaving the Police HQ, Andy and Winnie head to the carpark where they are cornered by Karov and his henchmen. This was filmed at the Zung Fu carpark building in Hung Hom. Zung Fu are the established local distribution firm for Mercedes Benz, so if you have a Merc in Hong Kong it will have been bought from and maintained by a Zung Fu distributor.

Anyway, the pair manage to escape by rappelling down the outside of the building. The apartment blocks in the background are part of the Whampoa Estate.

Cosa Nostra Asia - Chris Mitchum (1974) - Hung Hom Interchange, Hung Hom

Perhaps the producer, Bobby Suarez, had some obsession with this view of Hong Kong because it was repeated in They Call Her Cleopatra Wong a few years later. The images in that old post though are much better quality (taken from a DVD print).

The Thieves - Kim Yoon-seok (2012) - Harbour Grand Kowloon, Hung Hom

In my last The Thieves post, after settling the diamond heist with the Triad gang in South Korea, the story moves back to Hong Kong as the gang go their separate ways. The end scene was shot on the rooftop of the Harbour Grand Hotel in Kowloon. This is the same place seen a few years later in The Confidence Man JP: The Movie.

Spitfire - Lance Henriksen (1995) - Hung Hom Train Station

Although we are supposed to be in the airport terminal, the cylindrical support columns threw me off for a few seconds because the columns at Kai Tak were square. The location is revealed when the actors head outside and we can quite clearly see - in large, thanks to the Hong Kong Polytechnic University across the road - that we are in fact at Hung Hom Station, and not the airport. Mr Pyun pulling a bit of bait and switch there. The bus terminus is still there although the inside of the station has had a very funky new redecoration (I know because I was there just last week - my first time since I caught a cross-border train back in 2016).

The Big Game - Brendan Boone (1973) - Bailey Street, Hung Hom

Here's a street that confused me for while because I am only familar with the current version. But back in 1973, Bailey Street was only about half the length it is today. Pretty much everything beyond the Sung Chi Building didn't exist in 1973. The images below show us looking east from the junction with Ma Tau Wai Road.The large building on the right was a large block known as Matauwai Apartments. This has only recently been demolished and replaced by a new, taller,modern apartment block. Just in the distance beyond it is the bamboo covered facade of the newly built Sung Yan Building. Beyond that was the open space of Kowloon Bay - all now reclaimed and built upon. The old tenement buildings on the left side of the road have only just been demolished, but expect a similar residential high rise to take their place.

The Confidence Man JP: The Movie - Masami Nagasawa (2019) - Harbour Grand Kowloon, Hung Hom

The hotel rooftop where Dako meets Jessie is the Harbour Grand Hotel in Hung Hom. The hotel has been seen a few times before on the blog but not from the rooftop.

Police Story 2 - Jackie Chan (1988) - Chatham Road North, Hung Hom

After tricking the gang into driving on ahead of him so he can deal with the bomb strapped to his chest, Ka Kui drives up Chatham Road North. In the image below is the Fat Kwong Flyover bridge that is still around. In fact, I covered the same location (albeit on theother side of the bridge) a few months ago for Asia-Pol Secret Service, which shows just how long this bridge has been around. Speaking of which, a thought just popped into my head in that there is only 22 years difference between those two films (1966 - 1988), and yet it's already 34 years since Police Story 2 was made! I'm just getting old and wondering where all the years have gone...

Asia-Pol Secret Service - Wang Yu (1966) - View over North Point

Another wide angle view across the harbour, this time from the North Point area looking beyond towards Hung Hom and the old Hong Kong and Whampoa Dock area that later became the Whampoa residential estate. The focus in the film is the ship that is slowly making its way into harbour because it is supposedly carrying several tons of illegal gold being smuggled by the gang.

It seems that the film used different ships at different points of the film - understandable given the to'ings and fro'ings of the harbour. I believe the ship below is the RIL "Straat Fremantle", which was a passenger carrying freighter that operated Japan and South Africa with a stop in Hong Kong on the return leg (most likely it was travelling from Japan which is why it entered the harbour from the east in this scene).

Asia-Pol Secret Service - Wang Yu (1966) - Chatham Road North, Hung Hom

From Chatham Road South when Wang Yu discovers the time bomb ticking in the back of the car, to Chatham Road North as he races away to get the car to a secluded location so as not to injure anyone else. This is the view through the bridge that supports the Fat Kwong Street Flyover and has changed not one bit in the subsequent (almost) 60 years since this movie was made. Everything else has pretty much been redeveloped though.

Irreversi - Mei Melançon (2010) - Hung Hom Promenade, Kowloon

This is the location where Lynda starts to get pain in her stomach following the day out at the beach.

They Call Her Cleopatra Wong - Marrie Lee (1978) - Chatham Road North, Hung Hom

As the truck carrying the illicit goods (strawberry jams jars packed with forged currency) makes its way towards its destination, Cleo follows behind in a taxi and we are treated to this view of the Hung Hom Interchange from either the King's Park High Level Service Reservoir (we shall come to that place separately in a couple of posts) or Chung Hau Street. For a comparison view taken some ten or eleven years later, you can see these screencaps from an episode of Yellowthread Street (posted way back in 2014).

Of course this area has changed vastly since then, and most recently with the opening of Ho Man Tin MTR station at the bottom of the hill where the camera is placed. Although the older tenement buildings seen in the last captures are still around for now. Here is a panorama I stitched together. It looks a bit messy because the camera pans down to the left as the truck goes by.

Something Good - Luca Barbareschi (2013) - Harbour Grand Hotel, Hung Hom

One of the hotels where Matteo stays is the Harbour Grand Hotel in Hung Hom. There is a brief view from the room window down to the main road, as well as later when Jiazhen goes to wait for him in the foyer. This is the hotel's third appearance on the blog (so far) with other, later, appearances in Snowden (standing in for The Mira) and The Mole Song: Hong Kong Capriccio.

Infernal Affairs - Andy Lau (2002) - Cheong Hang Road, Hung Hom

Chan Wing-yan (played by Tony Leung) is keen to salute the passing funeral procession/motorcade of his former boss in the police force, and the establishing shot for the start of the scene was filmed on Cheong Hang Road in Hung Hom where there are several funeral parlours (at least four all along the same side of the street).

V.I.P - Jang Dong-gun (2017) - Hung Hom Road, Kowloon

As he makes his way to his rendezvous, Jang Dong-gun drives out of what appears to be some sort of tunnel. It turns out that this is the Hung Hom Road where it passes under the podium of a large residential development called Harbour Place. At last, a real location.