Forbidden Nights - Melissa Gilbert (1990) - Chinese YMCA Wu Kai Sha Village

Many of the scenes set in and around the college grounds were also filmed across the bay at the Chinese YMCA village in Wu Kai Sha. The village has remained relatively unchanged since 1990 with the exception of the old chapel/hall seen in the screencaps below. This hall was later demolished and a replacement constructed on an adjacent plot. The old hall had a large cross stuck to the front above the main doors and this was dealt with by the film crew by covering it in the Chinese flag during filming. I managed to find an old image of it from the Chinese YMCA website and have put it below for comparison.

Several other scenes were also shot at the camp, including the small park where the students hang out by a statue (top image) and also by the waterfront where Shapiro and Liang secretly meet to avoid scrutiny (second image). The lower images are of the old chapel building and the sportsground in front of it. 

Ma On Shan in the background

Wu Kai Sha Public Pier, Pat Sin Leng on the right

The old chapel/hall, also seen in the background below

The old chapel/hall, since demolished Source: Chinese YMCA website

Killer Angels - Moon Lee (1989) - A Kung Kok Street, Ma On Shan

The denouement to the car chase takes place on A Kung Kok Street in Ma On Shan. A Kung Kok is a small village development built in the mid-1980s to rehouse fisherfolk who were to be displaced by the construction of the Shatin racecourse and nearby Ma on Shan New Town. To be honest, in terms of resettlement estates, this place was pretty shabby even when it was built as you can see from the screencaps below. Despite that, it's still around and looks pretty much the same. The area now has a major highway flyover going across the terrain you can see in the top image.

Killer Angels - Moon Lee (1989) - Ma On Shan Road, Ma On Shan

The car chase continues along Ma On Shan Road with the newly completed Heng On Estate in the background. The bottom image is from the roundabout where Ma On Shan Road joins with Hang Hong Street with St Joseph's Primary School in the background. The school has since added and extra floor and an additional wing on the right hand side.

I should mention that the film is edited to appear that this location, and the previous one, are one and the same but actually they are about 2 miles apart.

Angel Force - Moon Lee (1991) - Starfish Bay, Ma On Shan

The wayward General gun runner runs his operation from a nice beach in Burma somewhere. Except in reality it's just Starfish Bay (at low tide) in Ma On Shan. Any kung fu fans worth their salt will know this place from countless 70s era movies. I've only covered one other movie that was filmed here so far - Snake in the Eagle's Shadow - but I am sure many more will be included in the future.

Rich and Famous - Chow Yun Fat (1987) - Nai Chung, Ma On Shan

Following their near death experience in Macau, the pair take a day to chill out with the family with a picnic. This is the once open, flat piece of land that fronted the Tolo Channel at Nai Chung. We were here not so long ago on a much brighter day (reminder: Story of Ricky), but it's gone a bit wild since then and the foliage here means you probably couldn't drive a car here anymore.

There's a general mist, as is common in Hong Kong around spring time (so this must have been filmed circa March/April 1986 at a guess), obscuring the distant hills of Tai Po north, but the snippets we can see are of the various closer ridgelines that form the southwestern sections of the Plover Cove Reservoir and the hills around Three Fathoms Cove (last image).

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.

Drunken Master - Jackie Chan (1978) - Chat Sing Temple, Ma On Shan

I've covered this before for The Young Master, but it seems to crop up quite a lot (follow the link to Andi's blog from my The Young Master post). This is where Fei-hung comes across the "Stick King" again and takes revenge for their previous encounter. The temple has been restored, but unfortunately it's been done with some bright red paint work on the brick that makes the place look like a particpant in the "cake or not" quiz.

One of the funny things I did notice was that there is a slight continuity error in the backround of the fight. The village where the temple is located (Kwun Hang) has a communal sports ground nearby, and even by 1978 standards it looked a lot more modern than the period for which this film is set (mid 1800s?). It looks as though someone suddenly realised they should try and make it look a bit more traditional/old by chucking a bamboo mat on the top.

Someone: "Don't you think those fence posts look a bit modern?"

Someone else: "Sorted!"

Story of Ricky - Louis Fan Siu-wong (1991) - Nai Chung, Ma On Shan

The flashback sequence as Ricky is flying model aircraft with his girlfriend was filmed along the grassy shoreline at Nai Chung. The same area where Kickboxer, Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story and Les Anges Gardiens were filmed.

