7 Aum Arivu - Suriya (2011) - Harbour Grand Hotel, North Point

Another set of shots from the "Mun Andhi" song part of the film were filmed on the roof of the Harbour Grand Hotel Hong Kong in North Point.

Karate from Shaolin Temple - Kazuma Kenji (1976) - King's Road, North Point

I thought I had finished with Karate from Shaolin Temple but I accidentally stumbled across a location that was previously unidentified. The scene follows this one, as Musashi is stopped by one of Wu's friends and is spotted by the gang boss's men. As Wu's man makes it back to their hideout, there are a couple of location shots of him making his way there. This is one of them and was filmed on King's Road at the curve of the road close to Oil Street. In fact you can see the entrance to Oil Street just to the right of the minibus. It's a bit blurry in the screencap but the building there was called the 宏興鷓鴣菜大廈 - that is the name written vertically down the side of the building in red characters. The building is still around but has been converted into some serviced apartments by "Shama".

Flash Point - Donnie Yen (2007) - Empire Apartments, North Point

Here's another location that has cropped up in another film. This time it's the rooftop apartment of Louis Koo's character that gets bombed by the bad guys in their attempt to get rid of him as a key witness. If you have followed this blog for anytime then you may recall the same location was used for Mathilde's flat in Je l'aimais a couple of years later. Well at least it's the same rooftop because I think there might be two (illegal) structures on the roof that have been turned into apartment spaces. The one in Je l'aimais was at the front (facing King's Road) side of the roof and Louis' is the larger higher one. The strange concrete ribbing structure in the lower right of the second image is the roof of the State (former Empire) Theatre.

Amaya - Kaori Momoi (2010) - Java Road Municipal Services Building, North Point

I'm not sure why, but there's a brief, random glimpse of some footage of the interior of the Java Road Municpal Services Building and its famous Tung Po (東寶小館) eatery. This place became quite famous for serving beer in small rice bowls and garnered quite the reputation for an entertaining night out until the local Govt departments decided they were having too much fun and terminated their lease here. It's a very good illustration of current Govt bureacracy in operation. Yes, you are allowed to have fun but only on our terms, sort of thing. Anyway, for those who still wish to visit, Tung Po has moved to a new venue on Jaffe Road.

Amaya - Kaori Momoi (2010) - Harbour Grand Hotel, North Point

Just when I thought I was running out of titles again, another 10-15 or so get picked up by my radar and I have recentlymanaged to track down a couple of them. So next up is Amaya which was released worldwide under the title Hong Kong Confidential. However, I have alread covered an old movie with Gene Barry of that same name, so will stick with Amaya. The story follows several characters whose lives cross at a massage centre in Hong Kong. The film starts with Paul (Andrius Mamontovas), a Lithuanian traveller, arriving in Hong Kong to study a massage course. He's a bit of a scruffy backpacker but has money to throw around and stay at the Harbour Grand Hotel in North Point (not the Kowloon-side one).

The Confidence Man JP: The Movie - Masami Nagasawa (2019) - View over North Point

Another part of the montage that supposedly shows all the buildings with "Sagitarius Group" signage all over them is this shot. This particular view is at the Quarry Bay-end of North Point with the buildings around the junction of King's Road and Java Road. In the top image on the far right (with some weird structure on the flat roof) is the Java Road Government Offices where Infernal Affairs was filmed. And in the lower image the Kerry Centre is the building that has loomed into view from the left. The oval of the signage neatly covers the real symbol for the Kuok Group emblem (as in Robert Kuok, chairman of Shangri-La Hotel and Kerry Holdings groups).

Forced Vengeance - Chuck Norris (1982) - Braemar Hill Mansions, North Point

Some more revisitation of earlier films as I ponder which movie to cover next, and this time we go back to 1982 for Forced Vengeance.

One of the locations Josh (Chuck Norris) goes to to get some information about Ramandi is Braemar Hill Mansions. The place has two gated entrances, east and west. This is the east gate because the driveway goes uphill- the west entrance goes downhill. Just a few years before this was made this whole area (now Choi Sai WooPark) was part of Braemar Reservoir.

Asia-Pol Secret Service - Wang Yu (1966) - North Point Aerial View

Next up is an aerial shot of North Point. The estate immediately next to the pier is the old North Point estate that was demolished not long before my "permanent" move to Hong Kong. The undeveloped hillside on the right hadn side of the image shows the spaces where Pacific Palisades and Tempo Court would be build along Braemar Hill Road but the interesting bit for me the the presence of a small square block of buildings just above there (centre right of image) that I know was once a grand Chinese style mansion called "Kai Yuen". If you click on that link to Gwulo and read the comments you will see that today's Kai Yuen Street is actually the former driveway of the mansion. It appears the house was demolished towards the end of the decade and later developed into Bedford Gardens.

Infernal Affairs - Andy Lau (2002) - North Point Government Office, Java Road

Despite the ground floor establishing shots being filmed at the Guangdong Investment Tower in Sheung Wan, the rooftop scenes throughout the movie - where Chan goes to meet his boss (Anthony Wong) - were filmed on the other end of Hong Kong Island in North Point.

