The Angel Strikes Again - Lily Ho (1968) - Lung Ha Wan, Clearwater Bay

Lung Ha Wan a.k.a Lobster Bay has long been a popular filming location for local (and overseas) movie productions. In this film it is where 009 and Deng Lei (Tang Ching) finally catch up with the female gang boss. This whole area seen below has changed significantly with the constrcution of the riding school as well as the general growth of trees and other vegetation. You can see the same area from the other side at the beginning of Weiße Fracht für Hongkong. This area (top three images below) is now all part of the riding school. In the fourth image we see the path up to what is now the kite flying area.

Sticking with Lobster Bay and the following captures are from later in the film as the gang pick up their ransom money via scuba diver. The diver exits Port Shelter via the first beach at Lobster Bay (where the concrete ramp was later constructed by smugglers before being destroyed by the British Army). The diver gets into the car and it drives back up Lung Ha Wan Road.

Summons to Death - Tang Ching (1967) - Lobster Bay, Sai Kung

Mei-Li and Tang Lui agree to meet Poon at Lobster Bay to formulate a plan to get back at Ma Loong. This is a section of Lobster Bay that is now fairly difficult to reach due to general growth of foliage and the construction of the riding stables. I did some coasteering here about ten years ago, but sadly my only pictures of this section are looking in rather than looking out (see lower image). In my more 'recent' image (actually snapped in July 2015) the area we see the actors arriving in the top image is the foliage covered area behind the beach.

Sweet is Revenge - Yueh Hua (1967) - Lung Ha Wan, Clearwater Bay

Continuing a look at some of the movies on the Celestial Youtube channel, here is another title, Sweet is Revenge, starring Yuen Hua as a sort of Robin Hood type character. The film also stars Ho Fan who most people would more likely recognise as a famed HK street photographer, but he also dabbled in acting in the 1960s as well as some serious directing later. In this film he plays an innocent doctor who is framed for a crime and sent to prison so a local General's son can move in on his fiancé. As with many Shaw productions, much of the film is shot on sound stages, but there are afew outdoor locations. The first one is the location of the prison where David (Fan Ho) is locked up.

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For this scene, it looks as though a facade was constructed at the headland of Lung Ha Wan, a.k.a Lobster Bay. This is the exact same spot today where the riding stables are located. In the top image you can see the slight slant of Lung Ha Wan Road mid-distance in the background.

In a scene a few minutes later, Ma (Chen Hung-Lieh) and Wang (Li Ching) are attending to David's gravesite on a hill. This was also filmed at Lung Ha Wan, on the slope of the hill that is now the kite flying area. Even though the stables don't quite extend this far, the slope is now completely overgrown and covered in vegetation. In the last image below, the view to the back is also now obscured by tree/bush growth. For anyone interested, in that last image, the area behind the two actors leads to this beach, and is the same location where Julius (Gabriele Tinti) gets a snake up the jacksy in Black Cobra Woman (see the last two images in that link).

To Be Number One - Ray Lui (1991) - Lobster Bay, Clearwater Bay

Just before I moved to Hong Kong in 2006, I made a brief house-hunting trip in 2005 and, being an avid diver, signed up for some local scuba as well. I was taken by "Splash" (then owned and run by an amiable chap called Damon Rose) to a shore dive site at the end of Lung Ha Wan Road. There's a promontory here which is used for kite flying, and the coast surrounding this area has long been a popular filming location over the years.

The stony beach where I dived is the "Lung Ha Wan" (aka Lobster Bay) that lends its name to this whole area. It's the first beach you come to when heading down the end of Lung Ha Wan Road. Strewn allover the beach are the concrete fragments of a former ramp that, I was told, was a popular smuggling location for local triads until the army came and blew it up. It turns out the demolition took place in 1992 and there is is comment on Gwulo relating to this (I also posted a picture on Gwulo many years ago).

I had wondered what it looked like before the ramp was blown up, and now we need wonder no more because it appears several times in To Be Number One. It's quite the revelation because I wasn't expecting the ramp to be so big.

In the film we see this location on at least three occasions. The first time is when the newly-minted gangsters have enough money to finally smuggle their families into Hong Kong from China on a small sampan. In later scenes, this is also the same place where the gang pick up the opium blocks they have just stolen from a rival gang and, finally, where Tiger Lui's mistress is taken to and shipped back to China after she has been kidnapped by Ng.

All About Ah Long - Chow Yun Fat (1989) - Lobster Bay Kite Flying Site, Clearwater Bay

The filming (for whatever Porky auditioned for) takes place on the open flat piece of land on top of the Lobster Bay promontory. It's been a few years since I ventured out this way, but the last time I was there it was completely deserted - certainly no one was flying kites. It's well worth a trip down here if you eventually make it out to HK because there were a tonne of overseas and local movies made in and around the area. There may or may not be lobsters in the bay, but all I can remember after diving there was an old car wreck.