A Touch of Zen - Hsu Feng (1971) - Whitehead Point, Ma On Shan

The second Hong Kong location, that makes up the second part of the finale of A Touch of Zen, is Whitehead Point. After leaving Commander Hsu (Hang Ying Chieh) tied to some trees in the forest, the group continue their walk and it's here where they find him again, kneeling in the sand, with his two sons, in an apparent gesture of repentence.

This was a location that King Hu would return to use later in the finale of The Fate of Lee Khan and The Valiant Ones, but has also been seen on several other occasions. I usually refer to this place by its English name, Whitehead Point, but I believe its proper name in Chinese is Wu Kwai Sha Tsui (烏溪沙咀 - lit. dark creek sandy point).

I'm still not sure if this place was a quarry or not, but it was later turned into a Vietnamese refugee detention centre before being given over to storage. Currently it contains a cycle velodrome run by the HK Sports Institute and a golf driving range.

Legacy of Rage - Brandon Lee (1986) - Sai Sha Road, Ma On Shan

After some of the car chase takes place at the Tseung Kwan O landfill, all of a sudden we move to Ma On Shan and the area around Whitehead Point and Lok Wo Sha. The area was very much undeveloped at the time and I suspect that the Michael's house was largely just a facade constructed for the film.

The first image shows the view looking east, towards Ma Kap Lun and the range on the other side of Three Fathoms Cove. The second image is looking the other way with Grassy Hill in the distance.

The next images should be familiar to anyone who has read my posts for The Young Master  because it is closer to Whitehead Point. The key landmark here is the pointy hill in the background which is the northern point of Ma On Shan mountain. This can help narrow down the location to somewhere close to where Nin Wah Road meets LokWo Sha Lane. It looks like the house facade was constructed at the Whitehead Point-end of Lok Wo Sha Lane facing Ma On Shan. The last image below shows the view along Lok Wo Sha Lane with Wong Leng - a hill in north Tai Po - in the background.

Flash Point - Donnie Yen (2007) - Cheung Muk Tau Holiday Centre for the Elderly, Ma On Shan

The Vietnamese brothers' mum is taken to an elderly home by Ma. This is a real life elderly centre near Ma On Shan.

The Fate of Lee Khan - Tien Feng (1973) - Whitehead Point, Ma On Shan

We were at this location not so long ago for Snake in the Eagle's Shadow, but here is the old quarry (assuming that's what it was, but actually I can't find any record of quarrying here) at Whitehead Point. This is the only other outdoor location utilised on this film and is where most of the outdoor action takes place, including the final fight between the rebels and Lee Khan.

The screencaps below are from various stages of the film, but I have ordered them so that the initial ones below show some of the identifiable background terrain that proves where we are looking (for the doubters), and the rest are just general shots inside the quarry area that show off some of the geographical features.

Looking SSE, Ngau Ngak Shan in the background

Looking almost directly south towards Tiu Shau Ngam

Ngau Ngak Shan again

Bottom right is the distant Kai Kung Shan (also see 3rd image here)

Again, looking east towards Kai Kung Shan

The rest of the screencaps are difficult to locate in terms of where they were inside the quarry area and perhaps I can do a later post where I can pinpont all these with more accuracy (although the last one shows Pat Sin Leng poking out from behind in the distance). For now though it's just some general views. Following on from its use as a filming location, it dropped out of favour when the Whitehead Point Vietnamese refugee camp was constructed.

Snake in the Eagle's Shadow - Jackie Chan (1978) - Whitehead Point, Ma On Shan

Returning to Ma On Shan and we head to the old quarry at Whitehead Point - just a quarried stone's throw away from Starfish Bay. This is where the finale takes place between Beggar Pai, Chien Fu and Master Shang. The quarry looks a bit different compared to the last time we saw it but peeping through the gaps in the rock in the background of one of the captures is the distinctive shape of Pat Sin Leng. In the lower picture the camera is pointing south east and the distant ridgeline (Kai Kung Shan - 雞公山) on the opposite side of 3 fathoms cove is visible in the far background.

Part of Pat Sin Leng poking through the gap, top right

Kai Kung Shan in the background