No culpes al karma de lo que te pasa por gilipollas - Verónica Echegui (2016) - View from the Peak Viewing Tower

The first Spanish entry for the blog comes in the form of No culpes al karma de lo que te pasa por gilipollas (Eng: Don't Blame it on your Karma), a romantic comedy starring Verónica Echegui as Sara, a girl whose world gets very complicated when a horde of people suddenly descend on her apartment in Madrid. I am familar with some of the actors courtesy of recently watching some Spanish language dramas on Netflix. Echegui was in Ciudad de sombras (City of Shadows) a murder mystery set in Barcelona and her co-star (and partner at the time) Álex García is in the excellent The Glass Cuckoo (El cuco de cristal). The only sad thing about all this is the fact that Echegui passed away last August (2025) from cancer at the very young age of 42.

Most of the film was shot in Madrid, but during the last third she goes to visit her boyfriend in Hong Kong and the establishing shots are some views from Victoria Peak, most likely from the Peak Viewing Tower given the angle. You can compare the angle with this one in The Gray Man. It's exactly the same. The second image is a close up (of Wanchai area) of the section on the right in the first image.

Erotic Journey: Love Affair in Hong Kong - Hirokazu Inoue (1973) - Findlay Road, The Peak

Sumio gets a lead when he wanders up Findlay Road on the Peak and is stopped by a young hawker who is selling bubbles. It turns out the biy has seen his wife and her boyfriend.

In the background you can see the old stone base for the Peak Hotel

Company - Aja Devgan (2002) - The Peak Viewing Tower

A couple of scenes were shot on the roof terrace of the Peak Viewing Tower. The first shot is just a rather disjointed one of Mallik smoking a cigarette and there's no evidence that he is on the tower other than the angles of the buildings in the background which perfectly match a later scene as Chandu goes there with his girlfriend for some refreshments.

Dallas - Victoria Principal (1985) - The Peak Viewing Tower

The next scene is set up with a repeat of the view from the Peak that was used in the last episode. The women are having lunch at the restaurant in the old, curved Peak Viewing Tower. I believe it may have just gone by the name of "The Tower Restaurant" when this was being filmed but am happy to be corrected.

The Gray Man - Ryan Gosling (2022) - View from the Peak - but not really Hong Kong

I thought I would interrupt normal programming for a brief interlude: one that can be filed under "Not filmed in Hong Kong, actually" . There are a few films already on the blog that have done similar things (Target Hong Kong, Tomb Raider, The Art of War etc), but for the record here is another one in the form of The Gray Man.

In the film, Six (Ryan Gosling) is sent to Hong Kong to protect his boss's ill niece who lives in a large circular house supposedly somewhere on The Peak. The establishing shot is a reasonably convincing one of the house located on its vantage point atop of the Hong Kong hills with views down into Central.

So is this house real? Apparently so, yes.
Is it located in Hong Kong? No.

What you see here is a composite image of the view from the top of the Peak Lookout Tower in Hong Kong (the background) with a slightly enhanced view of a real house located in Los Angeles, California.

The house is known as the "Leo Harvey House", a 1950s era house designed by architect, John Lautner. It's located at 2180 West Live Oak Drive and I believe is currently owned by Mitch Glazer and Kelly Lynch.

Rush Hour 2 - Jackie Chan (2001) - The Peak, Hong Kong

I know, I should have done Rush Hour first, but I don't seem to be able to find my copy so I shall start at the second installment. Plus, this one (I almost called it "number 2" which might be a bit unfair because I actually enjoyed it a lot) has a lot more HK-based locations than its predecessor. The opening shot is almost an updated of the one in Spider-man: The Dragon's Challenge with a helicoptered shot starting somewhere on the southside of the Peak moving up to the top so we get a nice view of the viewing tower and beyond.

Up the hill...

...to the top...

...and beyond.

The only thing missing (that is noticeable for me anyway) is the 2 IFC tower which should be on the left of the lower picture but it seems construction had either not started yet, or not reached a height where it can be seen over the other buildings (most likely the former reason).

Spider-Man: The Dragon's Challenge - Nicholas Hammond (1979) - The Peak, Hong Kong

So, on with the helicopter search and a nice bit of nostalgia to begin with as the chopper flies over the upper Peak Tram terminus and the previous version of the viewing tower. Unfortunately I missed this earlier version by just a couple of years because it was demolished in 1993. By the time I arrived for my first trip in Nov '95 the current 'flying wok' version was still under scaffolding but pretty much completed.

The current Peak Galleria isn't that much older, opening in 1992, but here we can see its precursor - a development called 'Peak Mansions'. Built in 1928 they were around 50 years old when this film was made and there is some further information over on Gwulo.com. Like many other sites in HK, an elegant historical building has been torn down and replaced by a mall.