Casse-tête chinois pour le Judoka - Marc Briand (1967) - Pentecostal Holiness Church Rousseau Memorial Church, Ap Lei Chau

The foot chase sequence in Casse-tête chinois pour le Judoka is a mixture of footage shot over in Kowloon Bay, with the end part filmed in Ap Lei Chau. In one of the scenes we see Sutchuen (Maria Minh) trying to escape her pursuers and there is a small blue and white painted chapel in the background (back right in the below image). This was the original Pentecostal Holiness Church Rousseau Memorial Church on the Ap Lei Chau waterfront.

The church was demolished not long after and redeveloped in Rousseau Heights (亨利閣), an apartment building that still contains a version of the church. It's not clear if the Church organisation developed the building themselves or sold the land with the proviso of keeping a place of worship on site.

Casse-tête chinois pour le Judoka - Marc Briand (1967) - Kau U Fong, Central

Kau U Fong features briefly in a scene where Marc (Marc Briand) is wandering around the streets. In the shot below he is at the junction with Aberdeen Street with what was originally the Central Clinic behind him. By the time of this film though, the building was already been used by the Central District Kaifong Welfare Association. I think the clinic may have been operating at the same time though. The small building was demolished circa 1997 and the site currently hosts the Lan Kwai Fong Hotel.

Casse-tête chinois pour le Judoka - Marc Briand (1967) - Pacific Islands Shipbuilding, Kowloon Bay

Yes, an older movie that I covered many years ago (2018 to be precise, and I have since decided to list it on the right hand side under its original title: Casse-tête chinois pour le Judoka, but have yet to bother changing all the post titles). This one is being done now because it was another of my pandemic finds back in 2021 that I thought I had already posted but checked back recently (you'll see why in a few posts) and realised I had forgotten about it.

The location can be seen during footchase that actually ends up over on Ap Lei Chau, but the initial scenes were shot at the Pacific Islands ShipBuilding shipyard in Kowloon Bay. This was worked out by triangulating the background buildings with the large gantry that can be seen below. The building behind it was Block 13 of the Ngau Tau Kok Resettlement Estate and was still under construction at the time.

Take note of the small Chinese-roofed hut in the lower image as this will pop up in a later post for another film.

This whole area now sits under where Kowloon Bay MTR station depot and the Telford Gardens development now sits. The former aforementioned Block 13 site now holds the reasonably newish "Kowloon Cultural Centre".

Casse-tête chinois pour le Judoka - Marc Briand (1967) - Castle Peak Bay, Tuen Mun

After a slightly long hiatus (I was in London for a month), I am now back in HK and can pick up where I left off with another location from Casse-tête chinois pour le Judoka. This time we are over on Kadoorie Pier as everyone gets ready to head over to the evil enemy base.

However, I am a bit stumped as to the identity of the house in the background of the last image. It must have been located where the Hoi Tin Garden Restaurant now stands at the other end of Castle Peak Beach, but its identity is currently eluding me. If anyone knows please leave a comment (no, it's not Boulder Lodge). I created a place for it on Gwulo some time ago but so far still no information.

Casse-tête chinois pour le Judoka - Marc Briand (1967) - Garden Road, Central

After the meeting at the US Consulate (which was actually the Hilton Hotel), the two cross Garden Road and pick up a cab. The consulate has had a complete external makeover since then including a large foreboding wall (it was also recently revealed that the land it is on has the longest lease in China). Down the road the view was once very open. You can  see the old Govt HQ east wing on the left, but these days the whole road, and view, is crowded with skyscrapers.

Casse-tête chinois pour le Judoka - Marc Briand (1967) - Hilton Hotel, Central

This location has popped up a few times now and it took a while before I worked out it was an inner courtyard at the Hilton Hotel. No one seems to have been able to confirm or deny it so far, but the fact that it keeps popping up confirms it was a real location and not any kind of studio set. We've already seen it previously in The Million Eyes of Sumuru but it was The Yin and Yang of Mr Go that helped actually place it properly.

