The Merry Wife - Li Ching (1971) - Ocean Terminal, Tsim Sha Tsui

Lin Min eventually arrives at the entrance to the rooftop Ocean Terminal carpark, which is reached via an entrance way under the Hong Kong Hotel on Canton Road. It's here where he accidentally bumps into the school's librarian who has a crush on him and thinks they are on a date, and also spots his wife and one of her male classmates out on a "date".

The Yellow Muffler - Betty Ting Pei (1972) - Ocean Terminal

This is where the girls see off (and welcome back) their father and youngest sister as the latter make their way to Taiwan by ship. It's been a while since I visited this place but I believe the area where the filming took place still looks more or less the same.

...and Millions will die! - Richard Basehart (1973) - View from Ocean Terminal

It's not the first time we have seen this view on a film  (for example: Amaya, Black Cobra Woman, Love in Hong Kong). In this movie we get a panning shot here as the film's name is displayed during the opening credits.

Go Back to China - Anna Akana (2019) - Ocean Terminal, Tsim Sha Tsui

Sasha takes the boys to Ocean Terminal to take photos and have a feel of other plushy toys on the market. And then the day is finished with a meal on the garden terrace at Hexa - a restaurant located at the relatively new end-section of the terminal.

OK, strictly speaking this image isn't Ocean Terminal,
it's Harbour City with OT in the background

Lunch at HEXA

Black Samurai - Jim Kelly (1977) - Star Ferry Pier, Tsim Sha Tsui

There are some shots around the bus terminus and Star Ferry Pier in Tsim Sha Tsui. Although the top image is actually captured from the rooftop carpark of nearby Ocean Terminal. A great location to see the harbour from and usually devoid of the normal throngs of people found along the waterfront.

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea - Stephen Rea (1995) - Ocean Terminal, Tsim Sha Tsui

Nikos is able to secure passage on another vessel and boards it at Ocean Terminal.

Amaya - Kaori Momoi (2010) - View from Ocean Terminal

The opening scenes show a variety of shots in and around the harbour, including this view of Paul looking towards Hong Kong Island from Kowloon side. You can see by the location of the Star Ferry terminal that it was shot from the car park on top of Ocean Terminal.

Love in Hong Kong - Pauline Teutscher (1983) - Ocean Terminal, Tsim Sha Tsui

Julie meets with one of her staff to fill him in about her new scoop. They meet at the rooftop car park on Ocean Terminal.

Anti-Corruption - Bill Lake (1975) - Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong

One of the great encounters I have had over the past few years has been with a local military historian called Bill Lake. I met Bill one evening at a Gwulo.com get-together (pre-Covid of course) and although he now dedicates his time to researching Hong Kong's military past (Bill is an ex-soldier from the Royal Regiment of Artillery) and is one of its pre-eminent historians, he also has a fairly impressive resume of Hong Kong films under his belt.

Anyway, just after leaving quarantine on my return to HK, myself and David Bellis (the man behind Gwulo) headed out to Sai Kung to meet Bill for a coffee and chinwag. One of the things I departed with that day was a copy of one of Bill's larger films roles in the form of an Ng See Yuen film called Anti-Corruption. The film *fictionally* portrays the events surrounding the eventual prosecution of renowned bent copper, Peter Godber, and his fellow corrupt police officers. Bill plays the main character, Taff Hunter, who arrives in Hong Kong as an arrow-straight policeman who eventually gets overwhelmed by the constant pressure to accept bribes.

The film starts off as Taff is counting his weekly stack of bills and then goes into flashback as he reminisces about how it all started. Bill told me that at the time of release, it was really popular with local policeman who, after being kept in the dark about the events surrounding Godber's capture, were keen to see how everything had played out. It appears that the rank and file didn't know that most of the arrests were achieved through confessions taken by senior officers in return for dropping of charges or reduced sentences.

One problem with the film is that it appears to be the only copy available. The picture quality appears to be a pan-and-scan VHS transfer from the 1980s, so the screencaps I have aren't great, but there are some interesting locations so I thought it was worthwhile including here. I don't think this movie has had a release outside of the early 80s? If anyone knows differently, please feel free to comment because it would be nice to get Bill a better version.

The opening scenes start with this zoomed in view of a passenger liner berthed at Ocean terminal, before the camera lens pulls back to reveal the harbour and the main part of Central. Most of the right hand side of the loer image has been redeveloped - the Furama and Hilton Hotels disappearing a while ago. But most recently (whilst I was in the UK it seems) Hutchison House has also been demolished to make way for a more modern one now being constructed.

