Le Monocle Rit Jaune - Paul Meurisse (1964) - Chik Chuen Wai, Tai Wai

Also known as Tai Wai Village, Chik Chuen Wai (積存圍) is the original walled village on which Tai Wai is founded. It's such an obscure location for a foreign movie because it is hidden away, even today with all the subsequent development. Anyway, in the film the characters are still in Macau and are trying to get back to Hong Kong but are ambushed in the village by gun-wielding gangsters. You can see the aftermath in the final image. Surprisngly, or not, quite a few of the buildings on screen are still around as is the village gateway seen in the second image.

Le Monocle Rit Jaune - Paul Meurisse (1964) - Hiram's Highway, Sai Kung

Before I move on to a new film I still have another couple of "pandemic" finds from Le Monocle rit Jaune, courtesy of a revisit I did during those frustrating (and seemingly pointless) days of semi-captivity.

This one will be of particular interest to anyone who lives in Sai Kung because it shows the town-end of Hiram's Highway before the reclamation that the China Paint factories (and a few other developments) now sit on. In the film, I seem to remember the following scene - as Le Monocle (Paul Meurisse) catches a ride on the back of a tandem bike - was supposed to be in Macau.

Anyway, marvel at the open area in the background. If you are curious as to what the same place looks like now just click this link to GoogleEarth. The village in the low area in the first few frames is Fui Yiu Ha.

Le Monocle Rit Jaune - Paul Meurisse (1964) - Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

I shall finish on Le Monocle Rit Jaune with this brief view down at the southern end of Nathan Road. It shows the Peninsula Hotel at the end of the road on the right hand side. Immediately behind (or from our perspective - in front) is the Marco Polo - Peninsula Court Hotel. But notice the next building along is covered in scaffolding - I think this is the newly built Prestige Tower undergoing some finishing touches. I think the road on the left must be Mody Road.

Le Monocle Rit Jaune - Paul Meurisse (1964) - Carnarvon Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

There is a brief meeting between the main character and his love interest as he leaves a Japanese sauna. The next shot is supposedly outside the sauna as we look down Humphrey's Avenue in Tsim Sha Tsui. It's possible the building on the right is Humphrey's Court but I don't have anything to compare it to.

Never mind as the next building is unmistakable, it's Carnarvon Mansion which stil sits (and looks almost exactly the same) at the junction where Humphrey's Avenue meets Carnarvon Road (amongst others).

The building at the end of the road (on the left) is Mirador Mansions.

Le Monocle Rit Jaune - Paul Meurisse (1964) - View over Kowloon

Coupled with the previous images of Kai Tak, we get this nice view looking out over Kowloon including a pilots'-eye view of the runway. Unlike a previous image from Golgo that I posted a few weeks ago, this angle looks to have been taken higher up in the hills, so I suspect it was taken from the Lung Cheung Road lookout area. I live nearby and took some pictures a few years back which you can see here.

Autostitch did a much better job this time.

Le Monocle Rit Jaune - Paul Meurisse (1964) - Kai Tak Airport, Kowloon

It's a rare HK-made film that doesn't feature the old airport in some form or another.

Le Monocle Rit Jaune - Paul Meurisse (1964) - Edinburgh Place, Central

"Le Monocle" (Paul Meurisse) can also be briefly seen catching a rickshaw from next to Queen's Pier in Edinburgh Place.

Le Monocle Rit Jaune - Paul Meurisse (1964) - King Yin Lei, Wanchai

The same sequence shot above the mid-levels also has a very brief glimpse of King Yin Lei. It's so brief that if you blink you'll miss it, but it's familiar roof and gables are instantly recognisable to geek boys such as myself. We've seen this building many times on this blog, perhaps most significantly in Soldier of Fortune, but I know there are many Bruce Lee fans that read this blog who will be more familiar with it as Mr Han's island mansion in Enter the Dragon.

You can read a bit more about it here, and see how many times it has featured on this blog here. In the meantime here is the single, solitary screen shot from the film.

Le Monocle Rit Jaune - Paul Meurisse (1964) - View from Mid-levels, Central

One of the problems with older films in Hong Kong is trying to figure out where a shot was taken from given how much the landscape and development may have changed in the following years. Take this case for example, the actors all look to be standing on either a balcony or rooftop of a building in the vicinity of Magazine Gap Road in the Central mid-levels. Looking at the first picture below, we can see the old British Military Hospital building on Bowen Road in the background and Bowen Mansion a little bit closer, giving us a fair idea of the location of the scene.

