Inter-Pol - Tang Ching (1967) - Pacific Islands Shipbuilding Company Shipyard, Kowloon Bay

The bad guys are running their operations from an industrial site in Kowloon Bay. The landmark that helped place this particular site is the building in the background of the first image. It's the former Amoycan Industrial Centre. It was redeveloped into an apartment complex starting circa 2020 following a devastating fire that killed two firemen in 2016. The relative location of our filming site puts it somewhere along the old Kowloon Bay waterfront in an area that is now completely occupied by Telford Gardens and the MTR Kowloon Bay depot. In fact, I am fairly certain this was part of the former PAcific Islands Shipbuilding Company shipyard. If you read my recent post for Die sieben Masken des Judoka (aka Casse-tête chinois pour le judoka) then you will recognise the small hut with the Chinese roof in the background. This was one of my pandemic finds when I had a whole bunch of time on my hands - another one that I forgot to post about until I was writing this post.

Anyway, as you can see in the lower image, the same small hut with the Chinese roof can be seen in the image below as can be seen in the stills from that film, shot the same year.

Amoycan Industrial Centre in the background

Casse-tête chinois pour le Judoka - Marc Briand (1967) - Pacific Islands Shipbuilding, Kowloon Bay

Yes, an older movie that I covered many years ago (2018 to be precise, and I have since decided to list it on the right hand side under its original title: Casse-tête chinois pour le Judoka, but have yet to bother changing all the post titles). This one is being done now because it was another of my pandemic finds back in 2021 that I thought I had already posted but checked back recently (you'll see why in a few posts) and realised I had forgotten about it.

The location can be seen during footchase that actually ends up over on Ap Lei Chau, but the initial scenes were shot at the Pacific Islands ShipBuilding shipyard in Kowloon Bay. This was worked out by triangulating the background buildings with the large gantry that can be seen below. The building behind it was Block 13 of the Ngau Tau Kok Resettlement Estate and was still under construction at the time.

Take note of the small Chinese-roofed hut in the lower image as this will pop up in a later post for another film.

This whole area now sits under where Kowloon Bay MTR station depot and the Telford Gardens development now sits. The former aforementioned Block 13 site now holds the reasonably newish "Kowloon Cultural Centre".

Gen Y Cops - Edison Chen (2000) - Wang Kwun Road, Kowloon Bay

The confrontation between the recently hacked and raging robot and the cops takes place at the junction between Wang Kwun Road and Lam Lok Street in Kowloon Bay. The building with the large columns is the Nam Fung Commercial Centre, and the building with the glass wall is called Enterprise Square. You can see the same location on this GoogleEarth link.

Hitman - Jet Li (1998) - Trademart Drive, Kowloon Bay

After dropping off Fu at Po Kong Village Road, Lo's daughter then drops Lo off at Trademart Drive in Kowloon Bay. The large warehouse at the back is HSBC's Main Treasury building, although I have no idea what it is used for - perhaps storage of old/new currency and other valuables/archives etc? If you know, please feel free to post a comment.

SPL - Donnie Yen (2005) - Sheung Yuet Road, Kowloon Bay

Although the main establishing scenes for Wong Po's headquarters and environs were filmed in East TST, for the finale, as Ma takes the money to Wong, the exterior shots and infamous alleyway leading to the venue were filmed in Kowloon Bay. Credit to Dan Thomas for tracking down this via a Japanese reader called Isamu. It's here where Ma battles Jack in a baton v knife fight before heading up to confront Wong Po. It's also here where Wong's wife and child are parked at the end of the sequence. Love him or hate him, I think many would agree that this is one of Donnie's best fights.

Infernal Affairs - Andy Lau (2002) - Sunshine Kowloon Bay Cargo Centre, Kowloon Bay

The warehouse where Sam (Eric Tsang) does all his nefarious business appears to be one of the crime boss's biggest secrets and it's here where Lau Kin-ming (Andy Lau) puts his plan into action to free himself from his criminal past. The establishing shot for the warehouse uses the Sunshine Kowloon Bay Cargo Centre, with its distinctive spiral entry/exit ramp, but I am not so sure the interiors were filmed there - after finding some shots from the inside of the place, it doesn't appear to match.

