SPL - Donnie Yen (2005) - Sheung Yuet Road, Kowloon Bay

Although the main establishing scenes for Wong Po's headquarters and environs were filmed in East TST, for the finale, as Ma takes the money to Wong, the exterior shots and infamous alleyway leading to the venue were filmed in Kowloon Bay. Credit to Dan Thomas for tracking down this via a Japanese reader called Isamu. It's here where Ma battles Jack in a baton v knife fight before heading up to confront Wong Po. It's also here where Wong's wife and child are parked at the end of the sequence. Love him or hate him, I think many would agree that this is one of Donnie's best fights.

SPL - Donnie Yen (2005) - Statue Square, Central

Kwok (Danny Summer) is desperate to meet his daughter for Father's day and so heads out with Lo (Dick Liu) to Statue Square in Central so he can see her.

SPL - Donnie Yen (2005) - Tai Tau Leng Playground, Sheung Shui

Named after a nearby walled village, Tai Tau Leng (大頭嶺) Playground is the rather interesting use of some undercover space created by the Fanling Highway flyover. Instead of filling the space full of planters, as is usually the way in Hong Kong, some enterprising urban planner has instead turned both sides of a traffic roundabout into a covered playground (playground in Hong Kong means space for leisure activities, not necessarily a kiddy climbing frame sort of deal as it means in the UK). It's here where Ma (Yen) and Lok (Ken Cheung Chi-yiu) go to collect a gun from an underworld contact only to fall into a trap.

SPL - Donnie Yen (2005) - Luard Road, Wanchai

Part of Inspector Ma's (Donnie Yen) backstory is that he once hit a perp and permanently brain damaged the guy. So we get a flashback of the event that starts with Ma running down Lockhart Road and then turning into Luard Road before dragging the guy out of his car and giving him the fateful punch.

SPL - Donnie Yen (2005) - Central Market

The gang head off to track down and kill Wong Po's bodyguard, played by long time Donnie Yen stunt collaborator and action choreographer, Kenji Tanigaki. He's the link that they need to remove if their fabrication of evidence against Wong Po is to work. Anyway, they track him down to a hut on top of Central market and a chase around the roof top ensues. Coincidentally, the market building has just recently been reopened following a renovation and looks a bit tidier these days. 

SPL - Donnie Yen (2005) - Greenery Villa, Tuen Mun

The drug house the cops raid and steal Wong Po's money is located in Greenery Villa (not to be confused with Greenery Villas in Shatin) in Tuen Mun. I believe (but can't confirm at the moment) that the estate is a social housing project that helps people recovering from mental illness rehabilitate back into society and give them some independence. At least one of the blocks (Block 3 - Likang Court - which can be seen in the background of image 3) operates in this way. The house the cops raid is located right next door and is identified as Block 1 on maps. The estate is located immediately behind Ching Chun Koon.

SPL - Donnie Yen (2005) - Nam Sang Wai, Yuen Long

Chung's undercover man inside Wong Po's gang is discovered and killed out in Nam Sang Wai. It's a popular filming location for those who want to portray a very remote part of Hong Kong, or indeed as in some films, pretend that the location is in Mainland China. I'm not sure how long this view will be untouched given the number of skyscrapers that now dominate the Shenzhen skyline over the border.

SPL - Donnie Yen (2005) - Kwun Tong Bypass, Kwun Tong

On their way to raid Wong Po's drug house, the police team drive along the Kwun Tong Bypass. In the background of the top image is the Kowloon Flour Mills (九龍麵粉廠). There is a good outline of the place over on Hugh Farmer's Industrial History of Hong Kong website. However, film fans may be interested to know that the building served as a template for some of the CGI buildings created for Transformers: Age of Extinction. The building with "Elite"written on the front has since been replaced.

SPL - Donnie Yen (2005) - former Fanling District Court and Magistracy, Fanling

The building used for the "Western District Police Station" in the film is actually the old magistracy/court building on the corner of Sha Tau Kok Road and Jockey Club Road in Fanling. It looks as though the interiors were also filmed on location because the wrought iron bannisters in the lower two images are indeed the ones inside the building.

SPL - Donnie Yen (2005) - East Tsim Sha Tsui Centenary Garden, Kowloon

One of the major locations in this film is the area where all the gangsters hang out and cause trouble for a local beat cop before he is rescued by Ma and Chung. The location is the lane that separates the Peninsula Centre and Hilton Towers (image 1). However we see a fair bit of the area including the ground floor of the Peninsula Centre (images 2 & 3), the alleyway between the Peninsula Centre and the Regal Kowloon Hotel where Lo beats up a couple of gang members (image 4) and Hilton Towers where Wong Po walk down the steps tapping his beer bottle on the railing (image 5).
  

SPL - Donnie Yen (2005) - Grand Hyatt Rooftop, Wanchai

The various panning shots of Hong Kong Island as well as the rooftop scenes where Ma and Chung talk about their plan to return the money to Wong Po were filmed on the roof of the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Wanchai. It's not the first time this hotel's roof has been used for filming, but the SPL scenes appear to have been shot on the top most tier of the hotel building.

SPL - Donnie Yen (2005) - JC Studio, Clearwater Bay

Speaking of JC Studio, as I just was, the canteen scene where Chung (Simon Yam) tells Lo (Dick Liu - who passed away in March this year R.I.P) that he has a brain tumour was actually a room in JC Studio. It's possible that other scenes were filmed inside the studio building (such as the hospital scenes) but this is the only one I can confirm for certain.

SPL - Donnie Yen (2005) - Pak To Avenue, Clearwater Bay

In his vendetta, Chung drives his car into Wong's and the two are about to have a fight with golf clubs when a traffic cop turns up. This scene was filmed along Pak To Avenue in the Clearwater Bay peninsula. This is the road that where JC Studio is located which is relevant to a later post.

SPL - Donnie Yen (2005) - Austin Road West Flyover, West Kowloon

The film's prelude is the story set up where the animosity between the cop and gangster is put into context - Wong Po (Sammo) killing a police witness and his family leaving the orphaned daughter in the care of Chung (Simon Yam). The killing happens on the Austin Road West flyover as the killer (Wu Jing) crashes his car into the witness car and then stabs the unconscious witness in the neck with his knife.

There's been a fair amount of change around here such as a traffic circle being plonked at this location and the ICC being constructed on the right side of the third image but otherwise it is still recognisable. The building behind Simon Yam in the second image is the control centre for the Western Harbour tunnel.

SPL - Donnie Yen (2005) - Cheung Sha Wan Beach, Lantau

Next up is the 2005 collaboration between Wilson Yip and Donnie Yen who would later go on to make a good film (and three not so good) about Wing Chun teacher, Yip Man.

The English title of this film is just an abbreviation of the initial sounds of the Chinese title 殺破狼 (saat po long or sha po lang depending on your Chinese preference of Cantonese or Mandarin) and it basically means to "destroy a wolf" albeit somewhat more poetically stated in the original Chinese.

The film's plot concerns the efforts of a policeman, Chung (Simon Yam), to bring down his arch nemesis, a triad leader called Wong Po (Sammo Hung) and the illegal methods he employs to achieve this. Along comes Inspector Ma (Donnie Yen) to inject  a bit of integrity back into his crew before realising that Wong Po is basically untouchable and he soon falls into the plan to bring Wong down by any means necessary.

The film kicks off (and ends) at Lower Cheung Sha Wan beach on Lantau Island. We've visited here before, although it was many years ago.