Four Assassins - Will Yun Lee (2011) - Kansu Street, Yau Ma Tei

At the north end of Woosung Street was Tak Hing restaurant (德興海味). The neon signage in the image below though was located along Kansu Street-side of the building where the restaurant was located. I'm not sure when the restaurant closed but the signage most likely came down when the building was externally renovated in 2019.

Ghost in the Shell - Kansu Street Alleyway - Now and Then

Unfortunately, when I arrived at this alleyway I didn't find Scarlett Johansson but instead some old guy who decided, just at that moment, to take a piss in the nearby gutter...he's obviously not a fan of my blog. I then had to wait around, like some weirdo voyeur, for him to finish his business before I could take the photo. He must have prostate problems because it took so long I thought I might just get arrested for loitering. The things I do in pursuit of this noble art form...

Anyway, this alleyway sits between Woosung Street and Temple Street and looks directly up at Temple Street and the rear of the Alhambra Building. Unfortunately, as you can see, by the time of my visit the rather striking lights of the mahjong parlour that made it into the film were in the process of being removed or renovated.

Ghost in the Shell - Scarlett Johansson (2017) - Kansu Street, Yau Ma Tei

Another from the general area of filming, this time it's Kansu Street and an alleyway where the Section 9 members are preparing for their foray into the illegal "Enhancement" bar was filmed. Actually, it's a real alleyway and is directly opposite the continuation of Temple Street as it passes the rear of the Alhambra Building. The lights in the background are from a real Mahjong parlour, although they've been slightly embellished to look more holographic.

Heisser Hafen Hongkong - Horst Frank (1962) - Nathan Road, Yau Ma Tei

Some more Nathan Road, this time looking south near the modern day junction with Gascoigne Road. We know this because the signs are for the (relatively) newly built Alhambra Building. The building replaced a same named art-deco theatre at the corner of Kansu St and Nathan Road in 1960. The building is actually still around although the nightclub and other businesses have long gone. You can see a daytime version of the top picture at this link.

The Million Eyes of Sumuru - George Nader (1967) - Kansu Street, Yau Ma Tei

Here is a nifty one identified by Arthur thanks to his tracking down of a former tea shop that was once on Reclamation Street. The shop in question was called 寶蘭生 (Bo Lan Sang) and can be seen on the screencaps below as the white-signed shop next to the corner yellow one.

Arthur found a reference to the shop being on Reclamation Street but no mention of specifics, however, the curve of the street that is obvious from the film can only be found on one particular section of the road and it is the section between Kansu Street and Public Square Street.

We've actually seen this section of Kowloon before, although it was several years later by which time the block with the yellow corner shop had been completely razed and flattened leaving open space. In case you need reminding here is the other film shot I am talking about. It's one of the opening credit scenes from Enter The Dragon.

The empty space in the front of the Enter the Dragon screen shot is where the block with the yellow shop used to stand, and the old decrepit block with the wooden poles holding it up can be seen on the very left of the first Sumuru screencap above - in fact it was even being held up by wooden struts back then! These days the old decrepit block has been replaced by the YMT Jade Hawker bazaar and the empty space now holds one of the upright supports for the West Kowloon Corridor flyover.

Blackhat - Chris Hemsworth (2015) - Temple Street, Yau Ma Tei

When the intrepid team hit the ground they are dropped off at the junction between Pak Hoi Street and Temple Street in Yau Ma Tei. But before we see that we get a nice long view (looking south) down all the night market stalls along Temple Street. The initial view is from the junction with Kansu Street (the northern limit of Temple Street market) but the height indicates that the camera was probably placed in one of the upper floors of the Yaumatei Carpark building.

The next shot shows the actors one block to the south at the junction with Pak Hoi St.

You can't see it in the screen grabs above but (as you can see from the Streetview capture below) the Temple Street cooked food stall area is just to the right. I used to take visitors here for a nice spot of food, but in all honesty it's so damned expensive now that I no longer bother.

Enter The Dragon - Bruce Lee (1973) - Kansu Street, Yau Ma Tei

Here is a spot that I have been scratching my head over for a vast amount of time. Its anonymity inducing a vast amount of frustration on my part. However, thanks to a small glimpse of a distinctive building facade in the very background I have finally managed to pinpoint its location.

The shot is from the opening sequence when we get the travelogue-style tour of various parts of Kowloon as we see the arrival of the various fighters, and it features a rather wonky-looking line of shophouses.

If you look closely to the left of the wonky building - just behind the support struts - you'll see what appears to be a columned building behind it. You wouldn't necessarily recognise it today - it's the Yau Ma Tei Police Station - because the open balconies have all been filled in and the white paint job has been replaced by standard police issue blue/grey.

Anyway, what it means is that the modern building we can see is the older wing of the YMT Jockey Club Polyclinic and the road at the bottom left is Kansu Street. The small street (with the parasols) in front is the end of Reclamation street and it joins with Battery Street in a loop on the right. This old block is obviously long gone (it wouldn't surprise me if it had collapsed immediately after they turned the camera off!) and has since been replaced by the Kansu Street Jade Hawkers Bazaar.

This whole area has, unsurprisingly, changed immensely. The open square has been turned into a basketball court, a new wing of the Polyclinic has been built that now blocks the view through to the Police Station (on Canton Road) and the Gascoigne Road flyover now covers most of Kansu St.

Speaking of the flyover, here is a google grab from there because it provides the best angle to see the area from as similar viewpoint to where they filmed from.

The World of Suzie Wong - William Holden (1960) - Ferry Street, Kowloon

Well, to finish off this series of Suzie Wong locations we have the final scene from the film which involves Suzie and her friends burning offerings to her baby's spirit at a temple. They exit the temple and turn right to walk away from camera and we see a bustling but I guess rather grotty harbour side.

For this location we have HK Man to thank. HK Man (a pseudonym obviously) spends his time taking "Then and Now" pictures all over HK. You can catch his excellent FLICKR stream here. But the snap we are interested in is this one.

Ferry Street was a small road in Yau Ma Tei that terminated at the harbour side we see above, and it wasn't until this area was later reclaimed that Ferry Street was able to grow a bit more into the modern version we know today which terminates at the junction with Argyle Street in Mongkok.

The road we can see to the right of the modern comparison is Kansu St, which means that Holden and Kwan would have exited the temple somewhere around where today's Saigon Street Playground now stands. Now, I do have access to a 1964 map of this area and there is no temple marked here so I can only think that some other antiquated building was used in lieu of a real temple - it wouldn't be hard for the filmmakers to make it look like a temple to be honest. But if anyone can tell me there was a real temple at this site I would be interested to hear any more information.