The Fighting Dragon - Yasuaki Kurata (1975) - Park Management Site Office, Mount Austin Road

Despite just being by the Peak Cafe, the very next shot shows the pair running past what is currently the site office for the park management staff who look after the area around the former Mountain Lodge. I was up here a couple of weeks ago and can confirm that getting up here from the upper Peak Tram Terminus involves at least a 20 minute steep, uphill walk that absolutely tired me out (granted, I am getting a bit old, but apparently still fitter than my 16 year old son).

The building is located next to the car park by the podium terrace of what is all that remains of the former Mountain Lodge (a pre-war property used by HK's Colonial Governors). Apparently the building was originally constructed as an office for staff who were responsible for the maintenance and operation of the nearby transmitter stations, but I guess the use of cars makes their need to be there 24/7 no longer a necessity.

Mount Austin Road, The Peak - Now and Then

I recently made a trip up to the Peak to grab a few comparison shots of various places around Mount Austin Road. The first is this angle to match a shot from Crossing Hennessy that I covered at the end of last year. The scene is when Loy and his ex-girlfriend, Man-yu (Maggie Cheung Ho-yee) grab a takeout and eat it in the car before getting out to have a heart-to-heart. The location is on Mount Austin Road next to the Umbrella Seat. The wall in the background belongs to a luxury development called "The Mount Austin".

Crossing Hennessy - Jacky Cheung (2010) - Mount Austin Road, The Peak

After a successful day's photo shoot, Loy and Man-yu have a takeout in her car parked along Mt Austin Road. You can see the famous "Umbrella Seat"in the background of the first image below. The car is parked next to a luxury residential development imaginatively called "The Mount Austin".

Narazumono - Ken Takakura (1964) - The Peak, Hong Kong

Unfortunately the plot (in Japanese with French subtitles) was a bit lost on me, but I get the feeling that the Japanese lady is a drug runner who is getting Minami to do some of her dirty work without him realising. She is in cahoots with a Chinese man who she goes to the Peak to meet with. We get a few shots of the Peak Cafe (still going) as well as some other shots of the area including a quick glimpse of the Victoria Gap Lookout that once stood at the bottom of Mount Austin Road (it was demolished in the 70s, probably to make way for the previous version of the Peak Tower), followed by a trip back down the mountainside on the Peak Tram.

Peak Cafe

The circular building was the Victoria Gap Lookout

1964 vista

Aboard the tram heading down

Les Tribulations d'un Chinois en Chine - Jean-Paul Belmondo (1965) - Victoria Peak Garden, The Peak

Well, after just posting a quick flashback to Grant Page in the Kung Fu Killers documentary, one of the locations we saw in that was a conical hill inside Victoria Peak Gardens where Page squares up against Carter Wong for some kung fu action. You can read that post here. However, about 10 years before Grant Page was up there with Carter Wong, Jean-Paul Belmondo was atop the same conical hill contemplating suicide.

 I'm not sure if the tree was real or a prop but surely something must have sat in the middle of the ringed pathway so I guess the tree might be real.

Day of the Panther - Eddie Stazak (1988) - Mount Austin Road, The Peak

Day of the Panther was an attempt to launch the career of Aussie kickmeister, Eddie Stazak, but fell into trouble almost immediately calling for the original director to be replaced by Brian Trenchard-Smith (of Kung Fu Killers and The Man from Hong Kong fame - both featured on here courtesy of AP). To be fair, I should state that none of this film was actually made in HK, however, there are a couple of shots during the opening sequence that feature a couple of locations so I figured it was worthy of inclusion.

Here is the first location - what appears to be a sweeping helicopter shot of the Peak area including Mount Austin Road.

The building on the hillside in the top picture is called the "Haystack" (Gwulo has an entry for it here) and is currently used as the residence for the Japanese Consul. Mount Austin Road can be seen on the right hand side with Mount Austin Mansions to the right of it (since redeveloped).

Soldier, Soldier - Robson Green (1992) - Mount Austin Road, The Peak

Once again we find ourselves at the small junction where Mt Austin Road meets a small names road that connects to Lugard Road in front of the so-called 'Umbrella Seat'. It's a popular spot on this blog, though that's not surprising given the open view it offers of the harbour and beyond (assuming there's no smog of course).

