Baraka - Ron Fricke (1992) - Kowloon City

Much in the same vein as Powaqqatsi, Baraka is a "non-narrative" documentary that combines a vast amount of footage shot around the world with small vignettes of many different places combined with music. Not surprisngly, Ron Fricke, the director, worked directly with Powaqqatsi director, Godfrey Reggio on an earlier film called Koyaanisqatsi.

The film credits only give us "Kowloon" as the filming location for this part, but it seems that a few places were included. The first appears early in the film and shows an upward angle of a plane flying over Kowloon City towards Kai Tak. The only clue to the whereabouts is the neon sign covered in scaffolding. I haven't been able to pinpoint this one yet, so please feel free to comment if you know.

The lower images are the last bits of footage featuring Hong Kong and show a plane landing from a different angle. This footage was filmed from the east side of South Wall Road. The building with the dirty yellow external decor is part of South Wall Mansion and the northern end of the street. It's a bit cleaner these days.

Beyond Hypothermia - Jacklyn Wu Chien-lien (1996) - Cambo Thai Restaurant, Kowloon City

The Korean tracks down the assassin's handler (played by Shirley Wong) and tries to find out who killed his boss. This meeting takes place at the Cambo Thai Restaurant on Nga Tsin Long Road in Kowloon City.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Adam Baldwin (2000) - Hau Wong Road, Kowloon City

Despite being filmed in 2000 (actually, August 1999, according to IMDB) - at least a year after the old airport closed - the film has decided to use some library footage showing a plane flying overhead on its approach to Kai Tak. You may recall that Johnny English Reborn did the same, despite being filmed more than ten years after the airport closure). This is the view from Hau Wong Road looking up. The vertical restaurant sign is for a famous restaurant on this road called Lok Hau Fuk (樂口福酒家) which is still around - as far as I am aware.

The Thieves - Kim Yoon-seok (2012) - 98 Carpenter Road (rear of), Kowloon City

The gang leaves their HK hideout on a mission to return to Korea and track down Macao. The shot used for them exiting on to the street is the alleyway located at the back of an old block that once stood at 98 Junction Road. That said, the alleyway opens around the corner, on Carpenter Road, and this is what we can see in the images below. The old block has since been demolished but the alleyway is still there.

The Thieves - Kim Yoon-seok (2012) - 124 Nga Tsin Wai Road, Kowloon City

The rooftop where the Korean gang are intrduced to the friend of their target was located on top of a rather cool looking building that used to stand on the corner of Lion Rock Road and Nga Tsin Wai Road in Kowloon City. It was quite a stylish building with its art-deco style balconies and Communist Star emblem (which you can see the rear of in some of the screen grabs). Sadly, it fell into - deliberate - disrepair and was demolished sometime before 2016. No doubt there is a high rise on the spot right now, but I haven't been down here for a while to check.

The Big Game - Brendan Boone (1973) - Kai Tak Airport

Next up is another German production from 1973. The Big Game. This one is about a secret US science project that controls peoples' minds. A group of international terrorists are after it and target a member of the US Foreign service, Jim Handley, (Brendan Boone) whose father (Ray Milland) is running the project. France Nuyen plays Atanga, Jim's love interest. The film was shot on location in Rome, Hong Kong, and, for their shame, apartheid-era Cape Town. The Hong Kong part of the film starts with, surprise surprise, the protagonist arriving in Hong Kong via the airport triggering the requisite shots of a plane landing on the old runway.

In the lower images you can see Po Sing Court in the background - the white block of flats. This place is still around but the Regal Kai Tak Hotel (now called the Regal Oriental) was built in front of it in 1982. The smaller building, painted yellow, was on the corner of Sa Po Road but was demolished to make way for the Kam Fai Commercial Building in 1981.

Asia-Pol Secret Service - Wang Yu (1966) - Kowloon City Aerial View

The final aerial shots are taken over the Kowloon City area just in front of the airport runway.

The government estate that can be seen in the upper part of both images is the old Tung Tau Estate before it was redeveloped into taller/higher capacity blocks. The sole remaining structure from this image was, until 2014, Block 22 - the taller building on the corner of the road junction. This has since been replaced by the newer, taller Wui Chi House. However, the smaller building in front of it survives and contains the Po Yan Oblate Primary School.

Directly below that is a squatter village that sat in between the notorious Kowloon Walled City (on the left) and Kowloon City area that is still around on the right. So the whole area encompassing the squatter huts and Kowloon Walled City are now all city park.

