The Taxi Driver - David Chiang (1975) - Waterloo Road

Another victim of congestion is an old guy who is stuck in traffic on Waterloo Road as the meters keeps ticking up. This was filmed around the junction with Prince Edward Road West and you can see they have started construction of the north/south flyover that bypasses this junction and the neighbouring one with Boundary Street. The middle image is looking north and you can see the temporary east/west flyover that was put in place to facilitate the construction works at the junction, as well as the tower of St Teresa's.

The Young Rebel - David Chiang (1975) - Prince Edward Road West, Kowloon

The next film is The Young Rebel, a 1975 Shaw Brothers movie directed by Ti Lung. Judging by the premise of the main character, Xiao Rong (David Chiang), it could be that much of his back story is based on Ti Lung's own personal experience in his earlier, pre-acting life as a grocery delivery boy who has lots of run-ins with local gangsters and learns kung fu to defend himself.

In The Young Rebel, Xiao Rong is a bit obnoxious, a bit like Chiang's character in The Generation Gap, but part of this is due to his father's recent death. Instead of grieving he just bottles it all up and takes his misery out on everyone around him, some more deserving than others. Rong's friend, Gen Lai (Ti Lung) gets him a job as a delivery boy at a grocery store, and then later introduces Rong to his kung fu sifu (played by Yuen Siu-tin) when Rong is beaten up by gangsters.

The film starts at the end, with Gen Lai, now a policeman, having arrested his friend for murder and he is taking him back to the police station in a car. The film then goes back to the events of Rong's father's death and the circumstances that led them up to that point.

This initial scene was filmed inside a car driving along Prince Edward Road West. Note that the second image shows that this was filmed when there was a flyover that ran from east/west at the junction with Waterloo Road. This flyover no longer exists and the current one runs north/south. You may recall other similar-era Shaw films showed the temporary flyover that we are driving over here (see here and here).

St Teresa's Hospital on the left

Inter-Pol - Tang Ching (1967) - Prince Edward Road West

After Salisbury Road, the cars are driving along Prince Edward Road West - yes, this is one of those car chase scenes that have no logical geographical continuation. The large building in the back right is St Teresa's Hospital, or at least the original version before it was redeveloped.

The Merry Wife - Li Ching (1971) - St Teresa's Church, Prince Edward Road West

The pair are pressured to marry by Zhenzhen's grandma who is supposedly on her deathbed, but it turns out that by the time of the wedding she is back to full health. The wedding was filmed at St Teresa's Church on Prince Edward Road West. There is a very blurry vertical pan of the church tower that I won't bother including and by the time the picture sharpens, we are already looking at the main entrance, so this is the only image worth posting. Sorry.

The Generation Gap - David Chiang (1973) - Waterloo Road, Kowloon

The next sequence is a bit of a sappy one as we see the two out together enjoying themselves whilst an Agnes Chan song plays along. Initially we are looking north up Waterloo Road from the junction with Prince Edward Road. The orange flyover ran east/west on Prince Edward Road and was constructed to allow work to start on Waterloo Road for the permanent flyover that now runs north/south over the junction.

The last image is basically looking in the opposite direction as the pair walk back up towards the same junction from the south. In the far distance, between the trees, you can see the two blocks of Nairn House. As usual the Google marker wants to snap to the nearest building.

Police Force - Wang Chung (1973) - Junction of Prince Edward Road West and Waterloo Road

The police follow the woman to a hairdressers on Waterloo Road and send in Shen Yan as a pretend customer to see what she does. There are some nice views around the area before the Waterloo Road flyover was constructed. I believe the orange/brown temporary east/west flyover that can be seen was part of the initial works to build the Waterloo Road flyover which now traverses the junction from north to south.

St Teresa's Church in the background

Looking down Waterloo Road from the junction

This looks like a temporary flyover on Prince Edward Road

In this last image there are two pale yellow mansion blocks located at 116 and 114 Waterloo Road. Built in the mid-50s, both of these blocks were still around until quite recently, however, 116 (above the red car) has just recently been knocked down for redevelopment.

Crime Lords - Wayne Crawford (1991) - Mongkok Police Station

For some bizarre reason that I haven't yet fathomed out, the pair are arrested for being victims of a robbery and are taken into police custody. On their release, they walk down the steps at Mongkok Police Station. This is the building in Mongkok facing on to Prince Edward Road West, although it has definitely had the entrance remodelled since this film was made.

