Hitman - Jet Li (1998) - Tung Tai Supermarket, Queen's Road West

We are first introduced to Fu (Jet Li) as he buys groceries from a local store and realises the cashier has short-changed him. The shop used for filming looks to be still around - quite an achievement given the current economic climate of Hong Kong - and is the Tung Tai Supermarket located at 428-432 Queen's Road West.

Kill a Dragon - Jack Palance (1967) - Queen's Road West, Sai Ying Pun

The sequence when Aldo Ray and Jack Palance are sitting in the back of the truck and chatting was filmed along Queen's Road West just at the part before it meets Centre Street. In fact, the whole sequence also involves the truck turning down Centre Street before we hit and edit point and see the truck go past from an external angle.

Look carefully and you may spot some similar shop frontages that were also seen in The Last Grenade (and identified by Thomas at the time).

 Queen's Road West

Turning into Centre Street

Centre Street

And the final picture showing us looking up Centre Street.

Shadow of China - John Lone (1989) - Queen's Road West, Sai Ying Pun

Some more driving around in Neil's old Jag (actually, Neil has told me he still has the car - he shipped it back to the UK when he moved there and it has been languishing in his garage for the last 10 years waiting for some love and attention), this time along Queen's Road West. I used to refer to as Sheung Wan but since the opening of the new MTR station the whole area now appears to actually be part of Sai Ying Pun...not that there is any discernible difference these days.

In the following shots you can spot the "Sammy's Kitchen" sign. It's the brown cow hidden slightly in the film grab but quite obvious in Streetview underneath. Sadly, the sign recently became a victim of the HK Govt's rather selective enforcement of building laws and was removed. Obviously Sammy lacked the personal friends needed to help him get it overlooked.

Quite a few of the buildings are still around. The only major change is the aforementioned Sai Ying Pun MTR station that now has an entrance onto Queen's Road up where the first film grab was filmed (you can see the construction work in the Streetview picture). It's been open since March 2015.

Les Tribulations d'un Chinois en Chine - Jean-Paul Belmondo (1965) - Queen's Road West, Sai Ying Pun

I'm going to agree with Thomas on this one and believe it is the small stretch of Queen's Road West between Eastern Street and Centre Street. Several factors are leading me to this conclusion even though I don't have the dead certain proof that I usually look for.

The reasons I am agreeing that this is most likely to be Queen's Road West is mainly due to the configuration of the roads with the bend at the background, the three roads on the left that are apparent on the film (the three would be Eastern Street, Mui Fong Street and Kwai Heung Street - although Mui Fong Street is really only a small lane). Whereas on the right side of the picture (which is the south side of the street) we only see an opening where eastern Street crosses Queen's Road West. This tallies with the layout of the road there. Also the fact that this sequence immediately precedes this one makes sense that the film crew wouldn't head to this spot on HK Island simply for the quick shot as the cart turned the corner into Centre Street.

None of the buildings along this part of Queen's Road West (other than the shophouse near the corner with Centre Street) exist anymore, making a building identification impossible and the only real landmarks appear to be the Chow Tai Fook sign (seen in the centre two pictures) and the Ernest Borel sign seen behind his head in the lower picture.

So anyway, if anyone has an old picture of this section of Queen's Road West that can be used for comparison, or perhaps if you remember either of the aforementioned signs, then please leave a comment. It would be nice to know 100%.

Les Tribulations d'un Chinois en Chine - Jean-Paul Belmondo (1965) - Queen's Road West, Sai Ying Pun

Another excellent spot by Thomas and one that he has done before because the next screen shots show the exact same spot that we covered a while back whilst looking at The Last Grenade. It's the junction where Queen's Road meets Centre Street. You can click the link above to re-familiarise with the location. The top picture below shows the last shophouse before reaching the junction with Centre Street and this building with its columns can still be found there - although who knows how long they are safe for.

Queen's Road West

Turning right into Centre Street.

The blue sign at the top right of the lower pictures along Centre Street was still there 4 years later when The Last Grenade was shot. You can see it in the pictures on the link I posted above. Once again, many thanks to Thomas and his eagle-eyes.

The Last Grenade - Stanley Baker (1969) - Queen's Road West, Sai Ying Pun

Here is one of the urban spots that was proving difficult for me to locate, that is until Thomas came along with a suggestion that was right on the nail. It was part of the scene when Baker and his motley crew are being taken from the airport after their arrival to their tumbledown base in the New Territories. I'm not sure quite how they made it onto HK Island from Kai Tak on the way to the NT but it's nice to see some real local colour from the late 60's.

I'm not sure where Sheung Wan ends and Sai Ying Pun starts but the recent opening of the western extension of the MTR's Island Line means that Sai Ying Pun station has opened pretty much underneath this area and exit A1 is further back east along Queen's Road West, just beyond the curve we can see in the upper picture. Anyway, here's the reminder.

Queen's Road West turning right into...

...Centre Street

Here are the comments and links that led to the confirmation that this was the intersection between Queen's Road West and Centre Street in Sai Ying Pun.

This might be where Queen's Road West meets Centre Street. The very curve at the back seems fit, but I am unable to match the shop fronts. Need some other old photos of the area of the time for reference...

