North Kowloon Magistracy - Now and Then

I used to live in the area and was always walking past this rather magnificent building on the way to and from Shek Kip Mei. Before moving apartments I made an effort to actually stop and try to capture some comparisons with some of the screencaps I took from Donnie Yen's excellent Flash Point. He may not be the world's best actor but Donnie has been and still remains, even in his 60s, one of Hong Kong's foremost action movie stars. I for one am looking forward to John Wick: Caine (currently filming in Hong Kong as I write this in August 2026 - along with Henry Cavill's Highlander reboot, apparently).

The North Kowloon Magistracy building was constructed in 1960 and served as the main courtroom for most of Kowloon - particularly following the closure/repurposing of the South Kowloon Magistracy on Gascoigne Road which now serves as the Lands Tribunal. For several years the building was leased to the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) but that rather useful repurposing came to a shuddering halt following the imposition of strict Covid regulations in 2020. Other than a bit of a touch-up the following year - mainly to remove the SCAD sign from above the main entrance - the building appears to have just been sitting empty for the past 6 years. It's such a shame because it's a great building, but I suspect the internal layout and location might make it difficult to repurpose as anything other than some sort of adult education centre.

If you have seen Flash Point, you will know that the main antagonist, Archer (Ray Lui), goes to court after being caught by the police. He has to surrender his travel documents but otherwise can go free.

Double Dhamaal - Sanjay Dutt (2011) - Lai Chi Kok Park, Kowloon

The four men formulate a plan to win over the heart of Kabir's wife by pretending to save her from an escaped gorilla. Yes, as you can imagine the fake gorilla they were supposed to confront and rescue her from ended up being replaced by a real one. Supposedly still in Macau, this was filmed at Lai Chi Kok Park next to the Mei Foo estate. The park is quite nice if you ever get the chance to go. These scenes were filmed inside the Chinese garden section.

No culpes al karma de lo que te pasa por gilipollas - Verónica Echegui (2016) - Tsim Sha Tsui Waterfront

Sara decides to head back to Spain and bids farewell to her boyfriend on the Tsim Sha Tsui Waterfront.

No culpes al karma de lo que te pasa por gilipollas - Verónica Echegui (2016) - Shanghai Street, Mongkok

After emerging from Mongkok station and meeting her beau all the way over in Causeway Bay, the pair zoom back to Mongkok to catch a red minibus. I reckon at that speed they didn't need the bus. The building in the background is the Shantung Street-end of the Langham Place Mall. The minibus is driving south down Shanghai Street.

No culpes al karma de lo que te pasa por gilipollas - Verónica Echegui (2016) - Sai Yeung Choi Street South, Mongkok

Sara wanders around looking a bit lost. She stops on a corner looking bewildered. This was filmed on the north east corner of Nelson Street and Sai Yeung Choi Street South.

No culpes al karma de lo que te pasa por gilipollas - Verónica Echegui (2016) - Nelson Street, Mongkok

As Sara (Verónica Echegui) arrives in Hong Kong, we see her emerge from the Nelson Street Mongkok MTR station on the east side of Nathan Road (Exit E2). I'm impressed they managed to film here given how busy it is at all times. The initial shot shows the view across Nathan Road towards the Langham Mall in the background. The taller building is now the Cordis Hotel (it may still have been the Langham at the time of filming in 2016, I'm not sure).

Daddy Cool - Mammootty (2009) - Lung Cheung Road, Wong Tai Sin

Okay, so we will finish on this film with a view along Lung Cheung Road in front of Wong Tai Sin Temple. This shot was taken right in front of the large ornate gate that fronts onto the main road. there's been a bit of change here in the intervening years but the fire hydrant he's sitting on is still around in case there are any Indian film fans wishing to recreate the image.

Daddy Cool - Mammootty (2009) - Park Lane Shopper Boulevard, Tsim Sha Tsui

Every tourist to Hong Kong comes here at some point - the Park Lane Shoppers Boulevard. It's well past its sell-by-date if you ask me, but almost unavoidable if you are in this part of TST. I'm surprised I haven't really featured it that much on the blog. It was seen in The Dragon from Russia though.

Daddy Cool - Mammootty (2009) - Nathan Road, Kowloon

Another highly featured location is Nathan Road. It looks like the film company hired one of the open top tour buses and just drove up and down Nathan Road capturing a variety of snippets. The first image below shows Nathan Road at the junction with Ning Po Street. The second one was further north between Shantung Street and Nelson Street. The third one was outside New Lucky House on the corner of Jordan Road.