Black Cobra Woman - Laura Gemser (1976) - Lung Ha Wan, Clearwater Bay

Julius invites Eva to go back to his home island so he can show her where he was born. It's not explicit where this island is supposed to be, but the fact that they supposedly fly there means it is somewhere other than Hong Kong. In actual fact, these island scenes were filmed around the Lobster Bay promontory in Clearwater Bay at the very end of Lung Ha Wan Road. I once spent a couple of hours walking around the rocky shoreline and so am quite familiar with the terrain.

The first location is not the main Lobster Bay beach (with the old destroyed concrete ramp) but in fact a smaller one just to the south. When this film was made there was really nothing here but the Clearwater Bay Equestrian Centre appeared here around 2008 (I think) and now I am not sure if there is access through there without following the route I took around the rocks.

Had I known a film had been shot here at the time I would have made an effort to at least recreate the angle used. However, as it is, in my picture above the large rock left of centre is the same one seen in the background of the screen grab. The flat rock on the left of my image is the same one Laura Gemser is lying in front of in the film.

This second image above was a bit more fortuitous. The only thing that has changed really is the amount of greenery that has sprung up. Judging from the tide, I guess the filming was done in the morning at a lower tide.

The next part of Lung Ha Wan seen on film is the flat grassy area that tops the promontory. See the shots above. These days it has been designated as a kite flying area, but actually, hardly anyone ever comes here. I had the place to myself and was here in the middle of summer (that's why the views are so clear). What I will say is that it looks as though the area has been deliberately levelled a bit more because behind Julius' (Gabriele Tinti) head is a slope that no longer exists.

Finally, the rather gruesome murder scene (actually, you don't see what happens, but the manner of Julius' death is explained to him before it happens) was filmed on the southern end of the promontory where there is a much larger stony beach. This particular section has been very popular with all manner of foreign and local movie makers over the years. It still looks pretty much like this (although with added plastic flotsam these days) as you can see from my own picture. You can reach it these days by just waking to the far side of the equestrian centre.

Weiße Fracht für Hongkong - Dietmar Schönherr (1963) - Lung Ha Wan Road, Sai Kung

Staying around Lobster Bay for the next post as the mysterious drug heister gets into his car and drives off up Lung Ha Wan Road. I'm 99% confident that the flat area we can see is the space now occupied by the Clearwater Bay Equestrian Centre (CEEC). The slope in the background leads up to where there is now an open space meant for kite flyers (that's the same location used for the photo shoot in All About Ah Long).

The next shot shows the car leaving the flat area and heading back towards the main road past the beach that once had the concrete ramp. Despite the current tree growth it is quite easy for me to recognise this area. I've included a similar angle from Streetview below.

And then as the car drives past the camera, we pan to the left and follow it up the road. Again, the current Streetview placed underneath for comparison.

This isn't the last time we see this road though as the bad guys return later to dispose of a car (complete with requisite drugged victim placed in the driver's seat). They stop the car at a lay-by (it's a single lane road and so has lots of passing places).

They dump the car...

...and then drive off again.

Now, this got me thinking. There is (or perhaps was...it's been a while since I dived there) an old car wreck in the middle of this side of Lobster Bay. It wasn't a modern car either, quite old and in fact was really just the collapsed wheels and steering column - no body and very little chassis left. It's possible that the car wreck in Lobster bay may be this very same car dumped into the bay for the purpose of this film. For a long time people have assumed it was a car that fell off one of the old fast smuggler's speedboats but the age doesn't seem to tally with the time frame. So, if there are any car experts out there who can identify the make and model of the one in the picture above (HK 2358) it might be possible to compare the two to see if they match. My hopes aren't high but it would certainly explain the reason for the car's presence in the bay.

Weiße Fracht für Hongkong - Dietmar Schönherr (1963) - Lobster Bay, Sai Kung

Some more coastal action from the general area of Sai Kung as the heisted drugs are shipped ashore by a masked figure and his accomplice. The initial part of the scenes shows their boat approaching Lobster Bay - Lung Ha Wan - from the north. This is the part of the area that is popular with scuba divers (even I have dived there!) and once had a concrete ramp used by luxury car smugglers.

That's Shelter Island at the back, although it looks as though the concrete ramp was not there in 1963.

After they jump off the boat, for some reason the next part of the sequence flips over to the other side of the headland and the part of Lobster bay that was popular with Shaw Brothers films in the 70's. I can only think that the other side of the headland (below) provided a slightly bigger area for filming.

Readers of my other blog may recall I once spent  a glorious summer's day traversing the headland the hard way i.e. around the rocky coast, and there are plenty of similar pictures on that post showing the areas where the filming was done.

Actually, it's a lovely part of Hong Kong and I recommend anyone with some time to head down there for some great scenery.