Sweet is Revenge - Yueh Hua (1967) - Pak Shek Au, Kwu Tung

Back to one of Shaw's favourite rural locations used for the final scenes of the film as Wang is led to a remote pavilion where David is waiting for her and they are reunited. If you've seen my other posts about this area you'll know a large section of it is now being turned into the "Northern Metropolis". Sadly, much of the area you see below had already been filled up over the years with small industrial plots and container storage, so it's been a while since it looked as empty as this.

You can compare these screen shots with others I have posted over the years.

Tai Shek Mo in the background

The Lady Hermit - Cheng Pei-pei (1971) - Pak Shek Au, North District

As Cui Ping runs after Miss Leng we are treated to some expansive views of one the the Shaw production's favourite exterior locations: Pak Shek Au in Kwu Tung. As mentioned in previous posts, this once large open area filled with rolling hills was often utilised courtesy of its large open spaces and ease to get to - it's located just north of the Castle Peak Road as it passes Sheung Shui on the way towards Yuen Long. Back then it was perfect due to its remoteness from modern Hong Kong but fell out of use during the 1980s when development in Hong Kong, and Shenzhen over the border, began to make period filming more difficult. Lots of modern infrastructure started popping into view. The area is currently undergoing huge change as the HK Govt forges ahead with its "Northern Metropolis" development - building large high rise residential blocks on part of the area that can be seen in the images below. I saw a news report on what they have planned for this place and I doubt there will be anything left in about 10 years time. It's quite sad that this area, despite a small bit of subsequent development, has retained a certain amount of beauty, and the HK Govt and its developer friends are determined to replace it all with modern construction.

The Water Margin - David Chiang (1972) - Pak Shek Au, North District

Here we are back at Pak Shek Au near Kwu Tung. It's a favoured filming location for many a 60s- and 70s-made period film thanks to its - then - relatively unspoilt environment. Since those days it has undergone significant change as small industrial sites (and their requisite corrugated iron and steel structures) occupied much of the central area. Although even now, those rather unsitely structures have themselves now been cleared to make way for the start of the much-heralded "Northern Metropolis".

In the scene below, Chao Gai, the bandit leader (played by Tung Lam), has just been ambushed and atttacked by Shi Wengong and is impaled with an arrow before being rescued by Lin Chong (Yueh Hwa).

The area below can be indentified by the presence of a small ridge in the background that has the English name on Open Street Map of "Mt Kirkpatrick" and "Mt Kilpatrick" on older ones. I suspect the older one is the correct name. In front was a flat area with a couple of large ponds that was later utilised for the aforementioned cluster of small industrial buildings as well as the community centre, sports pitch and camp site. Someone took a photo from the Tung Wah campsite which shows Mt Kirk/Kilpatrick in the background. It gives you an idea of how much the place has changed. Also, fans of the genre may be interested to compare the images below with the last image on my old post on The Fate of Lee Khan. It's more or less the same camera angle.

As Chao Gai tries to escape, he rides his horse to the east with a view towards Tai Shek Mo (Crest Hill). You can see a similar view in this shot from The Blood Brothers.

And...finally a view over to the distinctive peak of Ki Lun Shan which can be seen in this image from The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires. In fact, you will see those two shots were taken from more or less the exact same place.

Come Drink With Me - Cheng Pei-pei (1966) - Ho Sheung Heung, Sheung Shui

I believe the final fight of this film - where the bandits attack the convoy after they have been cheated out of their hostage by Drunken Cat - was indeeed shot in Taiwan. The terrain is too expansive to be Hong Kong and the mountains are not those found in Hong Kong. The immediate previous scene though - where the prisoner exchange takes place on a desolate hilltop - was shot in Hong Kong.

I always have trouble finding a suitable name for this location. I usually refer to it simply as "Pak Shek Au", but I'm not sure how much of this area falls under that name. This particular location - the hilltop where the gang leader's prison crate is pushed backdown the hill - is closer to Ho Sheung Heung and I have previously called it "Roy's Hill" (in a since deleted post) because it can be seen in the background of the opening fight scene of Enter the Dragon that features Roy Chiao. This hill is just slightly east of a small cluster of houses called "Phoenix Garden" - once again the Google marker is snapping to nearby buildings, so here is the position is GoogleEarth so you can see where I am referring to. In Open Street Map it's called "Kidney Hill". 

In Come Drink With Me, we're seeing it from its summit (lower two images) as Drunken Cat pushes the cart backdown the hill towards the Governor's troops. At various points of this sequence we catch a glimpse of how unspoilt it once was. Now it's just full of junk, corregated steel fencing, small industrial facilities and much of the site formation work for the first phase of the so-called "Northern Metropolis". I've chosen a selection of images to highlight some of the views.

The west flank of Crest Hill is the back ground in these two images above

The round hillock is called Fung Kong Shan and Yueh Hwa is looking NW.

The distant, grey hills are in Tanglangshan Park in Shenzhen, China

The Blood Brothers - David Chiang (1973) - Pak Shek Au, North District

Another popular outdoor location for Shaw productions was the large area around Pak Shek Au near Sheung Shui. The British Military referred to this place as the "North Downs" and used it for tank manouvers sometimes. The unspoilt rolling hills were a great remote location for these period films until modern development started to encroach. In The Blood Brothers, this area served as the main location where the brothers wait outside Ma's nearby fortress where he has established his army.

You can see other examples of use of this area in The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires,  The Water Margin, The Fate of Lee Khan, and there are many other films that I have yet to cover.

Anyway, I may have mentioned on an old post that this area is scheduled for redevelopment into the so-called "Northern Metropolis". The specific are seen below, near Hang Tsai Shan (aka Mt Kirkpatrick), is already being developed - as I speak - into two large Govt housing estates. Such is life in Hong Kong.

