Yellowthread Street (TV Series) - Bruce Payne (1990) - Kai Tak Airport, Kowloon

A slightly different view of the airport for a change, including shots of what I guess was the old dropping off point (I can't remember myself, it's been too long and, regrettably, I never paid much attention to these things back then). Anyway, enjoy the nostalgia from Key Witness as Marenta (Robert Taylor) heads to Kai Tak to try and get the witness's wife before she gets on the plane.

Yellowthread Street (TV Series) - Bruce Payne (1990) - Island Eastern Corridor, Hong Kong

Some action shots from Key Witness as the cops, Eden and Marenta (played by Bruce Payne and Robert Taylor, respectively), attempt a stakeout with some rudimentary disguises (i.e. silly hats). We get some shots of them driving along in Eden's muscle car including some shots of the Island Eastern Corridor at various places including...1. just past the North Point Fire Station (you can see the training tower on the right).

The contemporary view from Streetview reveals rather a large amount of development around this area, although the fire station (and the overhead road sign) are still around.

A few seconds later and they also pass the City Garden residential development (that's it on the right of the screen).

We also see them driving past the now demolished North Point Estate (razed in 2003), so I guess we have a little bit of North Point history preserved forever on screen (although I am sure this isn't the only bit of cinema/TV that has featured it before). The space it occupied is actually still just empty at the moment (or at least it is on Streetview, I don't know if any construction has been started there yet).

A bit further on we see the car drive past the huge slab of concrete that goes by the name of Provident Garden. To be honest, this place is very...ugly, but probably has some of the best harbour views to be had in this part of the island - right on the harbourfront.

And finally, back the other way as the road curves around into the Quarry Bay section of North Point. That's Kwun Hoi Mansion in the last pic on the right.

Yellowthread Street (TV Series) - Bruce Payne (1990) - View over Central from Midlevels, Hong Kong

Now, remember the post a couple of weeks ago from Dumbarton Road in Kowloon Tong for the Key Witness episode? Well, you won't believe the view that you can get from there! We see Marenta (Robert Taylor) enter the house at the front, and then he walks into the living room and is confronted by the following vista.

Wow! Pretty amazing heh? Now you know why real estate prices in Kowloon Tong are so high - you are paying for the view over the harbour!

Okay, for those not familiar with Hong Kong geography, this is actually the view from Central mid-levels - from the angle I would say perhaps from Magazine Gap Road area, perhaps Rose Gardens or Magazine Court? - the film makers are just taking liberty with HK geography.

Yellowthread Street (TV Series) - Bruce Payne (1990) - Hong Kong Tennis Centre, Hong Kong

During Middleman, Marenta (Robert Taylor) heads out to the tennis club to pick up the bad guy's ex-wife to see if she can coax him out of his hostage holding. The drive takes just a couple of minutes - fairly impressive when you consider the hostage taking was being done at Kowloon's British Military Hospital in Ho Man Tin and the tennis club Marenta ends up going to is the Hong Kong Tennis Centre along Wong Nai Chung Gap Road on HK Island.

The main difference these days just seems to be that the opposite side of the road has seen a lot of plant and tree growth and is looking much greener.

Yellowthread Street (TV Series) - Bruce Payne (1990) - Dumbarton Road, Kowloon Tong

Back to Episode 3 - Key Witness - for this post. A businessman has tried to fake his own death because the Triads are after him and Marenta (Robert Taylor) goes to his home to speak with his wife about his whereabouts.

The place he goes to is just off La Salle Road in Kowloon Tong as we can see from the following screencaps. Check out the plane doing its turn into Kai Tak in the top picture.

Sadly, he doesn't go into the rather elegant looking place on the opposite side of the road, but instead pulls in to Dumbarton Road (the west part on the west side of Kowloon Tsai Park). The plot he goes into has actually been completely rebuilt - a very common occurrence in Kowloon Tong because the plots of land are relatively huge - so we will have to make do with a picture of a much more modern building that now sits there called La Salle Court (the shiny one left of centre)

Far more interesting, in my humble opinion, is the building we see in the top two frames. By some sort of bizarre luck, this place is still around and so are its nice elegant iron gates.

It's called Hyde Park Villa and is probably an original building the 1950's (occupation date says 1957). It's very similar to the style of property we also can see over at nearby Yau Yat Tsuen which was developed in the 1950's. Very stylish I think, and nice to see that it hasn't changed for the past 25 years or so.

Yellowthread Street (TV Series) - Bruce Payne (1990) - Former British Military Hospital, King's Park

This next one has had me literally chasing my tail because it has been really difficult to track down. The location is quite important because it occupies a large section of Episode 4 called Middleman which concerns a criminal taking Pak (Tzi Ma) hostage in a local hospital.

The film makers made quite a bit of effort to disguise the real location, more than is warranted, I feel, but here are a few examples...

A few red herrings here because, yes, there is a place called Central Hospital, but it's not this place. Secondly, there is the Chinese name 中央醫院 (Jung Yeung Yi Yuen), which is the original name of a venue now known as the Sai Ying Pun Jockey Club Polyclinic, and no, it's not that place either.

Then there is another red herring in the form of an address we see at one point (when Marenta - played by Robert Taylor - heads off to do some investigation on the 'Middle Man'). We see a hospital invoice. Check out the address below. It says 222 Waterloo Road.

This, coincidentally (or not, as I suspect is the case) is the actual address of the Baptist Hospital in Kowloon Tong. Hmmm.

So, why these guys went to so much trouble I don't know. But either way, it has had me scratching my head until I was doing some research on another matter (as is usually the case) and I discovered some great pictures on FLICKR of the old British Military Hospital on Wylie Road in King's Park.

Here's the ink: https://flic.kr/p/8CAhHr.

A wiki entry can also be found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Military_Hospital,_Hong_Kong#King.27s_Park

Anyway, suffice to say, the other major reason I had so much difficulty is because this building has been replaced by a huge apartment complex called Parc Palais. You can read a bit more on wiki but the upshot is that the hospital was decommissioned on 30th June 1996 and eventually demolished in the early 00's before Parc Palais was built (opened in 2004).