Spider-Man: The Dragon's Challenge - Nicholas Hammond (1979) - Jardine House, Central

The finale of the film takes place on what would have been the territory's highest structure at the time, the Connaught Centre, now renamed Jardine House. We get some great views from the top looking down onto the neighbouring roads, as well as a rather impressive shot or two of some intrepid (and sadly anonymous) stuntman crawling up the side of the building.

But first some establishing shots showing the area around the building including the various piers we saw in earlier posts.

Vehicular ferry pier bottom left

Blake Pier

Blake Pier and the later version of the General Post Office. Star Ferry at the back

The GPO and Jardine House next door.

Can you see the small dot on the side of the building? It's our intrepid stuntman, attached by wires to a cradle at the top of the building. We get a close up as well which reveals the concrete finish on the building before it was clad with aluminium tiles.

Definitely not Nichloas Hammond!

Once at the top, Spidey uses his radio transceiver to try and locate his buddy. Cue some rather spectacular views from the top of Jardine House.

Spider-Man: The Dragon's Challenge - Nicholas Hammond (1979) - Cross Harbour Tunnel Entrance, Hong Kong

Journeying back to HK from the far reaches of the New Territories, and the kidnappers naturally use the cross harbour tunnel to make their way back to Aberdeen.

Spider-Man: The Dragon's Challenge - Nicholas Hammond (1979) - Fanling, New Territories

The baddies have taken their kidnapping victim to a hiding place in the New Territories and we are treated to some nice aerial scenery of various parts of the NT as Peter Parker uses his spidey-gadgetry to search for clues from the air. It turns out that a large chunk of this sequence was filmed in and around the Fanling area - on the ground as well as the air. Take for example this brief glimpse of a rural village - it's actually Fanling Wai - stronghold of the Pang clan - although you wouldn't believe it given the amount of development that has overtaken these green paddy fields in front of the village.

The fung shui pond in front of the village is still the same shape, but as you can see the area at the top left of the screen cap has been developed into new village houses. The older single and two storey traditional houses on film have also largely been replaced by the 'Spanish' villa style three storey buildings that now dominate village development.

Another quick aerial photo shows Peter Parker (in a cunning disguise of some satin pyjamas and a pointy hat...) running into the village from the main road. The truck is on San Wan Road. The yellow building is actually a building that was the original Fanling village school (粉嶺學校) but is now known as the 思德書室 (si dak sue sat) and is part of the local area's built heritage. You can see the building in the lower Streetview grab below.

Notice the cross-lattice work in the wall of the school above? We now know where the crew put their camera because it is also briefly featured when the kidnapper's van drives out of the village. As the van leaves the village you can make out a strange roof structure in the background on the other side of San Wan Road. It's the roof over the viewing terrace of the public swimming pool across the road.

Spider-Man: The Dragon's Challenge - Nicholas Hammond (1979) - Victoria Park, Causeway Bay

There are a couple of views concerning Victoria Park, one from on high that is really focusing on the typhoon shelter but captures the edge of the park in frame, and a close up view as the film's protagonists go for a morning wander to watch all the oldies doing their tai chi.

The top picture below shows the aforementioned aerial view of the Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter with a very grassy looking Victoria Park at the top of the screen.

Just to prove that the park was once a nice grass covered bit of open space, here are some pictures of the actual grass...now a rarer thing in Hong Kong than Spiderman himself - most of the Park has subsequently been replaced by astro-turfed pitches and painted concrete. The same goes for most other parks all over the territory - finding real grass is difficult indeed.

Spider-Man: The Dragon's Challenge - Nicholas Hammond (1979) - Ocean Park, Nam Long Shan

An interesting view of the newly opened (in 1977) Ocean Park - or at least the headland section on the other side of Brick Hill (Nam Long Shan). I tend to give OP a wide berth these days - if I want to be pushed and shoved around by hordes of people, then I can do it for free in Mongkok and save on the travel time.

 

Anyway, it looks as though the 1978 version of Ocean Park hadn't had any fun rides installed just yet, but it is possible to make out the upper cable car station (centre left). The circular building on the far left used to house the famous former Atoll Reef aquarium with its big wide viewing windows. These days the main aquarium has been moved down to a funky-looking-but-less-practical-with-tiny-viewing-portals tank on the lower section.

Spider-Man: The Dragon's Challenge - Nicholas Hammond (1979) - Mei Foo Sun Tsuen, Lai Chi Kok

Part of our helicopter tour takes us quickly back into the reaches of north west Kowloon and Lai Chi Kok - we catch a quick glimpse of a newly completed (well, at least the last phase was completed in 1978) Mei Foo Sun Tsuen. I've got a friend who lives here and these apartments are quite well spaced compared to the modern day stuff that you can hardly swing a mouse in, let alone a cat.

Anyway, the large bit of sea in front has since been reclaimed as well (the estate was already on largely reclaimed land taken over from the oil company that used to be based here) and is now the rather nice Lai Chi Kok park. Well worth a visit if you have a spare hour or two. Oh, and then there is the subsequent several hundred meters further out to sea which have now all been turned into container processing land and also joined Stonecutter Island onto the Kowloon mainland.

Spider-Man: The Dragon's Challenge - Nicholas Hammond (1979) - Repulse Bay, Hong Kong

The helicopter scenes are all over the place, as you will find out over the next few posts. Here is a rather nice shot as the chopper flies through Repulse Bay. You can see the old Repulse Bay Hotel that was unceremoniously demolished in the 1980's to make way for the famous (well, at least famous for the hole in the building with the total nonsense story about it being for a fung shui dragon to pass through) "The Repulse Bay" apartments. Not to be confused with the block you can see in the pictures which is the earlier built "Repulse Bay Apartments".