All the neon signs have since been removed

California Fitness was in Grand Tower

New Lucky House (with the green triangular pattern) on the right

Daddy Cool - Mammootty (2009) - Avenue of Stars

A significant proportion of the musical set piece was filmed along the (old) Avenue of Stars along the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront in Kowloon. For those who never got the chance to experience the original AoS, you didn't miss much. It was a bit of poorly-managed tourist tat, full of spelling mistakes and overpriced film memorabilia. It underwent a renovation a few years back when New World Development (the owners of the land) decided to knock down the New World Centre and rebuild it into the current K11 Atelier monstrosity. When reopened, the "new" Avenue was just as disappointing as the old one, and the old centrepiece - a life size bronze sculpture of Bruce Lee in a fighting stance, paid for and provided by fans - was relegated to one side as some sort of coffee shop ornament for the local Starbucks.

Daddy Cool - Mammootty (2009) - Sai Yeung Choi Street South, Mongkok

During this singing/dance piece the camera work is quite jumpy and erratic so it wasn't possible to capture every quick edit. However, the first street- level view is looking north along Sai Yeung Choi Street South. The big sign above is for the Wing Lung Bank which still stands on the corner of what used to be Nelson Street before it was pedestrianised and turned into an entrance to the nearby MTR station. The bank is still there, but the sign has, sadly, gone. It's in all three images, but in case you can't read Chinese, it's the one with four red characters above the police van in the second image.

Erotic Journey: Love Affair in Hong Kong - Hirokazu Inoue (1973) - Kai Tak Airport

The final location we see is, fittingly, Kai Tak Airport, as Sumio's ever-suffering sister-in-law decides it is time to return to Japan and leave him to wallow in his sadness. Uncharacteristically, it looks like they have walked all the way there as they pop out of a subway on Olympic Avenue and walk towards the terminal. The subway is still there, the airport is not.

Erotic Journey: Love Affair in Hong Kong - Hirokazu Inoue (1973) - Yau Ma Tei Typhoon Shelter

Sumio's new 'friend' tells him he has found his wife. It turns out it's a lookalike (played by the same actress, Junko Miyashita) who is working as a prostitute on one of the "flower boats" berthed in the typhoon shelter. As most regular readers or people familiar with Hong Kong will know, this whole area was reclaimed into West Kowloon and the typhoon shelter was shifted several hundred meters to the west. 

Baadshah - N.T. Rama Rao Jr (2013) - Jordan Road, Kwun Chung

Another random Hong Kong establishing shot from Baadshah shows the view looking west along Jordan Road, just past the junction with Nathan Road. Looking at this shot confirms to me that this is old stock footage because the large Yue Hwa sign hasn't been located here since when I first moved to Hong Kong in 2006. So I guess that clears that up about whether or not the footage was stock or not. The Yue Hwa store is still here, it's the flagship store. The lower image shows the view when you turn the camera 90 degrees to the left (i.e. looking south down Nathan Road).

My Wife is a Gangster 3 - Shu Qi (2006) - Austin Road West, Kowloon

The film's final scenes, as Aryoung heads out to stop her Korean gangster love interest from leaving, was shot at the bend on Austin Road West. It's the same spot where SPL filmed a year or so previously, right in front of where the ICC building stands. Obviously the area has changed massively since this was filmed though with the addition of the waterfront art park, M+ museum etc.

My Wife is a Gangster 3 - Shu Qi (2006) - Freder Centre, Ma Tau Kok

Aryoung catches up with the gang boss on the roof of the Freder Centre at the top end of Ma Tau Kok. We've seen it before, quite some time ago, as a Police Station on the Strangers miniseries. The wasteland in the background is the cleared out former Kai Tak Airport site. Suffice to say that wastleand is now full of malls, new residential developments and Hong Kong's brand new (as of April 2025) Kai Tak Sports Park.

My Wife is a Gangster 3 - Shu Qi (2006) - Lei Yue Mun

Aryoung finds out about her father's attemtpted assassination and returns to Hong Kong to be with him. He is convalescing in a beachside hut in Lei Yue Mun. The concrete structure that Shu Qi is standing on was part of the infrastructure that was used when the area was being quarried (quarrying stopped here circa 1970). It's all abandoned now and just left to rot.