Crossing Hennessy - Jacky Cheung (2010) - May Road, Mid-levels

Speaking of May Road, the very next shot has Loy running close to the last location but running past a historical residential building called "Gladdon", at #3 May Road, with its rather unique array of garage doors. There's actually fourteen doors in total and a single penthouse apartment above them all. I'm not sure who lives there but I believe it was bought by Kerry properties in 1988, so it's probably lived in by one of the members of Robert Kuok's family (he who owns Shangri-la Hotels, Kerry Group et al). Just a guess, mind you.

Crossing Hennessy - Jacky Cheung (2010) - The Peak Tram

Loy decides to get himself into shape and starts jogging in the morning instead of his usual lying in. He jogs mostly around the Peak and in one scene we can see him from the back of the Peak Tram as he tries to run up the stairs at May Road.

Asia-Pol Secret Service - Wang Yu (1966) - View over Central

After escaping their pursuer, the pair board the peak tram and it's here where they find they have something in common. The scene starts with a great view across Central from above the Peak Tram railway from what looks to be the May Road bridge looking down to the bridge at Magazine Gap Road/Bowen Road. There's lots to see such as the older version of Estoril Court (the kinked high rise on the left), Brewin Court (this side and left of the bridge) as well as the old Commodore's House at 5 Bowen Road (partially hidden by the trees on the right).

Asia-Pol Secret Service - Wang Yu (1966) - Old Peak Road, Mid-levels

The HK police make their way to the home of the businessman involved in the HK-side of the gang's operations - who happens to be Wang Yu's biological father. The car is shown driving around the circular ramp that connects Old Peak Road with May Road. Spot the previous version of Queen's Gardens at the left hand side. The same location was filmed the following year in Five Golden Dragons but from a slightly different angle.

For long term readers, you will know that the landslide scenes in the Noble House miniseries were filmed on the empty slope after the old Queen's Gardens was demolished and before the construction of the new one commenced.
 

Felicity - Glory Annen (1978) - The Peak Tram, Hong Kong

There is a very brief scene in Felicity with the girls walking down the side of the Peak Tramway at, what looks to be, the May Road station.

Supermen Against the Orient - Robert Malcolm (1973) - Midlevels, Central

Another view from the credits, this time hovering above the mid levels in front of Century Tower and Granville House - both situated right next to the peak tram track around May Road and both still around surprisingly. Look carefully and you can see the tram track going up the hillside in the middle of the top picture.

Invisible Waves - Asano Tadanobu (2006) - May Road Tram Stop, Midlevels

In the final post for this film, the two men are filmed riding the tram down to the station on May Road before alighting and catching a taxi to the waterfront.

Five Golden Dragons - Bob Cummings (1967) - May Road, Midlevels

More mid-levels and apologies for those finding these scenes a bit tedious but I just feel the need to show everyone how HK used to look before the high rises became ubiquitous.

This time we are back over to May Road at the base of where #1 May Road stands (the building I believe this shot was taken from). Once again there was a nice open view where it's now blocked by Grenville House (built 1971) and you can see the same buildings mentioned in the previous post I just linked to (including the same small snippet of the British Military Hospital).

For comparison, here is a rough equivalent view courtesy of the ever-reliable Streetview.

Five Golden Dragons - Bob Cummings (1967) - Old Peak Road, Midlevels

Next up we have the famous little elevated ramp that connects Old Peak Road to May Road. Despite being a Hong Kong ignoramus, even I am quite familiar with this little bit of road - I've been up here a few times at least.

Most shocking to me - and I suspect everyone else - will be the complete lack of high rise development in the area. It seems to me that the best time to live in the mid-levels has gone way past already and these days you may be lucky if your view doesn't include someone else's bathroom in a nearby block (or maybe some of you would consider that lucky anyway...).

The white building on the left of the second screen shot is the previous version of Queen's Garden. The name has been around a long time even if the buildings have been regularly changed. But look at that clear view through the bridge opening! Just for posterity, here is the modern Streetview for comparison - look what happened to that nice view!

Five Golden Dragons - Bob Cummings (1967) - Harbour view from Midlevels, Central

The next section of film takes place in and around the Central Mid-levels area - largely Magazine Gap Road and is worthy of a few posts. The first is a view from a mid-levels high rise (not identified, but judging from the angle on various buildings I would place the camera somewhere around #1 May Road).

The view starts off looking directly down onto the banks before panning right and taking in the character's taxi as it makes its way along Magazine Gap Road.

The buildings with the yellow and white colour scheme look to be the predecessor to the "Regence Royale" development along Bowen Road. Actually, if you look carefully you can see a more distant brown building to the right of there. This is the former Bowen Rd Military Hospital - now the home of Carmel School. If you click on the location information at the bottom of the post, I have pinned the marker where the car is driving.

Shatter - Stuart Whitman (1974) - View over Central from May Road, Mid-levels

A rather nice view from May Road where it passes over the Peak Tram railway. I can't recreate the same view today due to the additional tree growth, but in the film the tram passes right under the camera and there is only one place where this happens with the nearby Grenville House apartment complex in view and that is the section at the bottom of Tregunter Path.

Here are the caps - Grenville House is the balconied building on the right.

There's quite a lot to see in the top couple of snaps courtesy of the rather nice city view and I expect most people will be able to recognise buildings such as the Connaught Centre, Hilton Hotel, HSBC (previous version), Bank of China, Standard Chartered (previous), as well as what used to be on the site of the current Estoril Court and the older version of the Peak Tram station building (now called St John's Building - did it retain the name of its predecessor?).

Anyway, Autostitch has also rendered a fairly decent consolidation of these four pictures.

There is also a reverse view from the same spot showing the stone balustrade of the bridge over the track.