Vanishing Son 2 - Russell Wong (1994) - Yuen Yuen Institute, Tsuen Wan

Vanishing Son 2 picks up where the last film left off and this time treats Wong's character as some sort of wandering Bruce Banner type character (I'm talking of the Bill Bixby days) who doesn't go looking for trouble but is ready to step up when it appears. 99% of this film is set and filmed in the US, but there is a single flashback scene filmed at one of the first film's Hong Kong locations - the Yuen Yuen Institute. It looks as though all four films in this TV movie series were filmed back-to-back.

Vanishing Son - Russell Wong (1994) - Tao Fung Shan, Shatin

Vanishing Son was a TV movie made (but not directed) by Rob Cohen. It follows a couple of brothers who escape to America following the 1989 post-massacre crackdowns. The lead is Russell Wong, a virtuoso violinist and kung fu expert trying his best to look after his brother and himself. Although largely filmed in the states, the beginning of the film is set in China and has a couple of sequences filmed in Hong Kong. The film also features Vivian Wu as one of Wong's student peers.

The first scene is our introduction to Russell as he practices his violin in "Beijing". In fact it is Tao Fung Shan in Shatin. Rob Cohen plays his violin teacher in the scene and it's no surprise when you consider that Cohen himself used the very same location the previous year for filming of some scenes in Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story.

We've also seen this place stand in as Beijing in Noble House.

Vanishing Son - Russell Wong (1994) - Yuen Yuen Institute, Tsuen Wan

The second Hong Kong location seen in Vanishing Son is the Yuen Yuen Institute located up in the hills above Tsuen Wan. This is the locations of Russell Wong's kung fu school run by his formidable master in the form of John Cheung. Cheung you may or may nor remember played Johnny Sun in Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story as well as serving as the film's fight choreographer.

Here's a couple of shots from my visit there a few years ago when I seem to have inadvertently taken pictures almost matching the same angles of a couple of the screen shots above! Don't forget that Chiu Chi-ling was also filmed there many years ago performing some Hung gar forms.