Expired - Ryan Kwanten (2021) - Queen's Road Central, Hong Kong

Another aerial view, this time over Central in Hong Kong. This is a night time view of Queen's Road Central with Standard Chartered Bank on the right hand side (which means we're looking west).

 

Love is a Many-Splendored Thing - William Holden (1955) - Kayamally Building, Queen's Road Central

Here's another oldie but forgotten about location that I was supposed to post years ago. This is the scene in the film where Suyin goes to meet her friend for coffee. The exterior of the coffee shop was filmed outside the Kayamally Building at what was 20-22 Queen's Road Central. You can just see the neighbouring Shell House in the background of the screen shots below.

For the interior scenes though, this was a studio set. The image through the cafe window was a back projection of some footage filmed on Queen's Road Central at the bottom of Pottinger Street. I've included the shot of that for reference.

The plot that these two buildings (Kayamally Bldg and Shell House) sat on now hosts the Central Tower building, that occupies the whole corner with Wyndham Street.

I have explained in my older posts that every single dialogue scene in this movie was shot on a sound stage. Not a single scene involving dialogue was shot on location. I'm not familiar enough with sound recording technology to know if this was because the technology (sync sound) didn't exist at the time, or whether the general noise in Hong Kong simply made it impossible to do cleanly (which is why many local films were still filmed this way well into the 80s and 90s). If you know, please feel free to comment.

You can just make out the sign for Shell House in the background.

Studio set with a back projection of Pottinger Street

Awarapan - Emraan Hashmi (2007) - Queen's Road Central

Kabir, now in charge of Shivam's part of the business/responsibilities, has been tasked with tracking down Reema's boyfriend, Bilal, and tracks him down on Queen's Road Central next to the old Queen's Theatre. More or less the same location as in this post. He runs to Duddell Street when they finally catch up with him in the car.

Awarapan - Emraan Hashmi (2007) - Queen's Road Central

The next shot shows Shivam crossing the road on Queen's Road Central at the top of Pedder Street.

Hacker - Callan McAuliffe (2016) - Queen's Road Central, Central

The trio go on a massive fraudulent spending spree, so the next scene shows them buying stuff at the various jewellery shops and luxury item stores along Queen's Road Central.

The Dragon from Russia - Sam Hui (1990) - HSBC Main Building, Central

Oops, I forgot the previous location. Mr Kushido is apparently based in the Norman Foster monstrosity otherwise known as "HSBC Main Building". Bring back the previous art-deco version of this building please because it was just so much nicer to look at.

Anyway, there are several shots of the building including the void on the ground floor. But most of the action takes place on the Queen's Road Central side (i.e. the main entrance) of the building which faces Battery Path. Look out for the old Hongkong Hilton and Beaconsfield House in the background as Yao leaps across Queen's Road Central. Both now gone of course.

Hongkong Hilton and Beaconsfield House in the background

The Dragon from Russia - Sam Hui (1990) - Queen's Road Central, Central

We stay on Queen's Road Central for the next location but move down to the junction with Ice House Street as Yao and Teddy make their getaway on a motorbike. The old Govt West Wing building seen in the back of the top and bottom images is still around (renamed to Justice Place West Wing) but the Sing Pao Centre, seen at the back right of the bottom image, has since been redeveloped into 8 Queen's Road Central.

Love is a Many-Splendored Thing - William Holden (1955) - Queen's Road Central

I know I said I would post it later, but I thought I should do it while it was still fresh in my mind. During the pandemic I went through a bunch of my older movies and found a whole swathe of locations perviously missed the first time around. I already posted a couple of these bonus locations a while back (Pok Fu Lam Road and Po Shan Road)  but neglected to post this brief scene from the opening ambulance sequence of Love is a Many-Splendored Thing. It's part of the opening sequence that takes in several areas including Barker Road, and Queen's Road Central by Central Market. Anyway, following on from my last post for Yakuza on Foot my memory was jogged, so here we are.

These three images show the same stretch of Queen's Road Central, on the bend just before Hillier Street. The first image shows the reverse view of the Yakuza on Foot post, looking back down Queen's Road Central, towards the general direction of Wellington Street, from the bend under what is now Hollywood Terrace. In the lower images, the ambulance is tracked as it passes the camera. The opening of Hillier Street is on the right and the location of Central Theatre can just be seen on the extreme left of the frame - just a few pixels worth above the man carrying a rolled up rug. Unfortunately, it's difficult to include more images from this sequence because the camera tracking means much of the background is blurry.

Yakuza on Foot - Tomisaburô Wakayama (1969) - Queen's Road Central

You might recognise the next sequence as being filmed on the section of Queens Road Central just up from the junction of Wellington Street and continuing around to Hillier Street area. Look closely at image 2 and you can see at the top of the frame is one of the domes that belonged to the Central Theatre - located where Central Mansion now stands at 270-276 QRE. There was a big discussion on Gwulo many years ago about what this roof belonged to until it was solved by user 'Herostratus'. This sequence is also reminiscent of the opening ambulance scene in Love is a Many-Splendored Thing, which tracks the ambulance down the same stretch of road at one point, however, I neglected to post it back in the day, so perhaps will chuck it up in a couple of weeks.

