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.

The Head Hunter - Chow Yun Fat (1982) - Devil's Peak

Yuen's former comrade, Kam (Philip Chen), has been tasked to kill him and lures Yuen to the old battery on Devil's Peak in an attempt to carry out the hit. However, Yuen is savvy and rocks up to the meet with a handgrenade which kills Kam's sidekick, but allows Kam to escape. The textured concrete surface in the images below is the concrete sides of Gough Battery (built in 1913).

The view back towards Devil's Peak

Police Story - Jackie Chan (1985) - Devil's Peak, Lei Yue Mun

After being framed for murder and then being chloroformed, Ka Kui wakes up on some remote hillside. This is a great shot because we get to see a plane making its approach to Kai Tak from the harbour-end of the runway, with Mount Parker in the background. Timed to perfection. As we see the wide angle shot of Ka Kui's surroundings (lower image) we get a glimpse of a mid-80s Chai Wan. The massive empty patch of reclaimed land on the opposite shore is where Heng Fa Chuen was constructed (and opened the following year in 1986). 

There is an old battery emplacement on the top of Devil's Peak, constructed to defend the eastern approach to Victoria Harbour and Chan used this a couple of years earlier for a shot of the pirates' hideout in Project A. 

Election - Simon Yam (2005) - Sam Ka Tsuen Typhoon Shelter, Lei Yue Mun

A new year and a new film for the blog. I'm still stuck in the UK with very limited pickings in terms of films so have resorted to another famous local HK one of which I have a copy handy here in London. 

This time we are looking at the locations used for Johnnie To's 2005 film, Election. The Chinese name of the film is actually just 黑社會, which means "triad society" but I think the English title conveys a slightly better feeling for what the film is about. It centres around the leadership battle between two prospective triad leaders played by Simon Yam and Tong Leung (the other one, Leung Ka-fai). Yam is the level headed business type whereas Leung plays the - verging on psychotic - power mad tough guy. Leung loses the election and uses his followers to basically kill, maim and intimidate his way to sway the outcome. Much of the action centres around both sides trying to get hold of the society's baton, the ownership of which seems to confer the legitimacy of the leadership.

The film starts with Leung (his character name is Big D) trying to enlist some support for the yet-to-happen titular election on a small boat in the middle of Sam Ka Tsuen Typhoon Shelter.

Dead or Alive: Final - Shô Aikawa (2002) - Harbour View from Lei Yue mun

In this shot, Aikawa's cyborg character is sitting on a concrete pier with a view across the harbour towards Tsim Sha Tsui and Hung Hom (you can just make out the Coliseum if you squint). As the camera pulls out there's an element that has been added afterwards: the large ship that is hovering behind Harbourfront Landmark (centre right). The tall building with the pyramid shaped roof on the left is the Prosperity Millenia Plaza in North Point which means we are probably somewhere near to Lei Yue Mun again. Back in 2002 there was an old concrete pier that jutted out from the shorefront but I notice that recently a bit of beautification has gone on and it no longer exists. I think that's where Aikawa was sitting.

I would have included this post with the previous Lei Yue Mun one, but it took me a while to realise where it was because the angle was so confusing.

Dead or Alive: Final - Shô Aikawa (2002) - Lei Yue Mun

A fair bit of the film appears to have been shot in and around the various small villages that sit around the Lei Yue Mun headland. Getting definitive locations from these images is difficult without going there and wandering around all day, so I'll just say that the top image was taken somewhere at the southern tip of the headland because that is Hong Kong Island in the background.

Project A - Jackie Chan (1983) - Devils Peak Fort, Lei Yue Mun

On the hill in the far eastern part of Kowloon is Lei Yue Mun a small settlement that ,marks the last bastion of undeveloped coastline in urban Kowloon. Geographically it is the closest point between Kowloon and Hong Kong island and as such marks the easternmost entrance into the harbour. It's proximity to the Island is underlined by the fact that in 1941 during the Japanese Invasion, this part of Kowloon was the last to be abandoned by Indian troops as they fought a rearguard action against the oncoming Imperial Army.

Devil's Peak - the hill which sits above Lei Yue Mun - has always been militarily significant and as such has had some sort of outpost on it ever since people were living here. Even before the British came along and built a concrete fortress up there, it was used by pirates as a lookout post simply because it offered a great eastern view out to see and incoming ships could be seen many miles away.

This latter fact doesn't seem top have escaped Jackie Chan when he used it as the pirates lookout in Project A. Here is a grab of the pirates looking out of the windows of the old fort.

Anyone who has hiked up here should be able to recognise the slanted viewing ports that line the fort wall on the eastern side of Devil's Peak. Here is a shot I took a few years ago (now you know how long I have been putting this stuff off for) albeit taken from the other end looking back towards where the camera was positioned.