My feeling is that this was filmed somewhere around where Magazine Court stands today, but seeing as the current Magazine Court was built in 1983, if it was here it will have been in the buildings predecessor. Unfortunately I don' really have much of a clue as to what it was or how it looked so I can't confirm my guess. So feel free to pitch in if you have a better suggestion.

In the meantime here are the views looking in the other directions, or at least the best we can do given the closeness of the Paul Meurisse to the camera. The detail in the first one isn't really that great for making out individual buildings, but over his right shoulder appears to be Canossa Hospital and the developments behind it (Kam Yuen Mansion and Pine Court) which were newly built at the time of filming. We can also make out Stonecutter Island in the background and the Botanical gardens on the lower right.

The lower picture shows the fuzzy detail of TST in the distance including the just about distinguishable clocktower but lower left looks like it might be the Hilton Hotel at the bottom of Garden Road.

Le Monocle Rit Jaune - Paul Meurisse (1964) - Temple Street, Yau Ma Tei

This is an interesting establishing shot that gives away a clue to the location at the end of the sequence. The only problem is that I am not sure which part of Temple Street this is.

After some prompting from Thomas Ngan, this is be the corner of Temple Street with Kansu Street. Temple Street followed a slightly different route in the 1960s - more in line with the section south of kansu Street - compared to today. The construction of the carpark (now in the process of being knocked down - 2021) shifted the road over to the east next to the Alhambra Building, but before then there was this block of houses between Temple Street and the Alhambra building. Anyway, thanks to Thomas for the nudge in the right direction.

Le Monocle Rit Jaune - Paul Meurisse (1964) - Concrete Causeway in Macau

Sadly, a Macau old map blog (http://www.macauoldmap.com/) I used to link to in this post has reverted to "invite only" so you will just have to take my word that these old causeways once originated from the southern tip of the Macau peninsula and extended a short distance into the outer harbour. The concrete section ended in the stone wall that can be seen in the second from last picture. In the film, it's the location of their (unsuccessful) rendezvous.

The camera shot is a right to left pan taking in much of the bay area when it was fairly pristine and dotted with islands. The distant land in the first couple of shots are Chinese islands including Siu Wang Kam Island (now known as Xiaohengqin) with the western edge of Taipa starting on the left of picture 2 before taking the full background up in picture 3.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get Autostitch to recognise anything common in these pictures - I guess it has its limits when it comes to grainy monochrome screen caps - but managed to mash-up a panorama with the help of GIMP 2. You can see the results below. Click for a close up.

The concrete causeway ended in this stone cross section which appears to stretch on for quite a distance. You can't see it here but there were huts on here that contained wooden machinery for hauling up and lowering large fishing nets that had been rigged to lie almost horizontally in the water. If anyone has more information about this type of fishing in Macau, it would be interesting to here about.

Finally an image looking back towards the peninsula. Believe it or not, this causeway location coincides roughly with where the Wynn Casino/hotel now stands on Rua Cidade De Sintra. Even by my first trip to Macau in 1996 (before Taipa and Coloane were connected by the Cotai Strip) this area had long been reclaimed and turned into a commercial district.

Le Monocle Rit Jaune - Paul Meurisse (1964) - Rua do Doutor Lourenco Pereira Marques, Macau

More Macau and a nice view along Rua do Doutor Lourenco Pereira Marques when it still had open views to the inner harbour. These days the old "pontes" have all been built up or replaced by waterside warehousing. This first shot shows us looking north and in the background can be seen the old Grande Hotel (extreme top left) and just in the back middle of the shot is the old Opium godown which can also be seen in this post I did a while back for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Both buildings are still around (at least they were the last time I was in Macau).

Le Monocle Rit Jaune - Paul Meurisse (1964) - St Paul's Church Facade, Macau

Some of the action takes place in Macau as the French detectives head over there for a rendezvous with a woman who was friends with our TST assassination victim. I've never seen the old church facade quite as deserted as this - any visit these days is similar to trying to walk through Mongkok at lunchtime.

Le Monocle Rit Jaune - Paul Meurisse (1964) - Sai Kung Waterfront, Sai Kung

Sai Kung waterfront was quite an obscure location for this blog just a few months ago, but then all of a sudden I had a two productions that used the concrete jetty in front of town as a filming location. You can see them both on this post I did after paying a visit there not so long ago. Anyway, it turns out that the year after Brad Harris and Dietmar Schönherr were there filming Weiße Fracht für Hongkong, the French production crew for this film shot a major scene there for the film's denouement (just practicing my non-existent French).

There follows a chase and shootout in a small town/village and it's possible it was filmed in the small lanes of old Sai Kung town but it's not something I can confirm at the moment. I may pootle over on my bike next week for a looksee.