The shape of the column of the shophouse on the left hand side seem to match this one -https://goo.gl/maps/5LLRZsSf2sp (the one with red writing above the yellow bin)

This might be a match of the blueish restaurant building -http://www.weshare.hk/uploads/12155/X_USzntYq3kmAX_K2LI6Bw.jpg

and...from the opposite point of view -http://www.weshare.hk/uploads/12155/AigUFa3WnSOi9JjlcuaQ5Q.jpg

If you click through on Thomas's first link you can see the shophouse with its specific column design. It's not the only old building in the area but it's certainly nice to see it still around whereas the opposite side of the road has been completely replaced and redeveloped over the years. Anyway, a great find by Thomas - one of many he has done for me on this blog - so a big thanks to him.

Revenge of the Pink Panther - Peter Sellers (1978) - Queen's Road West, Sheung Wan

The last of the shots from the HK-side of the car chase sees the cars zooming, quite fast, down a section of the road that is close to our initial car chase road bend.

The key identifier in this scene is the striking whitewashed shop house that stands on the corner of Queen's Road West and Bonham Strand. It's been taken over by the Circle-K in the meantime but it's an easy to recognise place. But the initial part of our shot shows us looking east back down the road as the cars approach the camera.

As you can see from the following Streetview, the shop houses at the back of the screencap have all been replaced - mainly by the Sheung Wan Municipal Services Building.

As the cars approach the camera we are given a very quick right to left pan, which unfortunately blurs out the entrance of Bonham Strand before settling down again with a view up the road facing west with the shop house on the right. At the end of the road is the sweeping bend that I mentioned as the first stretch of road we see at the very beginning of the car chase scene. It's now been replaced by a small park and tower 3 of Queen's Terrace - a large residential development (it's the pink and green thing at the end of the road in the Streetview picture below).

Revenge of the Pink Panther - Peter Sellers (1978) - Queen's Road West, Sheung Wan

The most interesting part of the film for me is the car chase that manages to cover a fair amount of space beginning with this first sequence as the cars zoom along a bend in the road.

The bend in question is along Queen's Road West just where it joins on with Queens St and - a bit further up) the end of Hollywood Road. Notice all the columns along the road when this part of Hong Kong was lined with shop houses. All of them have gone along this stretch of the road, sadly.

Since 1978, the road has also undergone a bit of widening - easy to do once you have removed all those columns - but there are a few remnants still around that can be seen at the other end of the road (above left of the white car in the Streetview grab below).

As the cars zoom past we get a brief glimpse of the other side of the bend. The empty spot to the left of the black car is now filled by a building called Lai Yan Lau, completed in 1980, two years after filming. Just to the right of the screen grab is the end of Queen's Street. Again, the road here has undergone a large amount of widening and a large portion of the buildings that would be behind camera and between the camera and Queen's St have been removed to make way for tower 3 of Queens Terrace. 

The block of buildings with the red/white signs just along from the car in the screencap are still around and can be seen in front of the blue lorry in the Streetview picture.

Love is a Many-Splendored Thing - William Holden (1955) - Hong Kong Island Waterfront, Opening titles

One of the standout sequences for me in this film is the opening scene where we are treated to a birds eye view of the northern shore of HK Island. Granted, the views are marred a bit by the titles but once they have finished we still see a few seconds of film that show what the place looked like before the obsession with skyscrapers ruined the view.

The sequence starts off the west side of HK Island with Green island immediately below the camera (next to the 'g' of the top image).

 As the camera (attached to a low-flying plane I suspect) flies on we can see a road on the right hand side that runs parallel to the waterfront - (just under the name 'Doss' below). You can see it a bit clearer in the second picture below as the camera gets closer. I'm open to corrections, but this looks to me to be the western end of Queen's Road West where it joins onto to Kennedy Town Praya. The Praya is separated from the sea by slightly more reclamation now, at this area, but not significantly.

Moving a little further along again and now the camera is taking us past the waterfront Connaught Road West around the area of Whitty Street and further east. None of these waterfront buildings exist anymore and these days the waterfront has given way to some ugly reclamation that houses the Western Wholesale Food Market.

Now that the titles are out of the way the camera continues on and we get an open view of Connaught Road and Des Voeux Road West which runs parallel one block to the south. In other words the wide road we can see below. 

One of the interesting things about Hong Kong is that whilst development goes on all around on the various plots of land, the roads' general shape tends to stay the same. This isn't true all the time of course and indeed sometimes smaller roads completely disappear, but looking above you can see the bend that Des Voeux Road makes (in the bottom picture) as it turns north next to Queen Street and Ko Shing Street. For a modern reference, this corner is where the IBIS Hotel currently stands.

Finally, one last zoom over the bend in Des Voeux Road West and we can see the Macau bound ferries at the waterfront. The only building that was standing in the 1950's that is still around is Western Market, and if you look very closely you can see its roof just in front of the taller building with the arched openings (I think this was a hotel, but I can't find the name of it). These days, most of the building stock around here now dates back only as far as the early 70's.

I'm hoping a ferry fan will be able to discern which ships were at port. They look like two distinctive types one of which perhaps is the Fat Shan that will crop up in my next post, in name if not in physical form.