A Guide to Palm Villa and Enter the Dragon

One of the more popular posts from my old (deleted) history-related blog concerned the location used for filming the tournament scenes in Enter the Dragon. It seems that for a lot of people this topic never gets old, and the location still attracts a lot of attention, and misunderstandings, even though it has been completely transformed since the film was made.

So for future posterity, and hopefully to clear up some of the misunderstandings and myths surrounding the place, I have excavated the post from the depths of the internet graveyard and resurrected it here.

For those who are new to the Bruce Lee world, or at least not so familiar with the various Hong Kong locations utilised in the film (here's a collection of posts I have built up over the years), the tournament scenes were filmed on the, long since demolished, terraced tennis courts of a former grand mansion called Palm Villa, located in Tai Tam on the south side of Hong Kong Island.

A 1982 image showing Palm Villa and its tennis courts on the right

Bruce Lee: True Story - Ho Chung Tao (1976) - Palm Villa, Tai Tam

Our old friend Bill Lake pops up in the Enter the Dragon scene. He plays Bob Wall's character for a brief moment as the pair walk across the tennis court. In terms of the location, yes, it's the same place where Enter the Dragon was filmed and although this tennis court wasn't the main one used in that film, it was seen in that movie. It's the upper tennis court that is being used (for reference, please see my old post here) and in a couple of the shots below you can see the steps that lead up to the single remaining doorway that led into the old garden area (now an American Club games court). For your information, it was on the other side of that doorway that the club had erected its metal plaque. You can also see the same tennis court in the top left of this screen grab.

Anyway, as you can see, even just 3 short years after Enter the Dragon the place had become quite overgrown.

Bill Lake as O'hara

The steps on the right lead up to the still-standing garden area

The wooden gazebo can be seen in the screen capture I linked to above

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

After starting its perilous descent of Wanchai Gap Road (as seen in the last picture of the last thread) the bed suddenly enters a space/time wormhole and appears on the long sloping driveway of a large mansion in Tai Tam called Longview. It then continues onto to Tai Tam Road at the bottom of the driveway.

This is a bit of a bonus for Bruce Lee fans because the lower screencap below shows a brief glimpse of the property opposite the driveway's entrance. What you can see is the terraced tennis courts of Palm Villa - made famous as the location for the tournament scenes in Enter the Dragon.

Driveway to Longview 

Palm Villa estate across the road

If you want to read my (perhaps overlong and a bit too enthusiastic) post on Palm Villa you can click here. Of course both Longview (whose driveway the bed just zipped down) and Palm Villa were part of the M.W Lo property portfolio.

In terms of what is visible in this film, it's a very brief moment but you can just about see the lowest tennis court at the bottom left behind the large tree. The more eagle-eyed of you may be able to make out the circular building poking out from the hedge at the right hand side. If you read the post I just linked to you'll find out it was an outside toilet and served as Ahna Capri's and Bruce Lee's (shared) dressing room during filming. The last time I was in that area, it was still there despite everything around it being redeveloped. The tennis courts are now the "Pacific View" development.

Forced Vengeance - Chuck Norris (1982) - TyTam Villa, Tai Tam

Bruce Lee fans will recognise some of the scenes of the coastline where Chuck makes his final ascent to battle because this is the same area used in Enter the Dragon when the fighters leave their boat and disembark onto Han's Island.

Well, roughly the same area at least because you can see the stone jetty and pillbox that are seen in that film in the shot below (the ramp and pillbox are centre left). I'm sure Chuck probably knew that was where his former buddy, Lee, had filmed 10 or so years earlier.

Next up we see a small hut on the hillside with some guards at the entrance to an uphill path that leads to the boss's estate.

It's a bit over grown these days, so without physically going there it is hard to see if the hut is still around, but I suspect it is. The way it works in HK is that unless you will make a pile of money by knocking it down and redeveloping it, it stays intact - so my betting is that the hut is still standing along with that concreted ledge in the lower picture.

As if we needed anymore confirmation of the location, here is a shot of the area I have shown before in various places. It shows the three former mansions that occupied the top of the cliff before the American Club came along and knocked them all down to build their country club. The buildings are, in left to right order, Stanley Lodge, Tytam Villa and Palm Villa (the latter with the terraced tennis courts used in Enter the Dragon). The picture was taken circa 1982 - so about the same time as this filming - and I have circled the area we see on Forced Vengeance. Can you see the little hut? If you zoom in you can also make out the steps that lead up through the trees.

Anyway, the path leads up to...well, in the film it leads up to Tytam Villa, which serves as the big boss's lair. In reality I have no idea, it could have led to anyone of these three former great houses.

When I originally viewed this film I thought that Chuck may have been filming at Palm Villa, but on closer inspection (largely by looking at the window pattern and the existence of annexes either side) it seems that this garden and house were Tytam Villa.

It still looks in okay condition in the film, at least the grounds do, but it wouldn't be long before it was removed and the same spot now seems to house the main clubhouse of the American Club.

Men of the Dragon - Jared Martin (1974) - Palm Villa, Tai Tam

It wasn't just the various plot lines and characters that were pinched from Enter the Dragon, there is also a moment in Men of the Dragon when Martin and Ito go and see there wise master at his serene retreat in the countryside. The following will be more obvious to ETD fans but the fact is that the location used was none other than Palm Villa - the same place that doubled as Han's training grounds in Enter the Dragon.

Appalling quality screen grabs aside, you can see the upper garden with the tree and its doorway that Bruce Lee walks out of at the end of Enter the Dragon (the bit when he gives the thumbs up sign to John Saxon). Look carefully and I would venture that the gold lion statue by the door is the same one seen in Enter (and coincidentally, it is standing in the very same place.

It's quite possible some of the props were left lying around after the completion of Enter the Dragon in 1973, and it's not too far beyond the realms of possibility that the Men of the Dragon guys filmed there not long after...anyway, I'll let you be the judge.

 Anyone who has read and understood my previous ramblings on this location (I do mumble quite frequently, so it's understandable if you didn't) will know that this tree (seen above) is the same tree that Lee magically leaps up into when he is about to be discovered by Han's guards on one of his night time recces in Enter, but that was pretty much all we saw of the place in that film. However, the arched stone doorway was seen quite a bit because it fronted the main fighting area. Here is a reminder where you can also see the gold dragon and all the black suits piling through the gap.

Sadly. that's all we get to see of the place in Men of the Dragon which is a big shame when you consider how iconic it has turned out to be.