Irreversi - Mei Melançon (2010) - Nga Tsin Long Road, Kowloon City

The establishing shot for where Adam goes to buy his taxidermy chemicals is Nga Tsin Long Road in Kowloon City. It looks as though the Cambo Pho restaurant seen in the image below is still around.

Geostorm - Gerard Butler (2017) - Nga Tsin Wai Road, Kowloon City

If the sudden jump from Mongkok to Sham Shui Po was too much of a leap of faith for you then this one will send you loopy because the immediate scene following the Wong Chuk Street is in fact all the way over in Kowloon City along the main road there, Nga Tsin Wai Road. Wong Chuk Street suddenly turns into Lion Rock Road as Wu skids around another corner in his attempts to outrun the apocalypse. The first two screen caps show the location from the junction with Lion Rock Road. The lower two screencaps is the view from the next junction with Hau Wong Road. You can make out the EFCC Grace Church building on the left of the screen and the hoardings of the building site that became "Billionaire Luxe" (last pic on left). That rather naffly named condominium building (trust me, by HK standards it's only mildy naff) was completed in 2016 so the fact that it is a building site here appears to fit with the principal photography timeline of 2014/15.

There are some further snippets along the same road but the next block over as we come to the end of the real Hong Kong locations. These next few bits were filmed between Lung Kong Road and South Wall Road.

Seventh Moon - Amy Smart (2008) - Kowloon City Wet Market, Kowloon

After wandering around the outdoor shops the pair also head into the nearby wet market to have a wander around.

Seventh Moon - Amy Smart (2008) - Hau Wong Road, Kowloon City

More scenes around Kowloon City as the pair move to the northern part of Hau Wong Road. The "Just Meat" shop closed soon after this film was shot. It was located at 45B Hau Wong Road opposite the wet market.

Seventh Moon - Amy Smart (2008) - Nga Tsin Long Road, Kowloon City

Next up, Seventh Moon, directed by Eduardo Sanchez (the guy responsible for The Blair Witch Project) this film was shot in Hong Kong, but to be honest seeing as most of it was shot at night it really could have been shot anywhere. Other than the odd bit of rural new Territories structures there is nothing here that justifies coming all the way over to Hong Kong to shoot. It has its moments but for me the old shaky camera technique just annoyed me rather than add anything to the tension.

The story revolves around a newly married couple who are in "China" for their honeymoon and are met by a driver (played by Dennis Chan - not his finest hour) who is going to take them to see the husband's family somewhere in rural China. However, it is all a ruse and the driver is in fact taking them to be sacrificed to some bald-headed demons (plenty of those in HK, I'm one of them!) on behalf of his tormented village.

Anyway, the action starts off with the couple enjoying themselves at a local festival. This opening shot is actually in Kowloon City, along Nga Tsin Long Road. The shophouse in the background of the second image stands (or maybe stood...I haven't been down here for a while to check if it still exists) at  #24.

Banzaï - Coluche (1983) - Kowloon City, Kowloon

The bombing sequence (actually, the plane is just opening its cargo doors and dropping all its luggage) is edited so that footage of planes landing at Kai Tak is cut into shots of people on the streets looking up and being showered with suitcases. The landing shots include a bunch of quick edits of planes flying over Kowloon City area which I have been able to identify below.

The curvy building used to be on the corner of Lung Kong Road
(part of the non-curved section remains)

Looking towards Hau Wong Road from Nga Tsin Wai Road
(before the Kowloon City Govt Complex was built)

Corner of Prince Edward Road and Lung Kong Road

Nga Tsin Wai Road between Nam Kok and Nga Tsin Long Roads

Flying over Ma Tau Chung Road

Narazumono - Ken Takakura (1964) - Kai Tak Airport, Kowloon

The story moves back to Japan for a short time before once again coming back to Hong Kong and then on to Macau for the remainder. This part of the film introduces the character portrayed by Naoki Sugiura, Hirogami, a Japanese policeman on Minami's trail. The scene was shot around the exterior of the new terminal building (it had opened in 1962).

Strangers - John Simm (2018) - Kowloon Walled City Park, Kowloon

Jonah, determined to find out what Kai Huang knows about his wife's death, goes to the venue where Huang's brother is getting married. This was filmed at the Kowloon City Park.

A Lotus for Miss Quon - Lang Jeffries (1967) - Kai Tak Airport, Kowloon

More familiar territory this time as Kai Tak stands in for the airport in Vietnam, as Blackie's brother arrives from HK to help with the diamond problem. The brother in this case is played by Werner Peters who played a corrupt but conflicted police chief in the recently looked at The Peking Medallion.