Anak - Vilma Santos (2000) - O'Brien Road, Wanchai

Watching the film, I thought this next shot was supposed to be the view from Josie's window in the apartment where she is employed, but perhaps it was just a transitional shot for the sequence where her employers callously cancel her holiday, take her passport and then lock her in their apartment while they go off on their own holiday.

Anyway, this image shows the view looking south along Thomson Road/O'Brien Road and so was most definitely captured from the walkway/footbridge above Wanchai MTR station. We've been in this area a couple of times in the last few months (Crossing Hennessy, Hafen der Düfte).

This lower image is from the opening sequence and shows a view along the footbridge but next to where it crosses Gloucester Road.

Anak - Vilma Santos (2000) - Johnston Road, Wanchai

Josie waits for a tram home and is barged out of the way as she goes to get on. In the background you can see the circular front of the old Chung Wui Apartment building on the corner of Wanchai and Johnston Roads which means we are on Johnston Road in this image.

Flatfoot in Hong Kong - Bud Spencer (1975) - Junction of Johnston and Luard Roads, Wanchai

A result of a recent rewatch is this post. To be honest, I'm not sure why I didn't post it first time around (back in 2012!) so I guess it was just missed.

This is where Rizzo wanders to whilst looking for an address. He asks a pedicab driver for directions but then reluctantly accepts a ride. As far as I am aware, Hong Kong never had pedicabs, only rickshaws, but I could by wrong. Pedicabs were used in Macau though. They also appear to be a thing in London these days, replete with full volume music being blasted into your ears as you travel (can you tell I don't like them?).

Hafen der Düfte - Veronica Ferres (2013) - Johnston Road, Wanchai

The next image shows us Johnston Road just as the camera is passing by Exit A3 of Wanchai MTR Station on the corner of O'Brien Road. I actually posted this area recently for Crossing Hennessy, although in that post we see the same area from an upper floor of a (right hand side of frame - now defunct) restaurant.

Hitman - Jet Li (1998) - Lung Mun Restaurant, Johnston Road

This place was quite famous for its dim sum at one point. It even has its own entry over on Gwulo.com. I did actually make it here before it closed, on the recommendation of a friend, but spent the whole meal time dodging big flakees of mould that were falling down onto our table from the aircon overhead, and then the waiter tried to overcharge us for the food we had ordered. I guess they just gave zero effs once they knew they were closing down. The place closed at the end of 2009.  The building was subsequently knocked down and replaced by a high rise of serviced apartments called "Chi Residences". You can see the exterior of the old restaurant in this shot from Bloodsport.

In the film, this is where Lo takes Fu for some food while he tries to track down the mysterious "Uncle Leung". 

Crossing Hennessy - Jacky Cheung (2010) - Ship Street, Wanchai

The location where Loy and Oi Lin are walking along after Loy has given her a bunch of his mystery novels, and where they are knocked to the floor by a passerby with a suitcase, was filmed along Ship Street. The pair pick up the books and go their separate ways at the junction with Johnston Road. 

Crossing Hennessy - Jacky Cheung (2010) - Johnston Road, Wanchai

After having a drink at the Honolulu Cafe, the pair walk back along the north side of Johnston Road. The last images shows them crossing to the south side outside the Tai Yau Building on the corner of Fleming Road.

Crossing Hennessy - Jacky Cheung (2010) - Queensway

Finally, a little shot that gives us a brief glimpse of the road that features in the film's title. This is a brief transition shot as the story jumps from Man-yu's new studio back to the reality of Loy's life in Wanchai. This is a view down Queensway showing the section where Hennessy Road, just beyond the brown Methodist Church HQ, smoothly becomes Queensway at the corner of Johnston Road. This shot was most likely filmed from the pedestrian bridge at the southern end of Arsenal Street.

Crossing Hennessy - Jacky Cheung (2010) - Tung Hing Building, Johnston Road

When the two families meet up to try and fix up their respective charges, they do it over a dim sum meal. The restaurant was called "Tanyoto" and was located in the lower floors of the Tung Hing Building on the corner of Johnston Road and O'Brien Road. The place was actually a hotpot restaurant but also happened to sell dim sum. These days the space is now occupied by a JP Books bookstore.

When Loy looks out the window as Oi Lin is making work calls, she is standing on the corner of the road outside exit A3 of Wanchai MTR Station.

Spitfire - Lance Henriksen (1995) - Hennessy Road, Wanchai

Another shot of the taxi driving around as it turns out of the eastern end of Johnston Road and heads back west along Hennessy Road. Quite a few of these buildings are still around. 

Tokyo Gang vs Hong Kong Gang - Ken Takakura (1964) - Hennessy Road, Wanchai

During a driving sequence, as Chang heads to the Hoover Cinema to evade his followers, we get to see a brief glimpse of the old Gilman Motors garage that was located on the triangular plot where Johnston and Hennessy Roads meet at their eastern junction. 

Anti-Corruption - Bill Lake (1975) - Southorn Playground, Wanchai

The tour of Wanchai continues with this panning shot of Southorn Playground between Johnston and Hennessy Roads. The building at the edge of the ground is the former War Memorial Welfare and Recreational Centre so this means we are looking east again and the last image shows Hennessy Road on the left. The building has since been replaced by the Southorn Stadium building on the right and the Southorn Centre on the left (which houses the popular Wanchai Computer Centre).

