Black Mask - Jet Li (1996) - Jardines Lookout

I'm currently on the tail-end of a month-long sojourn to Europe (currently in Finland), but whilst in London visited my favourite Oxfam shop in Strutton Ground where I have picked up some bargains (books, music and DVDs) over the past few years. This time I managed to grab myself a copy of the English dub of Black Mask, starring Jet Li. 

The film is about a former member of a group of crack, bio-engineered, soldiers, known as 701 Squadron. They're a group of mercernaries who have decided to go their own way, under the control of their commander (a really creepy looking Patrick Lung), and remove the drug kings in Hong Kong so they can step in as the go-betweens for the South American cartels and greater China. Black Mask (Li) has already gone his own way and now works in a library to forget about his past, until his cop friend (Sean Lau) is put in danger when he investigates the drug killings.

The opening shot of the film is a helicopter shot (no drones in those days) over the peak of Jardines Lookout on Hong Kong island. Apparently, the helicopter was originally hired to do some close-up shots of the Bank of China tower but the plan was abandoned when the filmmakers thought they might get into trouble, so they settled for something a bit more discreet. 

Royal Warriors - Michelle Yeoh (1986) - Lycée Français International French International School, Jardines Lookout

The so-called "Southern District Headquarters", where Michelle is a Police Inspector, is in reality a school, the French International School (Primary section) to be precise. This is located on Price Road up in the hills above Happy Valley and, actually, we've seen it on the blog before (in Cracker: White Ghost). It looks quite new in this film because it had only been open a year or so beforehand (1984).

To Be Number One - Ray Lui (1991) - Koshi Cottage, Perkins Road

Ng's mansion in this story is a rather grand and opulant place located in Jardines Lookout. The address is 10 Perkins Road and a rather big clue to its location is given in the top image below. So blatant was this that I initially assumed it was a fake sign and perhaps 10 Perkins Road was one of Ng's real life properties. I don't think it was, but as a test I had a look at a 1991 aerial image of Jardines Lookout and located the property that matched the one seen in the images below and guess what - yep, 10 Perkins Road. Sadly, this grand old property is no more and it was replaced by a newer version in 1999. However, the property layout remains similar with the steep drive and front garden (though it now has a swimming pool in there). The new house retains the "Koshi Cottage" name.

Despite his immense wealth, Ng's real, main property at the height of his power was a rather more 'humble' place in Kowloon Tong (yep, the properties in Kowloon Tong are significantly smaller than some of those found at Jardines Lookout). In fact, I even wrote a blog post about it on my old history/exploration blog thing (now deleted, but you can see an archive here). The property became a 'Love Motel' called the "Kent Hotel", but it abruptly closed a few years ago and the old house was knocked down and replaced by something twice as high and twice as ugly.

That Man Bolt - Fred Williamson (1973) - Valley View, Jardines Lookout

We interrupt this Legacy of Rage broadcast to bring you a location that I could not track down when I first looked at this film back in 2015. Over the years the tools at my disposal have got much better (3D GoogleEarth is a HUGE help) and so I had remembered this place from That Man Bolt. It's a rather nice looking property with an extensive garden that Bolt (Fred Williamson) wakes up at one day. It's been a while since I saw the film so I can't remember the story but I expect it was some sort of romantic liaison.

I was eventually able to identify part of the background and have pinpointed it to the property located at 15 Cooper Road in the Jardines Lookout area above Happy Valley. The building is still around and also goes by the name of Valley View (also 愉苑 in Chinese which basically means "happy garden"). It was built in the 1950s, and if you look at GoogleEarth you can still make out the kidney-shaped pool and stone bridge in the back garden.

I have no idea who owns the property but a lack of recorded transactions are usually indicative of it being owned by a limited company. This allows it to change hands via selling the company rather than the property - a common occurance in Hong Kong because it avoids Govt stamp duty and usually keeps the owner anonymous (unless their names get leaked in a "panama papers" style data dump).

Ein Sarg aus Hong Kong - Heinz Drache (1964) - Unnamed Hill, Jardine's Lookout

Following on from the final verification of the previous location, it appears that the hilltop fight between Heinz Drache's character and various Chinese thugs took place on a small hillock that has since been levelled and redeveloped into a development called No. 111 Mount Butler Road. This residential development was constructed in 1980 so this hilltop was already gone 40+ years ago. The Tai Hang Freshwater Service Reservoir is also on this same hill but I'm not sure when it was constructed. The ridge line in the background of the lower two images is Braemar Hill (part of).

Ein Sarg aus Hong Kong - Heinz Drache (1964) - Moorsom Road, Jardine's Lookout

Welcome to 2020 and for my first post of the year I figured a trip back to a film I initially looked at a few years ago, Ein Sarg aus Hongkong (A Coffin from Hong Kong). The online availability of the Mapping Office's aerial photos has been a real help in finally allowing me to pinpoint this location.

Taking Jardines Lookout as an approximate starting point, I was able to look at 1963 aerial images and it appears that the building in the background was part of a residential development that has since disappeared and been replaced by Cavendish Heights. In fact Blocks 6 & 7 of Cavendish Heights now occupy exactly the same space as that older block in the screencaps.

The road the car is driving along appears to be an earlier version of what became Moorsom Road. Back in the 1960s the road actually joined up with Clementi Road on the other side of the hill (behind the camera position) but the link between the two has since been pedestrianised and turned into a walking path whereas the modern route of Moorsom Road now curves the other way back down to join with Perkins Road. If anyone knows the name of this older development, it would be great iof you could let me know via email or comments.