Fearless Tiger - Jalal Merhi (1991) - Lion's Club Pavilion, The Peak

In one of the cringiest scenes I've ever had to watch, Lyle heads up the mysterious mountain (i.e. the Peak) to find the great "master" in the hope of learning from him. It turns out the master has a daughter who also hangs out there doing her dance stuff. Cue some weird scene of her twirling around as Lyle tries to out shape her with some kung fu moves that look like they were made up by a teenage fanboy. The dude was obviously aiming for ancient Chinese master/student mysticism but basically hit comedy gold, Monty Python style.

It's nice to see the old curvy Peak Viewing Tower in the back of the 5th image below. This had already been demolished by the time I made my first trip to Hong Kong in 1995.

The chubster busts out some shapes

Lyle returns later to receive more tuition in the art of "grabbing metal stress balls from another person's hand" - as we all know this is really useful stuff for when we get attacked by metal stress ball-wielding fiends. It may or may not have come into play later on the film but, truth be told, I was so busy forwarding through all the crap action that I might easily have missed it. Surely he wouldn't have been shown this skill unless he was able to use it later? Anyway, I think I've already spent far too long on this film.

 

Look, even Bolo thinks this guy is a douche

Fearless Tiger - Jalal Merhi (1991) - Tsim Sha Tsui Waterfront, Tsim Sha Tsui

Lyle wanders along the TST waterfront with his HK Police buddy, Peng, who suggests to him that he go and learn fluidity from a great "master that lives on the mountain". The "Master" is played by Bolo and he hangs out at the Lion Pavilion, a tourist hotspot, like all great, mystical masters.

Fearless Tiger - Jalal Merhi (1991) - Shanghai Street, Kwun Chung

One of the street scenes involving Lyle walking around trying to find his friend's kung fu school was filmed at the junction of Shanghai Street and Bowring Street in Kwun Chung. Lyle passes by a once popular BBQ/roast meat eatery called 沙記乳豬燒臘 (aka "Sha Kei Roast Suckling Pig"). In the image below we are looking at a previous location at #41 Shanghai Street - it later moved a few doors away to the opposite side of the junction before finally closing down sometime in 2022. The top image is pointing south down Shanghai Street towards Austin Road. with Wing Fat Mansion at the far end.

In the same sequence is another shot, and I believe this was looking northwest from the same junction (previous images above are looking southwest). The key here is a sign for the 官涌集友會 - aka roughly translated as the "Kwun Chung Friends Association". It was located on the section of Shanghai Street just north of Bowring Street.

Fearless Tiger - Jalal Merhi (1991) - Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

There are a couple of shots around Nathan Road as Lyle wanders around trying to find his mate's martial arts school. The first image below shows the Golden Crown Court building. So the camera was located  near the corner with Haiphong Road looking south - probably just outisde the MTR exit. The second image is the traffic island/central resevation area just next to Peking Road (hence the no turn sign) and is looking north. On the left hand side is the former Hyatt Hotel - demolished in 2006 and replaced by iSquare.

Fearless Tiger - Jalal Merhi (1991) - Kai Tak Airport

Lyle's arrival in, and subsequent departure from, Hong Kong is represented by footage of a plane at Kai Tak. Sadly, no other footage of the airport other than of the plane(s).

Fearless Tiger - Jalal Merhi (1991) - Causeway Bay Cargo Handling Basin

Salamaar surveys his drug distribution network from the Causeway Bay Cargo Handling Basin, located next door to the typhoon shelter and Kellet Island.

Fearless Tiger - Jalal Merhi (1991) - Aberdeen Harbour

Salamaar (Lazar Rockwood) is so evil that when he finds out one of his guys has stolen one of his drug-carrying Buddha statues, he has the guy gently pushed into Aberdeen Harbour. Truly a fate worse than death.

Fearless Tiger - Jalal Merhi (1991) - Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong

I've scraped the bottom of many barrels in my quest for foreign movie productions in Hong Kong, but so far none have been quite as low down as my next offering (yes, even Bloodfight was better than this).

I honestly have nothing good to say about this film, Fearless Tiger. It is quite obviously a vanity project for its "star", Jalal Merhi, who owns the production company responsible for its developemnt. The guy has no charisma or acting talent and coupled with a poor cliched script and plot and sub-par action scenes, this film is just very typical of the 1990s straight-to-video dross that turned me off these films many years ago. Good job I'm only here for the filming locations. 

Anyway, Merhi plays Lyle, a short, podgy, and very dull businessman who dabbles in martial arts competitions. After his brother dies (deservedly, in my opinion) from a drug overdose, Lyle makes it his mission to take revenge on those responsible. The drugs are smuggled from Hong Kong inside small buddha statues by a gang called the Black Pearls - a bunch of skinny, bald-headed, Shaolin monk-styled gangsters, led by a long-haired hippy called Salamaar (Lazar Rockwood - who looks like an Asian Steven Tyler). So Lyle dumps his business responsibilities and hot fiance - yes, the suspension of belief starts early on - and goes to HK to improve his martial arts skills and take down the bad guys.

The location sequences are a combination of real Hong Kong ones (yes, they did actually go there to film) sprinkled with mainly Canadian (Toronto?) ones dressed up (in a very naff limited budget kind of way) to be in Hong Kong. 

Anyway, I could go on (and on and on) but I'm getting annoyed just thinking about it, so let's get cracking with the HK locations . First up is a few shots of the famous harbour that are thrown in throughout the film.