Visa to Canton - Richard Basehart (1960) - Double Happiness Restaurant, Johnston Road

Don Benton (Richard Basehart) travels to Macau to investigate the mysterious passengers who were on board Jimmy's plane when they were shot down. Jimmy escaped but the American passengers, supposedly spies, were taken away by the Chinese. We are shown a brief clip of a ferry plying the waters between Hong Kong and Macau, however, the footage used is in fact a small clip from the previous year's Ferry to Hong Kong, complete with that big fake looking paddle steamer they cobbled together for that film.

So Benton heads to a casino where he knows a nefarious gangster, purportedly behind the kidnappings, is having a flutter, but the establishing shot for the casino is actually an image of a popular local restaurant that used to stand on the west corner of Tai Yuen Street and Johnston Road. It was called the "Double Happiness Restaurant" (雙喜大茶樓) and was around for a while before being replaced (circa 2001) by a residential building that took the same name (雙喜樓). I'm not sure how long before its demolition the restaurant was still operational. 

Shirley's World (TV Series) - Shirley MacLaine (1972) - Johnston Road, Wanchai

There's a nice big clue for this next location in the form of a street sign. You can just barely make out the words Lun Fat Street. The curvature of the road and the fact that trams are on it pretty much seals the deal as to where we are. Look carefully at the background and you will just catch a glimpse of the old shophouse block that was turned into the rather nice looking "Pawn" restaurant.

The car pulls across the street and then turns into Thomson Road where the taxi driver lives.

Yellowthread Street (TV Series) - Bruce Payne (1990) - No.60 to 66 Johnston Road, Wanchai

No.60 to 66 Johnston Road, or as many people in Hong Kong now know it - The Pawn. Before it became a rather posh restaurant - much to the disappointment of those who felt it should have been converted into something a bit more accessible to the general public - The Pawn was in fact a block of four old shophouses including a pawnshop called the 和昌大押 or Wo Cheong Pawnshop.

Anyway, it gets a brief background role in its former shambolic splendour as Pak & Co drive away down Luard Road.

And below is a recent snap from Streetview. Note you can also see Trust Tower in both the film grabs and the Streetview picture - it's the building on the left of the pictures.

Bloodsport - Jean Claude Van Damme (1987) - Johnston Road, Wanchai

More Johnston Road, this time what I believe is directly opposite the previously mentioned Lung Mun Restaurant. As we see Donald Gibb get on the tram (via the front staircase which is a big no-no) and start harassing the girl in front of him (yes, that's a bit of a no-no too), we see a sign behind saying the "Hua Chiao Bank". Hua Chiao Bank was an Indonesian Chinese bank started in 1962 that was eventually (in 2001) brought under the vast umbrella of the Chinese-state run Bank of China. In 1987 when the film was made it was still an independent organisation and had a branch at 131-133 Johnston Road - directly opposite the Lung Mun Restaurant - and this is what we can see behind.

Note that the tram, in that case, is heading in an easterly direction along Johnston Road.

Bloodsport - Jean Claude Van Damme (1987) - Lung Mun Restaurant, Wanchai

One of the funny things about the tram ride sequence in this film is that it lasts just a few minutes but manages to take in a whole swathe of HK island - and even involves a change in direction at one point that is only possible in "movieland". However, it's still interesting to see some of the images passing slowly by in the background. Here's an easy one for starters.

Even without the obvious "Stone Nullah Lane" street sign stuck on the outside of the building, HK aficionados will know that this building is the now demolished Lung Mun Restaurant on Johnston Road. It was such a HK institution (though why I have no idea, when I went in the final month of its operation - you know, just so I could say I had been - the dim sum was shite and we had to eat it in an area where the mildew was black and thick on the ceiling and dropping onto the table!! - oh yeah, and the waiter tried to stiff us on the bill).

It was an impressive building all the same and a local landmark that was around since 1948. The site was sold and redeveloped in 2010 and is now serviced apartments (I think). Here is a bit more info courtesy of gwulo.com.

Flatfoot in Hong Kong - Bud Spencer (1975) - Johnston Road junction with Fleming Road, Wanchai

A little after we saw Bud outside the Lung Moon, he hops on a pedicab and gives the poor driver a hard time by the mere fact that he is a fat bastard and weighs more than the poor dude can handle. Anyway, we next see the struggling pedicab still heading down Johnston Road but this time at the large intersection with Fleming Road. One thing I only just noticed is that you can partially see the sign for the old Ying King restaurant on the far right of the top image.

These shots are great because I can see that just in this small stretch of road there are still a lot of surrounding buildings that still stand. The first is from the top two shots and it stands on the corner of Johnston and Wanchai Road.

See, still there and being looked after, although the view to the mountains at the end of Wanchai Road is no longer clear and we now just get the side of a high rise rather than the green foliage that was there in 1975. As the camera pans left we can see a few buildings at the other side of the street (Johnston Road turns south here and these buildings are actually on part of Wanchai Road still). Here is the 2009 Streetview.

Well, you can see the square-windowed place (the Ming Tak Building) was still around in 2009 but I can confirm that not long after I originally made this post, it was demolished and redeveloped. Sometimes I feel this blog has a nasty knack of alerting developers to their next victim :-(.