Mad Mission 3: Our Man from Bond Street - Sam Hui (1984) - Duddell Street, Central

After some bits I can't identify, we next see Kingkong as he skateboards over a bunch of cars parked along Duddell Street. At the end of the road, in the top image, you can just make out the words 置地廣場 which is the Chinese name for the Landmark Building. The last image shows Queen's Road Central with Ice House Street just at the back. I believe most of Duddell Street has been redeveloped since this time. Citibank Tower was a replacement to the original National City Bank of New York Building, a rather grand structure with large columns that fronted onto Queen's Road Central.

Hong Kong Confidential - Gene Barry (1958) - Queen's Road Central, Central

I'll be honest and say I haven't been able to confirm exactly where this location is but I *think* it is Queen's Road Central somewhere east of Queen Victoria Street. Please feel free to let me know if you can pinpoint it any better.

Painted Faces - Sammo Hung (1988) - Tak Wan Tea House, Central

The tea house where Uncle Ha (Lam Ching-ying) and Master Yu go for a drink is the 得雲茶樓 or Tak Wan teahouse. If you want to see exactly where it was located then the best image to view is one of HK Man's now/then comparisons over on FLICKR. You'll see that it's location was more or less where there is now an empty part of the pavement in front of Grand Millenium Plaza on Queen's Road Central. In fact, if you look at the lower image below, through the restaurant window you can see the bend in Queen's Road Central as it turns south at the junction with Wellington Street and Bonham Strand.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - Queen's Road Central, Hong Kong

Episode 22, Murder by Proxy, gives us yet another view of the same part of Queen's Road Central that can be seen on this post. It gives a better view of the side of Edinburgh House but this is also helped by the better quality of image that this episode seems to have.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - Queen's Road Central, Hong Kong

This shot from With Deadly Sorrow shows us a view looking west along Queen's Road Central. If the view looks familiar it might be because the P.G sign on the left, for a restaurant called the Parisian Grill, can also be seen in this older post of Edinburgh House from the Nine Lives episode. You can see the double grooved ground floor canopy of Edinburgh House on the right in the image below. I didn't list it back when doing The Turncoat (Ep: 9) but it also appears in that episode as well as  To Catch a Star (Ep:10).

The Street Fighter - Sonny Chiba (1974) - Queen's Road Central, Hong Kong

The final shot for this brief sojourn into Hong Kong is a moving camera shot along Queen's Road Central as the vehicle the camera is in makes its way towards to western limits of the "central" part of Queen's Road. This is approaching the junction with Bonham Strand (on the right) and the curved building straight ahead in is at the far corner of Possession Street. According to Centamap Queen's Road Central turns into Queen's Road West at this very point.

We've seen this section of the road a few times before on the blog, including during this scene for Revenge of the Pink Panther. Okay, the angle isn't the same but there are some common buildings to both including the old shophouse on the corner of Bonham Strand (beige building on the right in the below images) which also happens to still be around today.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - Edinburgh House, Central

One of the establishing shots from episode 11, Nine Lives, is some footage at the junction Queen's Road Central and Ice House Street. A building called York House now stands on the corner in the background but when this series was shot it was the curved corner of Edinburgh House. The "P.G" sign in the background left was the Parisian Grill on Queen's Road Central. The same clip was used again in Episode 15: Lesson in Fear.

Sister Street Fighter - Etsuko Shihomi (1974) - Queen's Road Central, Hong Kong

Given that the last shot of the harbour from this film was taken in the 1960's, I doubt very much if this quick image of Queen's Road East was taken any later, although my knowledge of the area is too limited to be able to say exactly. I think it's okay to assume this is footage from an older film spliced in for the purpose of establishing Hong Kong as the initial location for the story. What should be familiar is the shape of Central Market on the right hand side.

For a glimpse of the same area in 1955 you can go back to look at Love is a Many-Splendored Thing. The opening ambulance scene drives past the same spot. See here.

The Last Grenade - Stanley Baker (1969) - Morrison Street, Sheung Wan

Once again, a recent retrospective has leased some new life into some old films with new locations identified. This following shot was taken from a sequence in 1969's The Last Grenade starring Stanley Baker. It is the same sequence from which this location also appears in and is when Grigsby (Baker) and his men have just arrived in Hong Kong and are being driven to see the local commander (Richard Attenborough).

It turns out that if you squint just enough, the street sign at the back can be deciphered giving us Morrison Street as the location. Specifically the southern end of Morrison Street where it joins with

Queen's Road Central. There is a sort of red brick and granite blur in the background (actually, it looks to be covered in bamboo scaffolding) which is the former Western Market Southern block. This (and the building on the left) was knocked down to make way for the Sheung Wan Municipal Services building.