Hong Kong 73 - Yueh Hua (1974) - Rua das Lorchas, Ponte No.16

Another of the Macau establising shots is an oblique angle of the famous Ponte No. 16 along Rua das Lorchas. This structure was built in 1948 (by Fu Tak Iam I believe - the controller of the original gambling monopoly before he was ousted by Stanley Ho and Henry Fok et al). Thankfully it's still around, or at least was the last time I was here about 3 years ago.

Narazumono - Ken Takakura (1964) - Ponte No. 17, Macau

The very last scene in the film was shot back up towards Ponte No.17. Essentially the waterfront area that disappeared when the Sofitel Hotel was built at the inner harbour end of Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro. In the top image we can see the police car driving up Rua das Lorchas towards the camera with Ponte No.16 (built in 1948) on the right hand side and on the left of the image is the edge of the Hotel Grande.

The car goes by and immediately turns into a waterfront area that no longer exists and is instead these days occupied by part of the Sofitel development. The grey painted shack on the waterfront should be the no-longer-existing Ponte No.17 (Pontes 17 through 20 have all gone the way of the Dodo due to the hotel development).

Narazumono - Ken Takakura (1964) - Rua das Lorchas, Macau

Hirogami catches up with Minami along Rua das Lorchas along the inner harbour waterfront. In this scene we get a nice front view of the Grande Hotel Kuok Chai in the background as well as the Ponte No.16 building that can be seen between the signboards on the left hand side and you can see the same building further back in the lower image. It's the one with the small clocktower. Both Ponte No.16 and the Grande Hotel are still around (for the time being at least).

Noble House (Mini series) - Pierce Brosnan (1988) - Casino Macau Palace, Macau

The floating casino in Macau's inner harbour has appeared a couple of times before on this blog, but usually as the older version that was in service during the 1970's called the Casino De Macau. The version we see in Noble House is the later version that resembles the style used for the Jumbo in Hong Kong (although the latter is not a casino).

The version used in the show was still in use (and might still be as far as I know) although it had been moved from its former place in the inner harbour near Ponte 14 up to the water next to Ilha Verde (aka Green Island).

Kung Fu Killers - Grant Page (1974) - Inner Harbour, Macau

Page doesn't only visit HK, he also makes a quick trip over to Macau helping me top up my quota of Macau locations for the year :-)

The first shot we see is of a ferry docked at the Inner Harbour, right next to the famous (and now famously gone) floating Casino Macau Palace. We've seen it a few times before including way back in this post from the Bud Spencer film Flatfoot in Hong Kong. Although this was filmed the year before Flatfoot, I believe.

I believe there has also been some reclamation along the Inner Harbour at Macau and so the exact location of where the casino used to sit is now inland a bit - though not to the extent of some places in HK that are now kilometres away from their previous harbour front locales. Anyway, here is a quick stitch to give a better view.

Flatfoot in Hong Kong - Bud Spencer (1975) - Casino Macau Palace, Macau

Rizzo follows Chang Li into one of Macau's former foremost landmarks (I've featured it loads on the blog over the years), the floating Casino Macau Palace. I later found out that the first version of this casino was the original Sea Palace Restaurant, towed over from Aberdeen Harbour in Hong Kong. This larger wooden structure was version 2 that replaced the original (year unknown but sometime in the mid to late 1960s).

The casino was moored on the Rua Das Lorchas around the section where it intersects with Av. De Almeida Ribeiro but was decommissioned sometimes in the 90's, after which I'm not sure what happened to it. Judging from the photos above it was quite nicely built.