Bruce Lee: True Story - Ho Chung Tao (1976) - 6 Stanley Beach Road, Stanley

Here's another one of those large houses that are a pain in the butt to pinpoint because most have since been sold off and redeveloped into several smaller (but equally expensive) properties. I'm left with small clues in the surroundings and a headache from squinting at old aerial images. This particular mansion took several days to track down and it wasn't until I saw an old image from a previous film (Les Tribulations d'un Chinois en Chine) that I finally knew I had found the right place.

In the movie it is the location of the fight between Bruce and a challenger in the shape of the very awesome Chiu Chi-ling. It's based on the supposed real-life challenge match that took place between Bruce Lee and Lau Dai-chuen at the luxury mansion of corrupt Police Inspector, Tang Sang. Did it happen or didn't it? There are a surprising number of sources that say that it did but because it was done in secret no one has any proof other than hearsay.

Well, in the film, instead of Tang Sang's unknown mansion (somewhere in the NT, near Fanling, was the last I heard) we are taken to another rather impressive mansion with some rather nicely landscaped gardens. After searching so many places where I thought it might be it turns out it was a large property located at #6 Stanely Beach Road.

I have no knowledge of who owned the place (and can't be bothered to spend the HK$25 to find out to be honest) but it had a certain art-deco/Bauhaus style that was popular in HK during the post war years (pillars and curves) and it's a great shame that the plot now consists of some underwhelming three-storey cookie-cutter houses. Whenever I get a location like this - nice and gone - I like to include as many pics as possible. So here they are.

The background building is still around, it's called "Beach Mansions"

The hill in the background is the Stanley Peninsula

You can see the Hong Kong Sea School left of frame

Les Tribulations d'un Chinois en Chine - Jean-Paul Belmondo (1965) - Stanley Beach Road, Stanley

The last post is actually a nice lead in to this one, although at the time I was scratching my head trying to place the following pictures. I ended up realising it was Stanley Beach Road and despite the massive changes to the whole area there are still some relics from the 1960's that helped with the confirmation.

The first picture shows the top of Stanley Beach Road, just after the junction with Stanley Village Road further up the hill. The house in the background seems to be a rather grand old (and very stylish) affair that has since been replaced by "Grosse Point Villa". Even the empty space behind the car has been developed into "Standford Villa". I've stuck a Streetview grab underneath for comparison.

Next up we have a view a little further down the road and we get to see it from two angles. The first shows us the view looking down the road. The large terrace on the right can also be seen in the second picture looking back up the road. The terrace is still around but it has undergone a face lift and currently has a luxury house development unpretentiously called "No.6 Stanley Beach Road". I am fairly certain that the tree on the far right in the top screen grab, is the same tree that can be seen by the black car on the right of the Streetview picture. It still has the same general shape despite losing a branch. What do you think?

Here's the view looking back up towards No.6. I wonder if any of those children on the right will get around to reading this post? They would be in their 60s by now.

The next view is a bit further along and is the angle that gave me the first clue to the location. The hill in the distance is Che Pau Teng on the Stanley Peninsula. There aren't that many places with such a view in HK surrounded by low rise houses and if you look closely you should be able to see the dormitory building of the Hong Kong Sea School just below the hill.

Finally a view looking back up the road. The white building at the back also helped me with identification because it's still around, albeit now thoroughly obscured by trees from this angle. It's Beach Mansion and it looks like that strange cubicle on the wall is still there. Those who know Stanley will realise that the right hand side of these screencaps leads to Stanley Main Beach.