Infernal Affairs - Andy Lau (2002) - Ngau Tau Kok Police Station, Kowloon Bay

The exterior shots for the main police station were filmed outside the real life Ngau Tau Kok police station on Siu Yip Street. There were a few scenes filmed here including the scene where Anthony Wong leaves the station on the fateful day and is followed by one of the other cops, but also a night scene later in the film when Tony Leung does a runner after realising who the mole is. The interior scenes for Andy Lau's office were filmed in a totally different building which I shall cover in the next post.

Strangers - John Simm (2018) - View from Shing Fung Road, Kowloon Bay

Here's an interesting view from a part of Kowloon that hasn't really been used before - largely because the area was left untouched for many years after the closure of Kai Tak Airport. It's only in the last few years that development has started and access to the general public has started again. This is the view looking towards the northern part of Kowloon from the Shing Fung Road where it crosses a bridge across the Kwun Tong Typhoon Shelter. In the image, the section of coastline on the left is northern edge (at least part of) of the old Kai Tak runway.

Strangers - John Simm (2018) - Urban Oasis, Kowloon Bay

Porter is out for a run when she gets a call. The place where she takes the call is a new park near the Choi Hung Estate called Urban Oasis. Although Google maps classes this as Kowloon Bay, the location is actually part of what used to be a military base at the far north of the old Kai Tak airport site.

Man of Tai Chi - Keanu Reeves (2013) - Electrical & Mechanical Services Department, Kowloon Bay

The exterior of the Police HQ was also filmed in Kowloon Bay, at the new Electrical and Mechanical Servies Dept building on Kai Shing Street. Obviously the signboards are fake. The large column centre screen is actually one of the uprights for the Kwun Tong Bypass. Apparently,this building wasn't new and was originally the air freight terminal for neighbouring Kai Tak Airport. It must've undergone a significant refurb to make it ready for the EMSD once they moved from their previous, shared location on Caroline Hill (edit 2023: which incidentally, is now demolished).

Man of Tai Chi - Keanu Reeves (2013) - Wang Tai Road, Kowloon Bay

The establishing shot for Reeves' office building was done over in Kowloon Bay at a relatively new building called Exchange Tower. Although the subsequent view from Reeves' office (last image) is looking towards Central on Hong Kong Island from the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Wanchai.

Office set in the studio with a backdrop filmed from the Grand Hyatt

Five Golden Dragons - Bob Cummings (1967) - RAF Kai Tak, Kowloon

Which other blogs out there can give you RAF Kai Tak and Hollywood heavyweight, George Raft, in a single post? Not very many, I suspect.

But anyway, Raft is one of the so-called Five Golden Dragons of the film's title and lands in HK in a helicopter at RAF Kai Tak.

RAF Kai Tak was the RAF base situated just north of the runway in Kowloon. It's been completely redeveloped now and there are a couple of housing estates on the old site including the Kai Yip Estate and Richland Gardens. There are still a couple of remnants left including the former HQ building at #50 Kwun Tong Road and on the opposite side of Kwun Tong Road, the former Officer's Mess - now the HKBU Academy for Visual Arts. I believe that's might be the distant building you can see behind George's head in the lower picture. There is also one of the Nissen huts left on the site which is now used by the Christian Action organisation.

In the top pictures you can see part of the original Choi Hung Estate at the back. That's Pik Hoi House and is still standing, along with the rest of the estate.

Knock Off - Jean Claude Van Damme (1997) - Kowloon Bay Breakwater, Kowloon Bay

As JCVD goes off soul-searching, he decides to wander down to the breakwaters that sit across Kowloon Bay near to Kai Tak airport runway. I'm quite certain that at least one of the following screen caps is actually the previously mentioned Todd Senofonte, Van Damme's long-term stunt double. Anyway, the second shot shows the uprights of the Kwun Tong Bypass that runs along the waterfront along Kowloon Bay and Kwun Tong.