Police Force - Wang Chung (1973) - Kimberley Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

So Wong, now a detective, spends the next few years seeking out thugs to arrest to try and find the man who killed Liang Kuan. First up is a couple of thugs who rob a foreign exchange shop. Supposedly in Tsim Sha Tsui. Actually, the shop location was a part of the Movietown complex, but the scene was edited together with the real location of the junction of Kimberley Road and Austin Avenue. That's the view we can see in the image. Interestingly, on the right hand side is the sign for a pharmacy called Kim Bun Dispensary. It's still there today, after 50+ years! In the film, the robbery is supposedly going on behind the camera.

City on Fire - Chow Yun Fat (1987) - Kimberley Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

The police catch up with Ko Chow when the truck he is in stops on Kimberley Road.

Kimberley Road Steps - Now and Then

It's been a few weeks since I finished covering Asia-Pol Secret Service but I did remember the brief scene at the top of the steps on Kimberley Road when I was walking around the area recently. Unfortunately, I couldn't recreate the same angle (the 1966 shot looks to have been filmed from a building on the opposite side of the road) but I did take a picture roughly from the position of where the pedestrian is on the right hand side in the film capture below. Even though there are many 50s-era buildings still around, the area around the steps (and the steps themselves) has completely changed.

Asia-Pol Secret Police - Wang Yu (1966) - Kimberley Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

After getting into a fight with the bad guy in the China Town Bar, the baddie flees through the rear exit and along the alleyway that used to run between Kimberley Street and Road. That back alley has now gone - replaced by the Kimberley Hotel - but the section that leads to the stairs you can see in image 2 is still there, as are the stairs. The last images shows Wang Yu with an old building in the background that stood on the west side of the stairs (now replaced by a building called "Kimberley 26").

Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong - Jamie Chung (2015) - Kimberley Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

Another one of the general shots around Kowloon to show of the film's rather nice cinematography. These sort of shots in this film are the reason why it is, so far, the film with the most number of location posts on the blog. You can just make out the Kimberley Hotel on the right, its the building with the angled windows.

Harry's Hong Kong - David Soul (1987) - Hotel Miramar, Tsim Sha Tsui

Harry spends a lot of his time visiting the Shing Po Night Club (聲寶夜總會). This looks like it was a real place but I haven't been able to locate where it was yet. However, the interior shots for the club were actually filmed at the Miramar Hotel inside the Miramar Theatre Restaurant. This should ring a bell with a few people because I did a post about it quite recently for the French film Banzaï.

As previously mentioned, the hotel was demolished in the early 1990s to make way for the Mira Place shopping mall. The hotel was rebranded to "The Mira" and opened up in a new venue on the opposite side of the road.

Banzaï - Coluche (1983) - Hotel Miramar, Tsim Sha Tsui

The hotel that Michel and co spend most of their time at is the old Hotel Miramar that used to sit on the north side of Kimberley Road. The land where the hotel used to stand now houses the Mira Place mall and the hotel itself has been moved to a new building on the opposite side of the road and undergone a brand rename to "The Mira".

We get to see a bit of the interior and exterior. The interiors consist mainly of the famous Miramar Theatre Restaurant which was last seen on this bog when I looked at another French comedy, Bons Baisers de Hong Kong.

The next image looks like it might be near the lobby area of the hotel, however, this version of the Miramar was gone before I ever was able to set foot in Hong Kong and so will have to rely on the memories of others to confirm one way or another (please feel free to leave a comment).

In the last part of the sequence we see the main characters walking outside the hotel, crossing Kimberley Road, with the sweeping gold front of the hotel behind them.

Snowden - Joseph Gordon-Levitt (2016) - Kimberley Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

Inevitably, because a large part of the HK section of the film focuses on Snowden's meeting with the journalists at The Mira, we get quite a few different views along Kimberley Road. The first couple of images show Ewen MacAskill (played by Tom Wilkinson) on the phone to his bosses at The Guardian whilst walking by the 7-11 on the corner with Carnarvon Road.

The same corner can be spotted later as Snowden and Tibbo sneak out of the hotel via the shopping centre. In fact they are walking down the steps that also lead to/from Knutsford Terrace.

We also see the same steps on the opposite side of the road as their vehicle drives up Carnarvon Road and turns left onto Kimberley Road. The car picks them up and drives towards Nathan Road, past the mall and hotel.

Snowden - Joseph Gordon-Levitt (2016) - The Mira Hotel, Tsim Sha Tsui

As in the real situation a couple of years earlier, the film shows Snowden hiding away and being interviewed by the journos at The Mira hotel.

Snowden - Joseph Gordon-Levitt (2016) - Mira Place, Tsim Sha Tsui

The initial meeting between the journalists and Snowden takes place inside the Mira Place (formerly  the Mira Shopping Mall and built in the mid-90s on the site of the original Miramar Hotel). There is a link bridge that connects the mall to the hotel opposite which is used later in the film to get Snowden out of the hotel without the press corps noticing.

The Peking Medallion - Robert Stack (1967) - Kimberley Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

Stack's hotel is called the Paloma Hotel but we're not told where it is. However, a quick bit of investigation shows that it is most likely Kimberley Road thanks to the sign on the outside of the building that shows its real name - although it's only at a later point in the film when this is revealed (see the bottom picture). The Luna Building: 月仙樓.

This grand old building doesn't exist anymore and it's replacement, Luna Court, a modern residential unit, was built in 1988. More interestingly is the row of tenements on the other side of the road because a couple of these still stand today at 42-44 and 50-52 Kimberley Road.

Bons Baisers de Hong Kong - Les Charlots (1975) - Hotel Miramar, Kowloon

Sadly the original Miramar Hotel had already been demolished and replaced by the Miramar Shopping Centre by the time I first came to HK. The current Miramar Hotel, now known as 'The Mira', actually stands on the opposite side of the road to its famous predecessor.

As a Bruce Lee fan (of sorts), I was first aware of the place due to Lee's association with its Japanese restaurant (the Kanetanake where he was supposed to have dinner the night he died) and room where the Unicorn Fist press conference was held, but aside from Lee, the place was already well established as a key venue for Kowloon's after work social life. It had several well-known restaurants and also a night club. It also turns out, after a quick googling, that it also had a restaurant with a stage in the middle so that diners could enjoy a live performance whilst they ate. I would love to have seen this place with my own eyes but I guess I will just have to settle for the various photos and the footage in this film that was shot there.

Called the Hotel Miramar Theatre Restaurant, it was an oval shaped room with a balcony and central stage and some rather impressive interior decor. Was this the same room where the Miramar nightclub was? I have no idea, perhaps someone with better knowledge will be able to confirm.