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).

The Merry Wife - Li Ching (1971) - Jordan Road Vehicular Ferry Pier 2

Lin Min takes his car across the harbour via the double decker vehicular ferry which had a "temporary" pier separate to the main vehicular ferry pier originally built for, and continued to service, the single deck ferries.

This pier has been featured before and was located at the south west extremity of the Ferry Point Estate. I believe it was in place right up until the commencement of the West Kowloon Reclamation.

Bullet in the Head - Tony Leung Chiu-wai (1990) - Jordan Road Ferry Pier

The trio have a bike race along the waterfront in a bout of friendly rivalry, with Frank (Jacky Cheung) being saved from plunging into the water by Ben (Tony Leung) just at the last minute. This scene was filmed at the Jordan Road Vehicular Ferry Pier - the later version that catered for double-decker ferries. The small raised ramp is the upper deck access ramp. The whole place disappeared in the early 90s when the West Kowloon Reclamation commenced (it was still ongoing when I made my first trip in November 1995, thirty years ago this year!!).

Ferry Point Estate in the background

Mad Mission 3: Our Man from Bond Street - Sam Hui (1984) - Former Government Offices, Canton Road

Despite getting ready over on Hong Kong Island, the building used for the heist appears to be the Government Offices on Canton Road in Kwun Chung. These were demolished around 2010 and replaced by (as with everything old in Hong Kong) a residential development (Grand Austin). We get a few shots of the building as well as the related boat berths on the harbourfront. This dock was located just a little bit north of the Fire Brigade Dock seen in The Sand Pebbles.

It looks like pretty much all of the ground-level shots from this sequence were also filmed here. The final image shows the old entrance, located on the southern end of the main block.

International Prostitution: Brigade criminelle - Jean-Louis Broust (1980) - Bowring Street, Kwun Chung

Dega manages to track down Marcone to a backstreet gambling den and a chase ensues. Unfortunately the poor quality of the print I viewed means much of the chase is unidentifable, to me at least, but here is one of the locales: Bowring Street in Kwun Chung. This is identifiable thanks to the presence of a sign for the Beautville Night Club.

Fearless Tiger - Jalal Merhi (1991) - Shanghai Street, Kwun Chung

One of the street scenes involving Lyle walking around trying to find his friend's kung fu school was filmed at the junction of Shanghai Street and Bowring Street in Kwun Chung. Lyle passes by a once popular BBQ/roast meat eatery called 沙記乳豬燒臘 (aka "Sha Kei Roast Suckling Pig"). In the image below we are looking at a previous location at #41 Shanghai Street - it later moved a few doors away to the opposite side of the junction before finally closing down sometime in 2022. The top image is pointing south down Shanghai Street towards Austin Road. with Wing Fat Mansion at the far end.

In the same sequence is another shot, and I believe this was looking northwest from the same junction (previous images above are looking southwest). The key here is a sign for the 官涌集友會 - aka roughly translated as the "Kwun Chung Friends Association". It was located on the section of Shanghai Street just north of Bowring Street.

The Guiding Light - Bruce Lee (1953) - View across Kwun Chung

Continuing the early childhood movies of Bruce Lee,next up we have The Guiding Light (aka A Son is Born or 苦海明燈 in Chinese). Lee was 12 years old when he made this one and features prominently playing the central character of Tin-sang for much of the middle part of the story. It centres on an illegitimate boy born to a maid and her obnoxiously rich, married employer, who is then passed around like an unwanted gift as various people struggle with, or completely disregard, their responsibilities. He eventually finds refuge with a charitable family who run an eye clinic/women's finishing school and goes on to be a famed opthalmologist who manages to cure his friend's blindness.

Like other movies of the era, there are some outdoor location shots but they tend to be a bit fleeting. However, there is enough in the film to warrant coverage here so we'll start with one of the opening scenes of a view across Kwun Chung (the area people tend to mistakenly refer to these days as "Jordan" thanks to the name of the nearby MTR station). This image shows the cluster of tenements that were crammed into the blocks between Austin Road (on the left) and Jordan Road (off camera to the right). The large building at the far left was the northernmost block of the Canton Road Police Married Quarters. These were only just opened in February 1953 which means they would have been brand new when this film was made. They were demolished circa 1997 and replaced by "The Victoria Towers" residential development.

We Owe It to Our Children - Cheung Wood-yau (1955) - Jordan Road, Kwun Chung

This following image shows the view looking sort of northwest from Nathan Road area over towards the Yau Ma Tei typhoon shelter in the background (with Stonecutter Island just peeping out at the back).

Given the height of the image this could only have been filmed from the top of the Shamrock Hotel, which in 1955 was officially the tallest building in Kowloon. I'm not particularly familiar with the 1955 version of Jordan Road, which is the main road running across the middle of the frame, but I think the brightly lit restaurant may have been the precursor to whatever now stands on the corner of Temple Street. Just behind it I can make out what looks to be a gas holder belonging to the former Jordan Road Gas Works.

Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong - Jamie Chung (2015) - Jordan Road, Yau Ma Tei

Following on from this post, I suspect these shots were all done at the same time because if you turn the camera to the left at the junction of Nathan and Jordan Roads, you will get the view down Jordan Road that appears below.