The house in the background is #25 Lugard Road (aka Bishop's Lodge). It must be one of the most photographed private buildings in HK by default. There's also a nice panning shot taking in the view, but I've merged it into the panorama below rather than chuck up several separate screen grabs. It's hard to tell if the yellow colour is from the quality of the film print or whether it's pollution. But, in all honesty, the view is a lot clearer than most days during the winter time.

Chinese Box - Jeremy Irons (1997) - Mount Austin Road, The Peak

This place keeps cropping up every so often. It's the nameless connecting road between Mount Austin Road and Lugard Road up by the old umbrella seat.

Kung Fu Killers - Grant Page (1974) - Victoria Peak Garden, The Peak

A final showdown with Carter Wong before moving onto our next film. This time the two go head to head on top of one of the conical hills that sit in Victoria Peak Garden. The larger of the two hills currently contains a radio mast and sits right in front of the gardens pavilion. This second hill is slightly to the north and sits just next to a development known as "Overthorpe".

To reach it these days you need to take a right hand fork in Mt Austin Road just before you get to Mountain Lodge gate House but Streetview tells me there is a small sign saying "No Admission, Private Area", so I can only assume it is related to the nearby reservoir or radio station on the peak.

Carter Wong with the radio station behind him

The 1970's Wanchai reclamation in the background

The following pictures show you the hill in relation to what were (I believe) Mount Austin Mansions (centre right) and the precursor to today's Peak Gardens (centre left). The small footpath to the top of the hill and its circular base are still marked on the Govt's geoinfo map, so I am assuming it is still there behind all the foliage (you can't see them via GoogleEarth).

But why the circle at the top? I can only assume that at some point in the past before it was made off limits it perhaps housed a small pavilion. This next picture shows the view to the south with the unmistakable garden pavilion in the background (and the slope of the other aforementioned hill on the left). For those that didn't realise, the pavilion and raised terrace marks the position where the original Governor's Mansion used to stand.

Kung Fu Killers - Grant Page (1974) - Mount Austin Road, The Peak

Back again to Mt Austin Road (we were just here with The Man From Hong Kong), or at least the small nameless road that links it with Lugard Road by the 'Umbrella Seat'. In this instance, Page is up to some kung fu shenanigans with movie actor Carter Wong.

The Man from Hong Kong - Wang Yu (1975) - Mount Austin Road, The Peak

We've been up at the umbrella seat on Mt Austin Road before, this time though it's with Wang Yu who was unanimously described as a complete wanker (a real nasty piece of work, I believe someone also said) by everyone who worked with him on this film (and this seems to be a general opinion of the man anyway).

Anyway, here we are above the city with its great view from the area of the Umbrella Seat. This is one of only two or three scenes from the film that weren't filmed from a helicopter. Most of the real action was filmed in Australia.

I believe that might be the house known as the Haystack on the top right above?

Yellowthread Street (TV Series) - Bruce Payne (1990) - Mount Austin Road, The Peak

More specifically the area around the famous and rather antique "Umbrella Seat" that sits at the junction of Mt Austin Road and the nameless path that connects it to Lugard Road down the slope. The cops are following the so-called Middleman and follow him here from the vehicular ferry pier (because its just a short walk away, right...?). The first shots esatablish the location bu giving us a nice (although a bit hazy even for 1989) view over the harbour starting with a side view of #25 Lugard Road (see first pic below).

A familiar view to anyone who has been up to the Peak, but vastly different from the current view due to the addition of many new buildings - too many to list.

We get to look down the nameless path that connects Mt Austin Rd with Lugard Rd.

Those last two shots show the so-called Umbrella Seat with its great view over the harbour. According to comments over on Gwulo (see earlier link), this 1989 version of the seat was actually erected in the 1920's. The roof was changed at some point to a slatted version before the original was restored - perhaps because the people responsible (don't ask me who it would be, HK Govt is notoriously filled with Depts and sub-Depts that spend all their useful time passing the buck around themselves, no one ever willing to take responsibility for anything) realised its provenance?

Here's how it looks today courtesy of Streetview. Note the roof seen in 1989 is back in place following its short vacation sometime in the 00's. Or perhaps it is just an identical replacement? Who knows...?

The final shot shows us looking back down Mt Austin Road as the Middleman is not-too-subtly followed back. There isn't much of a wide angle in the screencap, but you can see from the Streetview that the garden on the right has had a bit of a revamp. We've also lost a lot of trees in the background - I'll assume that happened when they built the houses on the left - part of The Mount Austin development.