Yellowthread Street (TV Series) - Bruce Payne (1990) - Former Regal Kai Tak Hotel, Kowloon City

The former Regal Kai Tak Hotel still stands but is now called the Regal Oriental Hotel. When the airport was still in operation, and for a good few years after it closed, the hotel was connected to the terminal via a pedestrian bridge. The bridge has appeared on this blog previously during the posts for Bruce Lee in G.O.D: Shibôteki yûgi. It also pops up in episode 3 of Yellowthread Street.

Yellowthread Street (TV Series) - Bruce Payne (1990) - Sau Mau Ping, Kowloon

The opening scene to episode 3, Key Witness, takes place on top of a hill in Sau Mau Ping. There are a few clues to the location including the presence of the old Sau Mau Ping estate in the background of the scenes with Bruce Payne, the view of the Anderson Road Quarry behind Robert Taylor and finally a quick glimpse of a car escaping down what is now On Sau Road just below the service reservoir.

In the top picture below we can see the slightly taller Sau Ming House on the Sau Mau Ping Estate. The estate was largely demolished in phases throughout the 90's but Sau Ming House remains at the moment. It's handy because it gives us an approximate position of where Payne must have been for this scene and it lines up quite nicely with the hill that now supports the recently constructed On Tat Estate.

Anderson Road quarry at the back

In the lower picture you an see what was once the service road for the reservoir (Sau Mau Ping High Level Salt Water Service Reservoir - located up the slope on the left) but since the construction of the On Tat Estate has become a proper road connecting the estate with Po Lam Road.

Yellowthread Street (TV Series) - Bruce Payne (1990) - Wanchai Aerial View, Hong Kong

Another excellent identification by Arthur, who has told me this is an aerial view of the streets and buildings surrounding Queen's Road East in Wanchai. Here's what it looks like in a shot from the third episode - Key Witness.

So, Queen's Road East is the main road that we can see running from centre left to lower right. The prominent brown coloured building is the - only in Hong Kong - "Greatmany Centre", and as Arthur mentioned in his comment the smaller building to it's right is the low rise building of 117 Queen's Rd East on the corner of Ship Street.

Many of the low rise buildings in this area have been replaced and more upheaval has been ongoing for the past few years as Hopewell Holdings flattens the area around Ship Street to make way for its new so-called Megatower project.

Anyway, here is Arthur's comment as he includes a bit more detail:

For the...aerial photo, my guess is the crossroad in the lower center of the pic is Queen's Road East x Ship St. The twin brown buildings and apartment building with 4 windows in a row to its right are still there.

For the crossroad at the top right corner, it is probably Johnston Road x Lugard Road (google map: 22.276470, 114.171511) You can compare the interestingly oriented facade of the build where the Boston Restaurant now is in both pics.

Another possible evidences are those buildings with large roofs - may be able to match the movie theaters once dotted this area of Wanchai.

Yellowthread Street (TV Series) - Bruce Payne (1990) - Kai Tak Airport, Kowloon

A slightly different view of the airport for a change, including shots of what I guess was the old dropping off point (I can't remember myself, it's been too long and, regrettably, I never paid much attention to these things back then). Anyway, enjoy the nostalgia from Key Witness as Marenta (Robert Taylor) heads to Kai Tak to try and get the witness's wife before she gets on the plane.

Yellowthread Street (TV Series) - Bruce Payne (1990) - Sai Street, Sheung Wan

We return to an already used location here at the top of Sai Street where it meets with Tai Ping Shan Street in front of Blake Garden. Recall the place in Power Play (episode 1) where Bruce Payne mixes it with some local ruffians whilst eating his noodles. Well, the film crew returned for Key Witness (episode 3) as one of the locations picked by the fugitive as a meeting point - only to have the meeting interrupted by a bunch of gun-toting Triads.

Here's a repeat look at the modern Streetview grab. Note the wall at the far end still has the rough bit at the base.

Yellowthread Street (TV Series) - Bruce Payne (1990) - Chatham Road South, Kowloon

Another aerial shot from Key Witness. This one holds some interest because it shows the land being formed for what became the Science and History museums in East Tsim Sha Tsui. The first picture below gives us a nice angle on the Park Hotel as well - that's the curved grey-coloured building that sits on the corner of Cameron Road. It's one of TST's older hotels, being built in the 1960's, and is still going strong...for the time being at least.

The cluster of buildings on this side of Chatham Road South are still around and host a variety of office and commercial premises. The one most prominent (centre right) is Energy Plaza and fans of 80's HK movies will realise this is the building that Michael Wong was dangling from in Royal Warriors. The upper floors also used to house a gym and training facility patronised by many stars of yesteryear and run by a fellow called Eddie Maher. I'm not sure when it closed down - possibly sometime in the early to mid-90's?

