Hitman - Jet Li (1998) - Riviera Ice Chalet, Tsuen Wan

The ice rink that Lo's daughter takes Fu to, to try and pick his brain, was the Riviera Ice Chalet located on 3/F of Riviera Plaza in Tsuen Wan. Sadly the place closed down circa 2012 and it looks like the whole mall was closed down the year after. The mall is attached to a large residential development (Riviera Gardens) and due to its difficult-to-reach location failed to attract anyone other than nearby residents. The structure is still there but apparently now empty. Although it seems that the mall owners are in talks with international schools about turning it into the Hong Kong branch of a western private fee-paying school. Time will tell. It seems though that since then it has appeared in a couple of movies including Donnie Yen's Raging Fire. Perhaps I will try and get a copy to see at some point.

Code 46 - Tim Robbins (2003) - Riviera Gardens, Tsuen Wan

On his return home, we see a shot of what appears to be Riviera Gardens in Tsuen Wan (seen from the south) as Robbins' car makes its way back home.

Yellowthread Street (TV Series) - Bruce Payne (1990) - Tsuen Wan Chinese Permanent Cemetery, Tsuen Wan

The final scene from the whole Yellowthread Street series was shot at the Tsuen Wan Chinese Permanent Cemetery. We've seen it before on this blog because the film makers behind Contagion also used it as the location for the ransom exchange.

Riviera Gardens behind Chan and Lonnen (brand new at the time)

As you can imagine the cemetery itself hasn't really changed at all, but the background has seen extensive development. The lower picture shows Tsing Yi in the background. The southern end of it (on the left) has now become completely taken over by reclamation for Container Terminal 9 - this is the same area where the famous QE wreck was.

The bridge at the back is the original Tsing Yi Bridge - the first bridge to connect the mainland with Tsing Yi Island. It has since been doubled (another bridge built parallel and used for Kowloon-bound traffic) to ease the burden on the original which opened in the mid-70's. It has also been complemented by a closer bridge called the Cheung Tsing Bridge and in the far distance connecting the southern end of Tsing Yi to West Kowloon is the newly built Stonecutters Bridge (remember that since this show was made Stonecutters Island has been joined on to Kowloon via reclamation).

The chimney at the left is the old Kwai Chung Incinerator chimney. It closed in 1997 but the chimney stayed up for another 10 years while they cleaned the surrounding land up of the various poisons that had built up over the years.

Contagion - Matt Damon (2011) - Chinese Permanent Cemetery, Tsuen Wan

This is the location of the handover of Dr Orantes by her Chinese kidnappers - although an obvious case of Stockholm Syndrome seems to have taken a hold of her. The exchange takes place above Tsuen Wan in the Chinese Permanent Cemetery. As the camera sweeps around the scene we get a good glimpse of some of the buildings in Tsuen Wan, including an opening shot of Riviera Gardens.

Riviera Gardens

The van drives south towards the meeting point, the southern hill of Tsing Yi in the background.

Dr Orantes with the cemetery slopes behind her. The building far left is the Sunley Centre

This bottom screencap is a nice wide view of the cemetery area showing Nina Tower back left. Almost at its base is the low rise white ship-like shape of the cemetery columbarium. The blue glassed building is the previously mentioned Sunley Centre and you can just see the red colour of the Shun Hing Centre on the far right. The mountain in the background is the slopes of Tai Mo Shan - HK's highest peak.