Flash Point - Donnie Yen (2007) - St Teresa's Hospital, Prince Edward Road

We were here just a few posts (and 50+ years) ago. The original building has long since gone and replaced by a much larger complex. This is the hospital Wilson is supposedly taken to following his accident. The caption in Chinese on the screen capture says "3 months later".

The Guiding Light - Bruce Lee (1953) - St Teresa's Hospital, Kowloon

It appears that the hospital in which Tin-sang was born is St Teresa's. After Ah Ngo alights from the bus along Prince Edward Road, we are shown an establishing shot of the old hospital building. The hospital itself is still around but this old building has long gone and been replaced by a much bigger and more modern version. Coincidentally, this is also one of the hospitals where Lee was sent in later life following his May 10th 1973 collapse and subsequent revival at Baptist Hospital, Lee was sent to St Teresa's for further check ups to try and determine the cause.

The Guiding Light - Bruce Lee (1953) - Prince Edward Road West, Kowloon

Another exterior shot from this film is featured when Tin-sang's mum, Ah Ngo (Yung Siu-yi), returns to the hospital where she gave birth, to reclaim her son. She has finally managed to save enough money to pay her hospital bill, only to find that the doctor has already sent him away as an adoptee.

The scene starts with a view along Prince Edward Road (now Prince Edward Road West) as a bus approaches and Ah Ngo disembarks. It's the #1 bus and as far as I know this travels the same route today - west along Prince Edward Road. The background view looks as though we are located somewhere around Short Street. There's still a bus stop there today. It's possible that the British Army Sergeant (Staff/Colour Sgt?) in the first image was based at Argyle Street camp (the camp was located behind the camera on land adjacent to Kowloon Hospital). If anyone knows which Regiment was based there in 1953, then feel free to comment.

Love in Hong Kong - Pauline Teutscher (1983) - Ma Tau Chung Road, Kowloon

After arriving at the airport we get a brief look down Ma Tau Chung Road with the Argyle Street and Prince Edward Road flyovers in the foreground.

Young People - David Chiang (1972) - Cafe Galano, Earl Street

In the scene where David Chiang is followed by Agnes Chan from a cafe, the venue was a place called Cafe Galano (嘉蘭娜餐廳). This appears to have been a popular "al fresco" cafe located at 284 Prince Edward Road West opened in 1961 and frequented by the Hong Kong glitterati of the time.

The bit we see in the film appears to have been a side exit on Earl Street and it is here where Chiang turns north and walks towards Boundary Street with Agnes in close pursuit. Pretty much all of the buildings around here have been redeveloped and, coincidentally, the last screen cap shows a construction site hoarding for what I believe was the construction of "Earl Gardens" (completed in December of 1972).

The site of the cafe was redeveloped into a residential block called Prince Garden a few years (circa 77/78) after this film was shot.

The Earl Street side entrance for Cafe Galano

Looking towards Prince Edward Road West

Looking towards Boundary Street

Agnes Chan looking towards the construction site of Earl Gardens

Narazumono - Ken Takakura (1964) - Lai Chi Kok Road, Mongkok

The next part of the opening credits takes us all the way up to the north end of Nathan Road where it joins with Lai Chi Kok Road just past Bute Street. This top image is the view looking from Lai Chi Kok Road back towards Nathan Road.

The rather elegant looking building in the background was the original Pioneer Building and it was the head office of the Kowloon Motorbus Company. To the right you can just make out an advert attached to the front of the Royal Theatre. That whole block (both buildings) has since been redeveloped into the blue and red glassed Pioneer Centre. The second image is the area just to the left of the upper one i.e. still on Lai Chi Kok Road, and is basically where the Mongkok Metropark Hotel now stands.

Another shift to the left in the camera work (below) and we are now looking at the junction with Prince Edward Road West. The top image shows (on the right) the remainder of the block that was replaced by the Mongkok Metropark Hotel with Prince Edward Road behind it. The lower image shows the view just beyond that looking at the building on the opposite corner.which shows the precursor to the current building. The current building (Tai Wah House) was constructed in 1967, so that building we see on screen only had a couple of years of life left.