Les Nuits Rouges du Bourreau de Jade - Carrie Ng (2010) - Ocean Terminal, Tsim Sha Tsui

The main foreign character is Catherine, who has just killed her boyfriend for possession of the poison and has to quickly get out of dodge and heads over to Hong Kong. It's not clear where she is running from but the impression is somewhere in Asia. Anyway, she flies in to Hong Kong via helicopter (which, to me, implies she is on the run from Macau) on a stolen and doctored passport. One of the sights she sees as she looks down on her destination is Ocean terminal and surrounds.

Black Cobra Woman - Laura Gemser (1976) - Ocean Terminal, Tsim Sha Tsui

Having walk enough to make their legs fall off, the two friends wind up on top of Ocean terminal in TST. What a shame this shot didn't start a little further to the left because it would then have captured the old KCR terminus. Although closed by then it wasn't demolished until 1978.

Invisible Waves - Asano Tadanobu (2006) - Ocean Terminal, Tsim Sha Tsui

Kyoji is told to take a vacation and boards a cruise ship from Ocean terminal in Hong Kong. Though unbeknownst to him, someone is following him.

Jason King (TV Series) - Peter Wyngarde (1972) - Ocean Terminal, Tsim Sha Tsui

We just had the view looking from what I think was probably the car park roof of Ocean Terminal towards the old wharf. This view, I think, is looking back to the other way from the area of the aforementioned wharf.

Shirley's World (TV Series) - Shirley MacLaine (1972) - Ocean Terminal, Tsim Sha Tsui

Shirley's friend is being blackmailed by a gangster whose shipping office is located over in the old Kowloon dockyard. As she walks over there we catch a glimpse of it in the background from the vantage point of the open space at the end of Ocean Terminal. I have no idea what is here now but was certainly still a piece of open yard just a few years ago.

Shadow of China - John Lone (1989) - Ocean Terminal, Tsim Sha Tsui

One of the incidents Neil recalls in his earlier comments was that Typhoon Brenda blew in from the Philippines and completely destroyed an office set that had been constructed on top of Ocean Terminal - at the extreme far end of the car park. The set was Henry Wong's (John Lone) office and here are the screen grabs.

If you read the wiki entry on the typhoon you'll see it was the same one held responsible for the strong winds that downed a helicopter - killing 5 people - on the set of Chuck Norris' Delta Force 2 that was shooting in the Philippines at the time.

A Countess from Hong Kong - Sophia Loren (1967) - Former Kowloon Docks, Tsim Sha Tsui

Another notable glimpse of the real Hong Kong from this film is a quick view of the wooden pier that used to occupy the spot now taken up by Ocean Terminal. It shows a large cruise ship at dock - the one that all the subsequent action is supposed to take place on - which can just be identified as the SS President Wilson.

We know that this film was released in 1967 which means it was most likely filmed either earlier that year or sometime in 1966. The problem is that Ocean Terminal also opened in 1966 (on the 22nd March according to wiki), quite early on in the year. So either the limited HK locations on this film were shot a couple of years earlier or the film was perhaps some unused footage shot for another movie and incorporated into this one. My gut tells me that the HK images we see on film were licensed from someone else - there is just too little footage to justify spending money on a separate film crew to capture some brief scenes.

Well anyway, if you look at the screen grab below taken from the beginning of The World of Suzie Wong (the original post can be seen here), it's interesting to note that it shows the very same ship berthed at the very same wooden pier - you can even see the curved canopy that runs along the centre of the pier.

The World of Suzie Wong (1960)

I wonder if anyone out there knows how often the SS President Wilson used to berth at Hong Kong in the 1960's? It seems to have been a regular visitor and was eventually bought by CY Tung anyway.

Bons Baisers de Hong Kong - Les Charlots (1975) - Ocean Terminal, Tsim Sha Tsui

Despite authentic footage of the airport entrance being used for the last post, when the film's main stars are waiting for a taxi in front of the 'airport' it's quite obvious the action has moved to the other side of Kowloon and the filmmakers are trying to convince us that Ocean Terminal is in fact part of the airport by sticking a small sign that says so in the background (picture 2).

Never mind, because there are some nice sights to see including the clock tower (when it was still part of the train station) and an advert for a Maxim's restaurant on the side of Star House (top picture, left hand side).

That taxi in the bottom picture is in much better shape than some of the death traps I've ridden in over the past 10 years.