The other block you can see on the right of the second picture is "Repulse Bay Towers" and "Repulse Bay Mansions" are the lower ones in front. So, basically, all the ugly stuff is still around but the very picturesque hotel has been replaced by a replica mall. "Replaced by a mall" must be one of the most overused phrases on this blog, sadly. *sigh*

Spider-Man: The Dragon's Challenge - Nicholas Hammond (1979) - The Peak, Hong Kong

So, on with the helicopter search and a nice bit of nostalgia to begin with as the chopper flies over the upper Peak Tram terminus and the previous version of the viewing tower. Unfortunately I missed this earlier version by just a couple of years because it was demolished in 1993. By the time I arrived for my first trip in Nov '95 the current 'flying wok' version was still under scaffolding but pretty much completed.

The current Peak Galleria isn't that much older, opening in 1992, but here we can see its precursor - a development called 'Peak Mansions'. Built in 1928 they were around 50 years old when this film was made and there is some further information over on Gwulo.com. Like many other sites in HK, an elegant historical building has been torn down and replaced by a mall.

Spider-Man: The Dragon's Challenge - Nicholas Hammond (1979) - Central Helicopter Landing Pad, Hong Kong

For want of a better name (please feel free to suggest a more accurate one), this is the former site of the helicopter landing pad in front of Caine House that has since been covered over by construction where Lung Wo and Lung Wui roads meet in front of the CITIC building. You can see the actual place on this previous post courtesy of Yellowthread Street (scroll to the bottom of the post). This post isn't very interesting to be honest, but it sets up the following few posts which all involve aerial shots around the territory and I thought it was interesting to see the Prince of Wales Building over in HMS Tamar as it was nearing completion. The building was finally opened in 1978 and you can see it in the background of the screen grabs below still covered in scaffolding.

You can also spot the upper sections of Hutchinson House and the greatly missed Furama Hotel at the bottom left of the middle picture.

Spider-Man: The Dragon's Challenge - Nicholas Hammond (1979) - Wong Tai Sin Temple, Kowloon

Ching Chun Koon wasn't the only temple featured in this film, we also get a reasonable tour around Wong Tai Sin in Kowloon.

Later on we get a look of the ornamental Pai lau that fronts the temple complex on Lung Cheung Road. This is the version that is currently still in place next to Lung Cheung Plaza (actually, the mall has recently undergone a renovation and is now named 'Temple Plaza'). I don't know when this version was installed because the previous one is visible on Kung Fu Killers filmed around 4 years earlier. You can see it in this post here. So, sometime between 1974 and 1978 the current version was put in.

Spider-Man: The Dragon's Challenge - Nicholas Hammond (1979) - Aberdeen, Hong Kong

Various other shots in and around Aberdeen to make up this post. We start off with a decent aerial view of the western end of the harbour with a fair amount of empty space on the Hong Kong side of the water. The lower right looks like it is probably part of the former HK Electric power station that has since been replaced by South Horizons (soon to get its own MTR stop courtesy of the south island extension).

After Spidey takes his fall into the murky Aberdeen Harbour waters, he is rescued and carted off down Cheng Tu Road and into Ka Shing Mansion for his recovery. Ka Shing Mansion is still around but the building we see in the first picture has been replaced by Ping On House. In fact, it looks very much like we are witnessing the imminent demolition of the older building in the upper picture because of all the pavement protection that has been erected. Its replacement was built in 1978 which gives a more accurate reflection of the year the film was shot. Notice that the Tai Pak was sitting directly opposite out in the water.

Ka Shing Mansion

We also catch a glimpse of the next road over, Tung Sing Road, and the thriving street market that it used to host. Actually, this isn't the first time we have seen this market because it made an appearance (at a higher definition) in Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold.

And we finish off with a shot on the harbour itself with the Tai Pak in the background. Sadly no sign of the Sea Palace in this film although I am sure it must have been around.

Spider-Man: The Dragon's Challenge - Nicholas Hammond (1979) - Jumbo Floating Restaurant, Aberdeen

A significant proportion of filming took place on the famous Jumbo floating restaurant in Aberdeen Harbour. It seems to be the villain's favourite place to do business giving us some nice glimpses around Aberdeen as a whole.

I'll do a smaller Aberdeen post next, but I thought it was worth dedicating a single post to the Jumbo because I've never seen it used so much in a film before. Plus there is a neat stunt at the end when Spidey gets hit by a tranquiliser dart and takes a dive off the top of the restaurant into those rather disgusting Aberdeen Harbour waters.

It's also interesting to note that when this filming took place, the restaurant was actually positioned right next to the waterfront. Was it undergoing some sort of repair? Given that this (and the Tai Pak) usually sits on some rather hefty wooden piles (no, sorry kids, this restaurant doesn't normally 'float' at all) I doubt the position was at the request of the TV movie production company.

Some shots of the interior

Restaurant positioned along the Aberdeen Waterfront...but why?

And finally some shots around the roof - which went on to become a restaurant called Top Deck by Cafe Deco. It closed a few years ago but I don't know if anything replaced it. I almost made it there once but just before we arrived it started chucking it down with rain, so we cancelled. Not long after that it closed down...oh well. The following is a great shot taken from the roof showing, quite clearly, the old Police Station on the hillside at the back. Pretty much every film shot in Aberdeen has this building somewhere in the background.

And then Spidey gets shot and a rather brave stuntman takes the fall into the water.

Splash!