Left background is Ki Lun Shan

The ridge behind Ching Li is Tai Shek Mo/Crest Hill

Whicker's Orient - Alan Whicker (1972) - Pak Shek Au, North District

As mentioned in an earlier post, Whicker's Shaw episode coincides with the filming of The Water Margin and he heads off to a location shoot at Pak Shek Au to interview David Chiang and his brother, Paul Chin Pei. I've included this location a few times before because it was one of the favourite outdoor locations for many of the period set movies, consisting of a large expanse of low rolling hills. The British Colonial govt used to refer to this whole area as the "North Downs" and it was a popular place for the British garrison to practice maneuvers due to it's complete lack of development. Fear not though, the intrepid current government plans to turn the whole area into its much touted "Northern Metropolis"...

To be fair, it's not the empty hinterland it once was and much of it these days is filled with the usual New Territories detritus of dumped storage containers, recycling factories and heavy machinery parking spots.

The Fate of Lee Khan - Tien Feng (1973) - Pak Shek Au, North District

Another quickie, this time only two locations but I wanted to include them because they were both major locations for many films during the 1960s and 70s. The Fate of Lee Khan was filmed in 1973, back to back with The Valiant Ones. However, for some reason, the latter film had its release delayed by two years.

Several years ago Chaplin Chang told me that Golden Harvest had agreed to fund the films but for some reason Raymond Chow, notoriously difficult to get any money from, had kept putting off payment to King Hu and so production was stalled for several months. In the end Chaplin, who was working for King Hu at the time (Hu's production offices were in Yau Yat Tsuen), was sent around to Golden Harvest to "remind" Chow that he still owed the money for the films.

Anyway, this film is largely set inside an inn, the "Welcome Spring Inn", where various rebels conspire to overthrow a powerful prince, Lee Khan (Tien Feng), who has arrived in the area to collect a military map from a spy. Lots of subterfuge and intrigue, as with most of King Hu's films, as well as appearances by some famous names and faces including Li Li-hua, Tien Feng, Feng Hsu, Han Ying-chieh, Pai Ying and the always great to watch, Angela Mao.

The first of the two exterior locations is the area I have previously identified as Pak Shek Au. I don't know if this is the name that applies to the whole area but for the purpose of this blog it is a location immediately west of Kwu Tung in North District. We previously saw it on The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires and the images below are a very similar angle to the top image in that linked post. The bumpy ridgeline in the background belongs to Tai Shek Mo - the same hill (from a different angle) that can be seen in Enter the Dragon and Snake in the Eagle's Shadow.

Unfortunately, although there has been no major development here (no malls at least), much of the area is now used for the scurge of the NT - plant hire and small industrial warehouses that now litter the area. So the place is no longer the quiet, empty area it used to be.

In the image below, the small hillock (centre frame) was located where the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals campground / football field is now located. Judging from aerial images from the 1970s, it looks as though this small hill was actually excavated to make way for the camp ground and a small adjacent industrial space. 
 

The following two images are from the end of the film as the rebels ride off into the sunset. This was actually filmed much closer to the now removed hillock. In the last image below, as they ride past the camera, the hill in the background is still around and looks pretty much the same today as it did then - unlike the surrounding area which is now overgrown slightly. It's located immediately west of the football ground.

The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires - Peter Cushing (1974) - Pak Shek Au, North District

I must admit to being stumped by this location for quite some time (years probably) and in my talks with various other people, such as Andi (who is much better at this than me), we came to the conclusion that the following area - one used by Shaw Bros on multiple occasions I hasten to add - must be somewhere up in the hills around Sai Kung and Movietown.

However, search as much as I could, I could just never find anything to match the ridge lines in the background.

It wasn't until just the other day that a particular ridge line struck a deeply buried memory in my brain and I eventually managed to finally place the filming location in Pak Shek Au - a small hilly area located between the Lok Ma Chau border area and Castle Peak Road, just down the road from Ho Sheung Heung.

Ho Sheung Heung and its neighbouring hill, Tai Shek Mo, you may remember as being the location of the filming of the fight scene between Sammo Hung and Bruce Lee at the beginning of Enter the Dragon, and it turns out that Tai Shek Mo was also instrumental in me being able to identify this location to. That's it at the back right, seen from the west, in the first picture below.

Now, these days this whole area has greened a lot but has also suffered from the sort of unchecked illegal development that blights much of the New Territories - basically a mish-mash of concreted parking areas, container storage, light industrial workshops, plant hire and other various blots on the landscape. This is a big shame when you see how empty and open it was back in the 1970's.

Now, we already know from some of the great spotting Andi has done that nearby Ho Sheung Heung has been featured in multiple films, including many Shaws productions, and seeing that this place is very close then it's easy to imagine it being a popular spot for filming here. I need to check but I believe there are many Shaws films that feature these same hills and dirt tracks (I'm pretty sure Come Drink With Me is one of these considering the last but one picture Andi has put in this post that shows Tai Shek Mo and its military insignia).

Anyway, mystery solved. Here are some more grabs. The first one shows a hill in the background that I've actually been to the top of without realising it's the same place, it's Ki Lun Shan. Somewhere hidden between there and the actors is the 1970's version of the Castle Peak Road (a much smaller version of the current one, but still a main thoroughfare at the time).

Ki Lun Shan in the background

Finally to finish, a shot taken as the actors walk closer along a dirt road towards Tai Shek Mo. The are you see is now filled with the aforementioned ad hoc industrial workshops previously mentioned. Incidentally, the HK Govt currently has plans to turn this whole area - or at least the nearby part called Kwu Tung - into a New Town. There's lots of opposition but it could be the industrial blight will be replaced by something even worse...