Lou Lim Ioc Garden, Macau - Now and Then

I recently spent a very brief afternoon in Macau - I was on a 3-day trip to neighbouring Zhuhai and quickly popped in with the family to get some snaps of a few places for these comparison posts. First up is Lou Lim Ioc/Ieoc (last word is pronounced Yeoc, Macau romanises Cantonese "Y" sounds to "I") Garden. I have previously written "Ieoc" on my posts of this place, but I notice the official spelling is "Ioc".

The place is free to enter - as are most of these locations in Macau, and you can either go in through the main vehicle gateway on Estrada de Adolfo Loureiro (see the first images below for Game of Death) or enter through the tea museum (Casa Cultural de Chá de Macau) on Avenida do Conselheiro Ferreira de Almeida. It's worth a look if you have the time and benefits from aircon on a hot day.

This location has been used copious amounts of times for both local and foreign movie productions. Perhaps the most famous local movie is Drunken Master where the venue stands in for Jackie Chan's kung fu school. Sadly, the main building was closed when we were there but I was still able to get this general picture of the area where Dean Shek tortures Chan with some rigid horse-stance training. The building in the background is not the main house, but a smaller annex building within the garden. I couldn't quite recreate the further back/higher angle of the movie because there are plants obscuring the view, so this is the best comparison for the time being. Andi has a more comprehensive Drunken Master post over on his blog.

Drunken Master (1978)

One of the main foreign productions to feature the garden more extensively is China Cry, released in 1990. The garden and its buildings stand in for the pre-war Shanghai home of Julia Nickson's character, Sung Neng Yee. The following moon gate is located on the left side of the building seen in the images above.

Moon gate/arch

This is a view of the rear of the main house

also the rear, but on the other side

The pavilion and bridge is located in the NE of the garden

Perhaps one of the better-known "foreign" movies shot here is the 1978 travesty that goes by the name of Game of Death. A film most Bruce Lee purists would rather was consigned to the bin. The only real change I noticed between 1978 and now, and even since the last time I visited about 10 years ago, is that the lily pond has been completely cleared of the lilies, so now it's just...a pond.

It looks like they still have the same wrought iron gates in place 

This is the same area where the main fight scene takes place

Okay, not the best match for the angle, but you get the idea

For the final comparison I've tried to replicate another view, this time from Tai Pan. The difference here is forty years - Tai Pan was released in 1986. In the film, this is the extravagant home of the main character, Dirk Struan (Bryan Brown). Quite a few scenes were shot here but in parts of the garden that have since been renovated/changed. This shot shows the side rear of the main property.

Drunken Master - Jackie Chan (1978) - Jardin Lou Lim Ieoc, Macau

The school of Wong Kei-ying, Fei-hung's father, was filmed at a location in Macau in case you hadn't already discovered this fact. This includes both the interior scenes of the "kwoon" and some exterior scenes where Fei-hung is being put through his gruelling "horse stance" training as punishment for his misbehaviour.

(R-L) 黃麒英武舘 - Wong Kei-ying Mo Gwoon ("Wong Kei-ying's Martial School")

The location is, of course, Lou Lim Ieoc Garden and is one of Macau's most popular tourist sites. It's also a very regular star of this blog with several movies I have covered being filmed there at some point. The building in the centre of the garden is called the Chun Chou Tong pavilion and this is the interior we can see below.

Then we go out into the garden to watch Fei-hung being tortured by Kai Shin (Dean Shek) until his buddy turns up with a stool.

Amor e Dedinhos de Pé - Joaquim de Almeida (1993) - Jardim Lou Lim Ieoc, Macau

I think this will be the final film location post for this year and it's a familiar location for regular followers here. Lou Lim Ieoc (the "I" is pronounced like a "Y") garden makes an appearance in a couple of scenes, mainly as a restaurant/teahouse.

Pedicab Driver - Sammo Hung (1989) - Jardim de Lou Lim Ioc, Macau

The gangster's house is where the finale of the film takes place as Sammo and the remaining drivers head there to kill him and take revenge. The establishing shot for the house is the oft-used main house in Jardim de Lou Lim Ioc. We've seen it afew times on the blog before and it was a popular location for other local movies as well.

The Last Time I Saw Macao - João Rui Guerra da Mata (2012) - Jardim Lou Lim Ieoc, Macau

There are a couple of quick scenes shot inside the Lou Lim Ieoc (or Ioc, the "I" is pronounced like a "Y") garden. The first is a brief shot of some local amateur musicians sitting in a wooden pagoda inside the garden grounds. Later on, at the end of the film, there is a close up of a goldfish pond also located at the garden. Although the only clue to the location in the latter is a reflection of a cermaic mosaic on the wall above the pond - which  I coincidentally took a photo of several years ago (see bottom image).

China Cry - Julia Nickson (1990) - Lou Lim Ieoc Garden, Macau

Time for a new film, another one with Russell Wong but this time it's Julia Nickson who takes the lead. She's been on this blog before as Orlanda Ramos in Noble House but this time she takes on the role of real life Christian author, Nora Lam in a retelling of her life in China during the Cultural Revolution.

The majority of this film seems to have been shot in Macau although there are a few Hong Kong locations as well. We start off with one of Macau's most popular filming locations (which we have already seen being used in Tai Pan and Game of Death 1978 but if you are smart then you also follow Andi's blog and will know it featured in a whole bunch of old kung fu films including Drunken Master, Pedicab Driver, Legend of a Fighter etc).

Anyway, in China Cry the property and its lovely garden are supposed the be the Shanghai house where Nora Lam's character lives as a child before being ousted during the Japanese occupation.

Tai Pan - Bryan Brown (1986) - Lou Lim Ieoc Garden, Macau

Not much of this film was made in HK - other than a little tidbit told to me by none other than stunt maestro Vic Armstrong who had a small cameo in the film (as well as being stunt coordinator) as a "Drunken Sailor". Vic says his brothel scenes were filmed at Golden Harvest Studios.

But anyway, Hong Kong aside, we do get to see a rather nice bit of Macau including the popular Lou Lim Ieoc Garden. We've seen it before on this blog courtesy of the 1978 Robert Clouse version of Game of Death.

But in the Tai Pan film, the locale serves as the Macau retreat of none other than Dirk Struan, the original master of the Noble House. Here are some screen captures.

For a few of my own pictures of the place, please click on the Game of Death link I provided above, there are some pictures there from a trip I made sometime in 2006.
 

Game of Death - Bruce Lee (1978) - Lou Lim Ieoc Garden, Macau

Billy Lo follows the gangsters to Macau and to their palatial retreat which is actually Lou Lim Leoc Garden. We see the main gate and inside the grounds as Billy tries to kill the bossman but is thwarted because he's actually as crap at fighting as Bob Wall is.