Casse-tête chinois pour le Judoka - Marc Briand (1967) - Kai Tak Airport, Kowloon

As well as the previous landing shot, we do also get some ground level views of the airport from the carpark as well as the runway apron.

Casse-tête chinois pour le Judoka - Marc Briand (1967) - Kat Hing Wai, Kam Tin

The nefarious organisation's base is the Kat Hing Wai walled village in Kam Tin. pretty much the only recognisable thing about this place now is the wall, almost every building within has been redeveloped into modern style village houses.

This is the west wall and entrance of the village

Casse-tête chinois pour le Judoka - Marc Briand (1967) - Kai Tak Approach, Kowloon

Another view of a plane landing from Checkerboard Hill. It's always great seeing these clips on film because it was a truly special thing to experience on board as well as to watch from the ground. In fact, one of the most popular posts on the blog is this one from Golgo 13:Assignment Kowloon which was basically the same sequence but shot ten years later.

Casse-tête chinois pour le Judoka - Marc Briand (1967) - Ap Lei Chau, Aberdeen Harbour

Ap Lei Chau is the small island on the opposite side of the harbour to Aberdeen. Now a combination of Govt housing estates and luxury residential developments it still has some boat yards centred on the eastern waterfront. However, as you can see from the following confrontation, the boat building industry on the island was once significantly larger.

Casse-tête chinois pour le Judoka - Marc Briand (1967) - Wanchai Gap, The Peak

Some more of the car chase as Marc Briand drives his car down Peak Road and into the famous junction where 6 (or perhaps 7?) roads all merge into one. It seems to be a blackspot for movie-related car mayhem as he almost hits the car that pulls out in front.

Casse-tête chinois pour le Judoka - Marc Briand (1967) - Stubbs Road, The Peak

After having his new friend kidnapped from Tiger Balm Gardens, Marc gives chase in his car. The first spot we see is Stubbs Road next to the turn off #51 Stubbs Road. Following that is the approach from the west towards Stubbs Road Lookout. You can see the lookout area on the right of the lower image, showing it's former open, and tree filled incarnation. In true Hong Kong style, the area is now just mainly concrete structures built to cope with the thousands of people that now go up there to see the views.

Casse-tête chinois pour le Judoka - Marc Briand (1967) - Tiger Balm Gardens, Tai Hang

This was a favourite location for filming during the 60's courtesy of the brightly coloured statues. The gardens were demolished in a few stages, beginning with the upper portion where the "Double Tenth"
archway was located. This upper section was demolished crica 1983 to make way for Ronsdale Garden (completed 1986). It was either foresight on bahlf of the Aw descendants, or just lucky happenstance because the upper portion of the garden contained quite a bit of Nationalist/Kuomintang imagery including the aforementioned gate (see below).

The concrete archway was made up of two Chinese characters for the number 10 (十十). For those not aware of this bit of history, the 10th of October (i.e. 10/10) 1911 was the start of the "Wuchang Uprising" that basically kicked off the revolution that eventually overthrew the Qing Dynasty and established China as a republic. It's still celebrated as the National Day in Taiwan, but is only marked in passing by the Communist-run Mainland of China under a different name.

I was lucky enough to see the gardens (or at least the remainder) pre-handover, and although well past its peak, it was a fun day afternoon wandering around the terraces. No post about this place can go without a plethora of other images so here they are.

True Light Middle School in the background (still there, unlike the garden)

Casse-tête chinois pour le Judoka - Marc Briand (1967) - Peking Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

Despite arriving in Central from Mongkok, the next scene was filmed back over on Kowloon side. The overhead signboard is for the Moulin Rouge nightclub which was on Peking Road. The far background building is, of course, a blurry Chungking Mansion. The rather large gap to the left is where the Holiday Inn now stands. On the left of the upper photo and background of the lower one is the Hyatt Hotel (now iSquare) not long after its opening (in 1963). I'm not sure if it was still branded as the President Hotel at the time.