On the right hand side is the bare piece of land that now holds the aforementioned museums. Strictly speaking that particular patch of land now houses the small park that leads up to the museums. I know the History museum moved here in 1998, and considering this aerial view was most likely taken in 1989 or thereabouts I'm not sure why it took so long for the site to be completed. Actually, on second thoughts that sounds exactly like HK.

Yellowthread Street (TV Series) - Bruce Payne (1990) - Island Eastern Corridor, Hong Kong

Some action shots from Key Witness as the cops, Eden and Marenta (played by Bruce Payne and Robert Taylor, respectively), attempt a stakeout with some rudimentary disguises (i.e. silly hats). We get some shots of them driving along in Eden's muscle car including some shots of the Island Eastern Corridor at various places including...1. just past the North Point Fire Station (you can see the training tower on the right).

The contemporary view from Streetview reveals rather a large amount of development around this area, although the fire station (and the overhead road sign) are still around.

A few seconds later and they also pass the City Garden residential development (that's it on the right of the screen).

We also see them driving past the now demolished North Point Estate (razed in 2003), so I guess we have a little bit of North Point history preserved forever on screen (although I am sure this isn't the only bit of cinema/TV that has featured it before). The space it occupied is actually still just empty at the moment (or at least it is on Streetview, I don't know if any construction has been started there yet).

A bit further on we see the car drive past the huge slab of concrete that goes by the name of Provident Garden. To be honest, this place is very...ugly, but probably has some of the best harbour views to be had in this part of the island - right on the harbourfront.

And finally, back the other way as the road curves around into the Quarry Bay section of North Point. That's Kwun Hoi Mansion in the last pic on the right.

Yellowthread Street (TV Series) - Bruce Payne (1990) - View over Central from Midlevels, Hong Kong

Now, remember the post a couple of weeks ago from Dumbarton Road in Kowloon Tong for the Key Witness episode? Well, you won't believe the view that you can get from there! We see Marenta (Robert Taylor) enter the house at the front, and then he walks into the living room and is confronted by the following vista.

Wow! Pretty amazing heh? Now you know why real estate prices in Kowloon Tong are so high - you are paying for the view over the harbour!

Okay, for those not familiar with Hong Kong geography, this is actually the view from Central mid-levels - from the angle I would say perhaps from Magazine Gap Road area, perhaps Rose Gardens or Magazine Court? - the film makers are just taking liberty with HK geography.

Yellowthread Street (TV Series) - Bruce Payne (1990) - Wanchai Harbourfront, Hong Kong

The whole series of Yellowthread Street uses some great aerial shots of the territory and the next one is from Episode 3: Key Witness. We have a nice sweeping view that starts from the Wanchai Interchange (the big roundabout below) and then pans west towards Central.

The flyover that crosses the main road (Gloucester Rd) towards the sports ground is Marsh Road. Just below we can see the black side of the Sun Hung Kai Centre.

The pool belongs to the Harbour Road Sports Centre and is called Wanchai Training Pool. All seem to have so far survived despite all the current reclamation going on.

This is the interesting bit (for me, at least) because it shows the area that is now occupied by Central Plaza (opened 1992) and where then small semi circle protrudes into the harbour is now occupied by the Convention and Exhibition Centre - the venue where the handover ceremony was held in 1997. The white building behind the Sun Hung Kai Centre is the China Resources Building and in front of that is a bare site which is where Central Plaza now stands. Despite all this redevelopment, I think most of these buildings still stand including the curved structure (next to the semi-circle) which is the Renaissance Harbour View Hotel.

The final few pictures looking over towards a rather misty looking Central, with HMS Tamar obvious (the square piece of water) at the harbourfront and for the more eagle-eyed of you should see the white with black stripes side of the Bank Of America tower and next to it the golden Far East Finance Centre.

Yellowthread Street (TV Series) - Bruce Payne (1990) - Dumbarton Road, Kowloon Tong

Back to Episode 3 - Key Witness - for this post. A businessman has tried to fake his own death because the Triads are after him and Marenta (Robert Taylor) goes to his home to speak with his wife about his whereabouts.

The place he goes to is just off La Salle Road in Kowloon Tong as we can see from the following screencaps. Check out the plane doing its turn into Kai Tak in the top picture.

Sadly, he doesn't go into the rather elegant looking place on the opposite side of the road, but instead pulls in to Dumbarton Road (the west part on the west side of Kowloon Tsai Park). The plot he goes into has actually been completely rebuilt - a very common occurrence in Kowloon Tong because the plots of land are relatively huge - so we will have to make do with a picture of a much more modern building that now sits there called La Salle Court (the shiny one left of centre)

Far more interesting, in my humble opinion, is the building we see in the top two frames. By some sort of bizarre luck, this place is still around and so are its nice elegant iron gates.

It's called Hyde Park Villa and is probably an original building the 1950's (occupation date says 1957). It's very similar to the style of property we also can see over at nearby Yau Yat Tsuen which was developed in the 1950's. Very stylish I think, and nice to see that it hasn't changed for the past 25 years or so.