The North Point Government Office on Java Road is the location where it all goes down and we are treated to some quite impressive views across the eastern part of Victoria Harbour. Honestly, I think the film makers were extremely lucky with the weather to get those clear views, or more likely this was filmed sometime between May and July when the Hong Kong weather is at its clearest.

Look carefully in the background of the last image and you can see the IFC2 tower still under construction in the distance. This was probably also around the time that Lara Croft Tomb Raider was being filmed in the territory.

V.I.P - Jang Dong-gun (2017) - King's Road, Quarry Bay

After taking care of business, Jang Dong-gun heads off and stops at some traffic lights to ponder the meaning of life. The traffic lights in question are located where Java Road joins onto King's Road between the Hong Kong Funeral Home and Kerry Centre in Quarry Bay. Then as he pulls out onto King's Road we get a brief glimpse to the east as the cars drives off. Actually, this later angle was also used in the opening scenes as one of the driving shots as he makes his way to his rendezvous.

The lower three images show the view along King's Road (looking east) but the first of those is actually from the beginning of the film. The latter two are from the end as he makes his way back to the airport.

Java Road with Towngas Building in the background

Je l'aimais - Daniel Auteuil (2009) - Empire Apartments, North Point

Mathilde's Hong Kong flat is supposedly on the roof top of a building and there is one scene when the two leave the apartment and have to cross the roof in order to get down. These scenes were filmed on top of the Empire Apartment building on the corner of Hei Wo Street in North Point. This is in fact the residential building next to the State Theatre. The building was constructed in 1957 - just two years prior to the construction of the neighbouring Empire Theatre, which was the State Theatre's original name. It looks as though the film crew did use a real apartment that has been constructed on the buildings roof top. Roof top squatting has been a common occurrence in Hong Kong for many decades and lots of old buildings still have illegally built additions at the top - often cemented in to make them look like part of the original building. I reckon this is one of those that has never been flagged by the Govt - out of sight out of mind.

Les Nuits Rouges du Bourreau de Jade - Carrie Ng (2010) - Sunbeam Theatre, North Point

The location for all of Carrie's murderous behaviour is an innocuous locked room at the Sunbeam Theatre. It so happens this is also where her boyfriend/cohort practices his Cantonese Opera. For those who don't know, the Sunbeam Theatre is a very famous local landmark known for its dedication to Chinese opera. The film comes back here time and time again because it is really the core location for the film.

Strangers - John Simm (2018) - Tong Shui Road Pier, North Point

Another brief shot, setting up the Hong Kong location, was snapped on the Tong Shui Road pier in North Point. This T-shaped concrete pier is the same one that was used for Ghost in the Shell. The view across to Kowloon in the second image was also shot from this same vantage point.

This Time I'll Make You Rich - Brad Harris (1974) - North Point, Hong Kong

The opening and closing titles have a helicoptered shot of what looks to be a part of Hong Kong island's northern coastline panning from left to right (east to west). However, after reviewing it I was scratching my head trying to pace all the buildings. The only clue I had was the initial picture that featured what appeared to be the twin chimneys of the old North Point Power Station. Here is the sequence as it appears on film. You can see the smoking chimneys in the very top picture.

It wasn't until the last couple of frames though that the clue to the sequence pops up. The large block in the bottom of the last picture is one of the blocks in the now demolished North Point Estate. The estate was in fact to the east of the power station, so, what we have at the end of this film is a bit that has been spliced in back to front. The film negative has obviously been flipped when it was all edited together (we've seen the same phenomenon several times on the blog leading me to think it is ignorance of HK geography as the main cause). So, I flipped all the grabs and now if the film had been run properly, the sequence would pan from west to east (right to left).

So, now that balance has once again been restored to the universe, we can say goodbye to this film and move onto the next...

Ghost in the Shell - Scarlett Johansson (2017) - Tong Shui Road Pier, North Point

The pier where Major is picked up by the HANKA seciruty guards is located in North Point at the end of Tong Shui Road. The low rise building at the back is about the only thing recognisable here (other than the road) and is the Tong Shui Road Pumping Station located in Tong Shui Road Garden.

Meteor - Sean Connery (1979) - Java Road, North Point

Another brief scene showing the screaming masses (actually, most look like they are having a bit of a laugh being extras for the day) was filmed at the junction between North Point Road and Java Road over in North Point. The buildings at the front have since been redeveloped, but the ones at the back AND the pawn shop (全興大押 ) are still around. I believe the pawnshop has recently replaced that large red sign with a smaller LED one though.

Golgo 13: Assignment Kowloon - Sonny Chiba (1977) - King's Road, North Point

Another of many establishing shots that show various parts of Hong Kong, this time we are on King's Road in North Point, not far from the North Point tram terminus.

The top picture shows us looking west from the north side of King's Road towards the curve in the road where the State Theatre is situated. You can't see that rather interesting building on screen but the buildings at the far end (Nam Tin Building and Southern Building) are right next to it. The camera then pans left so that it faces the opposite direction. The older buildings next to the "Shell" sign have been demolished and replaced by a pedestrian walkway over the road.