Next up, as my supply of films steadily drips dry, is a 2014 Japanese film based on a popular anime.
Lupin the 3rd. It stars Shun Oguri as a highly skilled thief in the employ of a sort of Robin Hood type organisation called "The Works" that steals from the rich to...erm...keep stuff for themselves. Like several previous Japanese productions I have looked at, this one makes it onto the blog courtesy of just a couple of brief glimpses of Hong Kong as some of the action is supposed to take place here.
First up is the main establishing shot for the supposedly HK-based action. The organisation, headed by Australian actor, Nick Tate (I'm old enough to remember him from
Space 1999 back in the 70s), has its HQ in a rather spectacular looking mansion somewhere in Hong Kong. Suffice to say no such place exists here, although the film makers have tried to use their CGI wizardry to help with the make believe.
Anyway, this opening shot is from the western side of the Peak area looking east. Suffice to say this is more than likely just stock footage because the trained eye can spot that fact that CCB Tower (that's the China Construction Bank's HK HQ) is missing from the cityscape. This is the building that replaced the Ritz Carlton and was completed in 2012. In the lower image, there is still a gap where one of those buildings should be so this shot was taken sometime between 2008 when the hotel closed and 2012 when CCB Tower opened.
