Gen Y Cops - Edison Chen (2000) - former Lok On Pai Desalination Plant

We were only here a few months ago for Hacker, but this location is used twice in this film. The first time (top two images) is the location of the underground fight club where the pair pick up Edison, and the second time (lower four images) we go back to this location is when the cops go and try to capture Kurt and his gang.

Hacker - Callan McAuliffe (2016) - Lok On Pai Desalination Plant

It's been a while since we were out this way but the location where the trio go to meet the elusive "Zed" is the old desalination plant at Lok On Pai.

Mad Mission 3: Our Man from Bond Street - Sam Hui (1984) - Lok On Pai Desalination Plant

Mad Mission 3 also seems to have been one of the first films to use the (then) recently decommissioned Desalination Plant at Lok On Pai. In 1984 the plant was supposedly still able to operate but had been put into "Standby"mode in 1982. That's why we can still see all the processing works in the images below as well as the inside of the main structure which still stands today. This is where Sam and the gang go to meet the Governor and CIA and are asked to help bring down the nefarious James Bond and his plot to sell the crown jewels.

For a bit of context, I've snipped an aerial view from 1982 which gives a god view of the site (credit to Tymon Mellor and his excellent https://www.hkmaps.hk/).

Lok On Pai circa 1982

Below is the entrance road and, as you can see, it ran along next to two large oil/gas storage silos. These can be seen in the top right of the b&w image.

The next images show the area where the filming takes place at the sw corner of the site. We know this because in the last image you can see the building furthest away (with all the windows) is the one that ran south from the middle of the main structure. Obviously the interior (with the Union Jack flag) is the main structure that still stands today and has a new life as a sort of freelance sound stage (Jet Lee's scenes from Expendables 2 was also shot in here, believe it or not).

Police Story 2 - Jackie Chan (1988) - Kar Wo Lei, So Kwun Wat

The gang's ramshackle factory building where they are holding May was most likely constructed just for the movie. I say this for three reasons: the first is that it gets completely destroyed at the end of the film, secondly, it looks temporary anyway (I expect most of the interiors were filmed elsewhere), and finally, aerial imagery of the area it was located in 1988, and just prior to, shows an empty space where you would expect to see a factory. However, if you know differently please feel free to comment.

Anyway, I managed to pin down the factory to an area near Tuen Mun called Kar Wo Lei. These days there is a small village development called Nim Wan Tsuen there, but back in the 1980s it was a sandy open bit of ground. The chimneys in the background belonged to the Lok On Pai Desalination Plant, which is still used to this day (minus the chimneys) as a large studio space (for example, I believe that Jet Li's scenes in Expendables 2 was filmed inside as well as Dead or Alive: Final and many more films I haven't covered).

Look carefully in the last images and you can see the flat reclaimed area that was shortly to become the Gold Coast Hotel and Resort area in the lower left.

Dead or Alive: Final - Shô Aikawa (2002) - Lok On Pai Desalination Plant, Tuen Mun

The weird finale/showdown between the two main android characters takes place in an old abandoned warehouse. In fact this warehouse has featured quite a few times in both local and overseas movies. It's the old desalination plant at Lok On Pai near Tuen Mun.

Some trivia: Although I have never bothered including it on this blog, The Expendables 2 had some scenes filmed inside the plant due to Jet Li's China-based film commitments. The US production company flew a bunch of interior sets to Hong Kong and installed them inside the Lok On Pai factory so that jet just had a quick trip to HK to complete his scenes. Now you know this you can go back and watch the film and see how they managed to edit him into the plot line.