The Merry Wife - Li Ching (1971) - Good Hope School, Clearwater Bay Road

The school that becomes the focus of the film, because it's where Lin Min teaches and where Zhenzhen chooses to go to finish her schooling, is the Good Hope School at the bottom of Kowloon Peak on Clearwater Bay Road. Although originally a co-ed school (and it is also shown as being that in the film) the school has since become girls only. I believe the version we can see in the film, which is still around although greatly expanded, was built in 1964.

This bottom image shows the rear wing of the central part of the building, it has since been extended significantly with an extra two wings constructed parallel to the small road you see on the right hand side. Despite its location , the school is still within the district boundary of Wong Tai Sin.

The Generation Gap - David Chiang (1973) - Cairnmount, Customs Pass

Next up is The Generation Gap. A Chang Cheh modern drama about a young man, Ling Xi (David Chiang), from an obviously wealthy family, who has decided to drop out of his studies and hang out with his underage girlfriend, Cindy (Agnes Chan).

Things get out of hand and Ling Xi digs himself into a big hole when the two move in together against everyone's wishes and the whole affair leads him to turn to a life of crime.

Ling Xi is a fairly obnoxious character to be honest and I'm sure there is some cultural nuance I'm missing with regards to the fact that he is portrayed as some sort of rebel against the older generation when really he's just a kid with violent tendencies who has a thing for an underage girl. On the plus side, there are some great locations starting with the Ling family home.

Customs Pass used to contain a great many fantastic old 50's era mansions that, by and large, have disappeared. Afew are still around but most have since had their large plots redeveloped into small gated estates. One of these was a circular house called "Cairnmount" located at #2 Fei Wan Road - although the official address seems to be "1979 off Fei Ngo Shan Road".

In the film, this is where Ling Xi (Chiang) lives with his family and spends all day tinkering with his car in the garage.

I'm not sure when the property was demolished but the development standing on the site today, a small luxury townhouse estate called Ming Wah Yuen (明華園), was completed in 1990. It looks like it's possible the property was still there up until the work started for the new development (as opposed to being demolished and having the site left empty for years) and so perhaps demolished circa 1988/89?

This 1963 aerial image below doesn't include the swimming pool that can be seen in the screen shots. It was built later in the lower right hand side of the garden area.

Police Force - Wang Chung (1973) - Fei Ngo Shan

Following his victory in the karate competition, Ling Kuan (Fu Sheng) and Shen Yan (Lily Li), go up to Kowloon Peak to take some photos when they are accosted by the two thugs. The main thug, Kao Tu (Wang Kuang-yu), has just watched Liang win the karate tournament and so he ties his hands to stop him fighting back properly.

Following the attack, the sequence moves to the north side of the hill, close to where Gillwell Camp is located. In fact. the green painted sign seen in the images below *might* be an old sign to the camp. Although I'm not sure. The sign has long gone but that small area looks fairly similar today. The images below are all taken from the same spot but looking in two directions See here. It's now all part of the Wilson Trail Stage 4.

Operation Lipstick - Cheng Pei-pei (1967) - 6 Fei Ngo Shan Road, Kowloon Peak

The baddies hideout is represented by the exterior of a property that used to stand at 6 Fei Ngo Shan Road. I thought this may have been a model until I came across it recently in Karate from Shaolin Temple. This film shows it from more or less the same angle as that film, but in much better picture quality. Sadly, this version of the property underwent some renovations in the 1990s/00s and then was completely demolished and replaced quite recently, so sadly is no more.

Anyway, this is where the gang and their boss are based and serves as the location for the rooftop finale as the girls fight off the gangsters from a studio-built replica of the roof.

Karate from Shaolin Temple - Kazuma Kenji (1976) - Fei Ngo Shan Road, Kowloon

After leaving the Yuen Yuen Institute, Musashi is undergoing a personal crisis as he grapples with whether or not he should be helping Wu. The following sequence was shot at the junction between Fei Ha Road and Fei Ngo Shan Road. Musashi is stopped by one of Wu's friends, Chang (Gwan Jing-leung) who asks him to try and find out some information for them about the bosses movements. However, the pair are spotted by a couple of the boss's henchmen.

The first image below shows the view down Fei Ha Road as Chang races to catch up with Musashi. The following images shows the junction as the car turns around on the curve. The final image shows what was the art-deco style property at #6 Fei Ngo Shan Road in the background. Remember that property because it will pop up in another film I have lined up after this one.

