Drunken Master - Jackie Chan (1978) - Lok Wo Sha Lane, Wu Kai Sha

I've covered this location before because it was seen in The Young Master. I also went to the trouble, and expense ($120 - at a time before the Government moved their imagery online) to obtain an aerial image showing the location as it used to be.

It's been more than ten years since I wrote that post and in the intervening time the former open grassy area that, more or less, corresponded with the location (see the images at the bottom of my The Young Master post) has changed drastically. First, there is a brand new residential development called "The Entrance" squeezed into the space, and secondly, the rest of the available space is now taken up by one of Hong Kong's new "transitional" housing developments: essentially temporary blocks of converted shipping containers that provide low-cost housing to the ever-growing queue of people waiting for allocation to a public housing estate. You can see the current (2023)  Streetview images here. It's quite sad that even the limited view I was able to capture in 2013 has also now gone.

The Young Master - Jackie Chan (1980) - Lok Wo Sha Lane, Wu Kai Sha

This scene is the other one that shares a location with Drunken Master. Sadly, it's a location that is pretty much unrecognisable these days and I have only really been able to ascertain its exact place thanks to a handy 1979 aerial photo I obtained from the local mapping office (these have proved invaluable for this kind of project).

The scene is the one when the evil trio consisting of Fung Hak On, Lee Hoi Sang and Wai Pak intercept the police caravan transporting evil boss dude Whang In Sik from one place to another. Whang is strapped to a cart in the blazing heat, gets free and then unleashes some really awesome retribution to his captors. All of this scene takes place on a sandy track at the foot of Ngau Ngak Shan (a.k.a the Hunchbacks) - part of the mountain that forms the mountains of Ma On Shan.

Unfortunately for us, this area - which has featured on a whole heap of 70's and 80's films - has fallen victim to massive amounts of redevelopment as Ma On Shan has developed into a new town and the Ma On Shan MTR Rail track terminates right next to this location at Wu Kai Sha.

Despite this I figured I would head out there and grab a few shots of the location where most of the action formerly took place, but first here is a reminder of the scene in the film.

 Now, this sandy path was fairly long and connected various points around the Wu Kai Sha area (including what used to be a quarry at Whitehead Point and Starfish Bay) and has since been removed. However, the path's legacy is quite noticeable because, like with many other parts of rebuilt HK, the route the path took hasn't been developed with any buildings but did form the basis for a road that now follows its length reasonably well. The road is Lok Wo Sha Lane and it runs from Whitehead Point, past Starfish Bay and terminates in front of the Li Po Chun United World College.

The part of the path that was the widest - and therefore seemed to be the focus for filming - was a bend that curved from NW to SW at the site of what is now the carpark in front of the aforementioned college.

Here's what I am talking about on the 1979 aerial view. I've circled the part of the path where most of the scene was filmed.

 In a modern context we have the following view from GoogleEarth.

There's been no reclamation along this part of the coastline at all but the development on top is marked, with what was rural farmland and quarries being converted for high rise housing, a rail line, a highway etc.
The area I have circled sits right in front of a small carpark and remains untouched other than being converted into a small green space with trees and flowers.See the photos below of what it looks like today - looking south towards the mountain.

And here is a photo taken from the green area that once saw Whang In Sik kicking 10 bells out of a load of HK stuntmen. Hard to believe it's the same place really, but that's HK for you.

Project A - Jackie Chan (1983) - Lok Wo Sha, Ma On Shan

There is a segment in this film (one of my personal JC favourites and actually the first of the so-called new wave style of action) when, after the Marine Police have been seconded to the regular police, they are given training by Yuen Biao in the use of hand grenades. This whole sequence was filmed in a large flat area that now houses a rather large and ugly car park (at least ugly compared to how it looked back in 1983 when this film was made).

The site is called Lok Wo Sha and is right next to Wu Kai Sha in Ma On Shan. The spectacular lower slopes of Ma On Shan are quite obvious in the background.

Here is a recent shot I took after a walk along the waterfront to Wu Kai Sha (along the recently opened Ma On Shan seafront promenade).

As you can see the development here since 1983 (hard to believe this film is nearly 30 years old!) has largely been restricted to the area immediately in front of the mountains and Lo Wo Sha and Wu Kai Sha have largely escaped up to now. However - sure enough a new development is planned here very soon. Such is life in HK - the grand plan seems to be to completely block out the mountains so we can no longer revel in their impressive splendour (instead we can marvel at Lake Silver and Monte Vista).

Anyway, in case you needed anymore convincing here is Pat Sin Leng once again cropping up in the background looking the in the other direction (you can see it just above and left JC's pointy hat).