Shirley's World (TV Series) - Shirley MacLaine (1972) - Pilkem Street, Kwun Chung

Many thanks to Bunce for the identification of this formerly hard to find location from Shirley's World. It's from the Figuratively Speaking episode and is just a quick shot of Shirley out and about taking pictures. The slatted building on the left is Pilkem House, so this means we are looking north from somewhere close to the junction with Bowring Street (around where exit C2 of Jordan Station is these days). The angle makes me think Bowring Street is behind her though.

The Heroin Busters - Fabio Testi (1977) - Jordan Road, Kowloon

We are also treated to some neon street signs as Testi wanders around. One of the signs is the Millie's Centre sign that used to be on the Everest Building on the corner of Jordan Road and Nathan Road.

The most recent Streetview shot shows that this place is now occupied by a (surprise surprise) jewellery shop. If anyone can remember what Millie's used to sell, please let me know in the comments.

There is also an earlier bit of the same scene that looks to have been filmed further along the road towards the junction with Temple Street because it looks as though the Liberty Theatre can be seen in the background (showing Rocky!) which puts the filming year of The Heroin Busters firmly in 1977 (Rocky was released in HK on May 19th, 1977).

Heisser Hafen Hongkong - Horst Frank (1962) - Jordan Road, Kwun Chung

Speaking of Jordan Road, one of the next shots we see is the viewpoint from the car driving along Jordan Road, albeit back towards the ferry pier. The two curvy buildings seen on the picture are still around - at least assuming I am correct in my identification (corrections welcome, as always).

It looks like the nearer curved building is the still standing Woo Sung House (built 1960) with a vertical blue sign for the Far East Bank Ltd. That means the building on the far right in the top picture is the precursor to today's Pak Shing Building with Woosung Street running between the two. In the background is another curved building that is still around. It's United Mansion and that particular section is Block A. Shanghai Street runs in front of it. Note the sign of a famous restaurant on a vertical blue signboard on the lower left of the bottom picture. It was the 雲天大茶樓 (Cloudy Sky Restaurant). The smaller buildings have all been replaced.

Heisser Hafen Hongkong - Horst Frank (1962) - Lung Yu Restaurant, Kowloon

The Lung Yu restaurant makes another appearance on this blog, this time though it's supposed to be a hotel. If you recall my very first post on this place, back when I was exploring I Spy locations, you'll see that the building it was in (on the corner of Battery Street and Jordan Road) is still around but now houses a bank.

Flatfoot in Hong Kong - Bud Spencer (1975) - Lung Yu Restaurant, Jordan Road

One of the benefits of going back every so often to look at films I covered when I first starting blogging here is that sometimes I see places that I now recognise. Case in point is this brief shot of the Lung Yu Restaurant from Flatfoot in Hong Kong starring Bud Spencer. We don't get to see much other than the dragon effigy above the main doors but it's still fairly recognisable. You can compare it to the shots I posted when it appeared in I Spy and Heisser Hafen Hongkong and Ein Sarg aus Hongkong.

The Yin and Yang of Mr Go - James Mason (1970) - Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

While we're on the subject of the large Chinese writing written on the wall of the old Government dockyard, here it is cropping up in the previously looked at The Yin and Yang of Mr Go.

The scene involves Jeff Bridges running alongside it. I can't remember the reasons but you can see (if you have a sharp eye and a knowledge of Chinese) that the section he runs along is the same section seen behind Shirley MacLaine in that last post.

Shirley's World (TV Series) - Shirley MacLaine (1972) - Canton Road, Kwun Chung

Back in the 1970's the area now occupied by the "Grand Austin" and "The Austin" residential developments - the stretch of Canton Road between Austin Road and Jordan Road - was a Government dockyard. The dockyards outer wall, running along Canton Road, appears to have been used by various businesses to advertise their premises in large painted characters.

The top picture below shows the wall looking north along Canton Road towards the junction with Jordan Road. Look carefully and you can see the Ferry Point Estate poking above the barbed wire by Shirley MacLaine's shoulder. Actually, the two other buildings seen at the back are also still around. The one with the large Phillips advert on it is Lee Shing Mansion on the corner of Wai Chung Street and Jordan Road.

This second picture appears to be advertising a business based at 41 Argyle Street in Mongkok. I'd be very interested in seeing any photos of this wall if anyone has one.

Thanks to Thomas for helping with this one and Paul Li (one of the world's top experts on Bruce Lee) for telling me the exact location.

Boarding Gate - Asia Argento (2007) - Jordan Road, Kwun Chung

On her way to her next contact, the taxi has switched over to Kowloon-side and can be seen driving along Jordan Road. Streetview comparison underneath. The "Sands Sauna" sign is on the edge of Lucky House that sits on Pilkem Street. The blue sign next to it is for a nightclub that sits in what was once the Oriental Ballroom.

Ein Sarg aus Hong Kong - Heinz Drache (1964) - Jordan Road, Kwun Chung

Here is a place we have seen before. It's the Lung Yu Restaurant along Jordan Road at the junction with Battery Street. We saw it for the first time when I was researching locations for I Spy - filmed the following year in 1965.