Looking down Fei Ha Road from the junction

The junction between Fei Ngo Shan Rd and Fei Ha Road

The art-deco spire of 6 Fei Ngo Shan Road in the background

Come Drink With Me - Cheng Pei-pei (1966) - Kowloon Peak

I've been doing these IDs on an adhoc basis (normally I have them all lined up and ready to go) and hadn't realised so much was being filmed up around Kowloon Peak, so apologies for multiple posts featuring locations that are all quite close to each other.

The following image is still part of the opening caravan scene as the troops are making their way to wherever before being ambushed. In the image below you can see the start of the higher ridgeline that ends in Kowloon Peak proper. I believe this section is called "Elephant Hill".  The lack of a road and presence of only a path indicates this is a little further east of Fei Ngo Shan Road. There is a flat piece of ground where the path still contours the side of the hill. 

A few later images appear to show the area further around the bend (i.e. in the above image, off camera to the left) where the ambush scene was filmed. In those shots you can see the same part of the hill in the background. It's hard to pin an exact location here because this area is now quite overgrown as well as having an electricity pylon built on the site - no doubt the flatter topography was conducive to its construction.

Jade Faced Tiger (Chen Hung Lieh) on Kowloon Peak

This final image shows the view looking more or less due east from the same area. On the right, in the far distance, just behind the man halfway down the slope, is the distant peak of High Junk Peak in Clearwater Bay. All in all this scene involves some careful framing to exclude much of the modern development that would have been visible to the actors and crew.

Come Drink With Me - Cheng Pei-pei (1966) - Fei Ngo Shan Road, Kowloon Peak

This image shows the cutting I have referred to previously, where the road crosses the ridge from one side to the other. The district boundary runs along the road here so the group are moving from Sai Kung District into Wong Tai Sin District. It wouldn't surprise me if King Hu just turned his camera around at this spot to film this earlier view. Once again, Google maps is messing with my marker locations so the one below is not where I placed the pin (click on the location at the bottom of the post). It's close enough but this is a recurring issue I have with Googlemap pins, especially so in more remote locales.

Come Drink With Me - Cheng Pei-pei (1966) - Fei Ngo Shan Road, Kowloon Peak

Continuing on Kowloon Peak, the next shot clearly shows the view along the Kowloon ridgeline towards Beacon Hill in the distance. The two-pronged peak just before Beacon Hill is, of course, Lion Rock. You can see a very similar view here, in Heisser Hafen Hongkong. The group of actors would have been standing near the cutting where the road crosses from one side of the ridge to the other.

Come Drink With Me - Cheng Pei-pei (1966) - Tai Lo Au, Kowloon Peak

Welcome to one of my favourite Shaw films, the 1966 Wuxia classic that helped establish King Hu as one of the top directors of the genre as well as launching a 19 year old Cheng Pei-pei into film stardom. Wikipedia states that the film was shot in Taiwan and Shaw Brothers studios, but to my discerning eye I can also see several scenes were shot elsewhere around Hong Kong's then unspoilt and spectacular New Territories - these days the NT looks more like someone's scrapyard, unfortunately.

The plot revolves around a band of ruthless bandits who have taken the Governor's son captive and are holding him hostage in order to effect a prisoner exchange for their captive leader. The Governor dispatches his daughter, the Golden Swallow (Cheng Pei-pei), to capture the bandits, but despite her martial prowess she is eventually overwhelmed and is only able to avoid defeat with the help of the mysterious Drunken Cat (Yueh Hwa aka Elliot Ngok) - a beggar who has his own agenda but one that is closely linked to her success.

The opening scenes show a caravan of troops making its way through the hills before being ambushed by the bandits and the Governor's son being kidnapped. I've managed to identify some of these scenes as being in Hong Kong, starting with this initial shot of some seemingly empty hills.

The view in the image below is taken from Fei Ngo Shan Road looking approximately northeast. The small track running alongside that hill (Tung Yeung Shan) is now part of Stage 4 of the Wilson Trail. In the middle distance is a prominent hilltop that marks Buffalo Pass. There's a very close approximation of this view (though not exact) in this photo uploaded to GoogleEarth. So I think the camera was placed somewhere on the road where Fei Ngo Shan Road moves from the north (Sai Kung) side of the ridge, to the south (Kowloon).

Bloodfight - Yasuaki Kurata (1989) - View from Kowloon Peak

Another part of Masa's training involves him running up the slope of the Kowloon Peak. The camera was located in the popular spot where Fei Ngo Shan Road switches from the south (Kowloon) side of the ridgeline to the north side, near the Kowloon Peak viewing point.