L'Inconnue de Hong Kong - Dalida (1963) - Prince Edward Road West, Kowloon City

Another great find thanks to Thomas. I was curious to find out where the following corner shophouse was located. It is briefly glimpsed in the film as the two women are catching a taxi ride from the airport back to their intended place of work. It's a brief glimpse that lasts only a couple of seconds. here is a couple of screen grabs.

Of particular interest for me was this rather elegant corner building with its open balconies. Anyway, it turns out there was enough information on screen to make a positive identification - largely courtesy of the building just to the left of the lamp post in the first picture.

Thomas was able to identify the place as a branch of the Liu Chong Hing Bank (廖創興銀行). It's not easy to see but the English name is also evident on the building as is the words "Kowloon City Branch". With this in mind Thomas asked a friend who lived there if he knew anything. Luckily his friend's mother-in-law remember the shop next to the bank. Thomas highlighted it below on another screencap.

The shop was called 煥更陳 and was along Prince Edward Road West near the junction with Nam Kok Road in Kowloon City. What a great find, but what is perhaps even more astonishing is that the building containing the aforementioned shop is still around. And what's more, it still has the same square patterned window frames! Here is the Streetview.

Sadly the corner building with the "Amoy" sign on it has now gone - but part of it was still in-situ until only just recently as you can see in the Streetview picture. Although the corner section of the block was demolished some time ago (around 1966) the section immediately next to it remained. Chow Tai Fook were the last company in there and you can see their shop in the Streetview picture above. Below is a closeup showing how the newer corner section (left side) was separated from the older bit on the right.

At the top of the right hand section you can see that the art deco/ziggurat style roof decoration (you can see it in the black and white screencaps) was left up there - albeit chopped in half when they demolished the corner section to the left. Sadly, as confirmed by Thomas who visited the site the other day, the whole block has now been demolished and is being replaced by a high rise.

So anyway, a very big thank you to Thomas who has, once again, gone above and beyond the call of duty to track this one down. 

2021 Update: I'm sad to report that this building has now been demolished and replaced with a new residential high-rise.

Kung Fu Killers - Grant Page (1974) - Prince Edward Road West, Kowloon

I have Arthur to thank for solving this long standing stumper. I had sort of given up due to the seeming generic nature of the buildings on the screen grab, but Arthur has explained it all below.

"...I think the white building in the photo is perhaps 春苑 at 317 Prince Edward Road West, and the camera maybe located at the corner of Short Street and Prince Edward Road West. The dark building on the left was the previous incarnation of St. Teresa Hospital, which vaguely shows an image of Mary in this screen capture. A similar design also shows on the exterior wall of the current building. This location just struck me when I walked past it last weekend!"

So many thanks to Arthur once again for his keen sight and exceptional memory. Here are the screen captures. It from a nice sequence when Grant Page is driving around Kowloon on a motorbike on his way to test out his new rope.

The building at the back, as Arthur mentions, is the previous version of St Teresa's Hospital and the white building is 春苑 (Chun Yuen: built 1963) or Springvale as it is known in English. Here is the current Streetview. Springvale is the white building behind the mustard-coloured one and the new St Teresa's building beyond that.

The Chairman - Gregory Peck (1969) - Hau Wong Road, Kowloon City

A small snippet from the same plane scene I posted about earlier but I kept this one for later because there is a quick glimpse of a famous HK restaurant in it.

There is a surprising amount of survivors from this small scene, most notably the Lok Hau Fuk Restaurant (樂口福酒家) whose sign can be seen in the first picture - it's the blue sign directly underneath the plane. I took a picture of this place several years ago on one of my early explorations of HK and by pure coincidence was told a few years later that it was featured in a famous local HK film (directed by Johnnie To) called The Mission (1999). Anyway, the restaurant is one of the few columned shop house survivors that can be found in Kowloon City along Hau Wong Road. Here is my picture (taken sometime around 2008 I think).

It's not a match for the film in terms of angle but that doesn't matter because we can get a pretty good match via Streetview. The grab below shows that most of the buildings seen in 1968 (The Chairman was released in 1969 but actually filmed the year before) including the restaurant, the curved building on the corner with Prince Edward Road West and the tenement behind it further along Hau Wong Road.

The only real change in this area (other than the rather significant removal of the airport to Chek Lap Kok) is that the lower screen grab shows a clear view over to the airport area as the plane flies over. This view is now obscured (and has been for many years) by the flyover built above Prince Edward Road. You can see it below and compare it to the last picture in the series posted above.