Karate from Shaolin Temple - Kazuma Kenji (1976) - Shap Sze Heung, Sai Kung

Regular readers will be familiar with the Shap Sze Heung area of northern Sai Kung because it has been featured in a whole bunch of famous 1970s and 80s era kung fu films (for example Drunken Master, Knockabout and The Prodigal Son). In this film it is where Wu and his sister chase down the gang in their car before forcing them out and chasing them to another location for a fight.

The main road in the screencaps here is Sai Sha Road, the main road linking Sai Kung with Ma On Shan.

Pat Sin Leng in the distance

Drunken Master - Jackie Chan (1978) - Shap Sze Heung, Sai Kung

Well, we were here just a few posts ago for Knockabout and I think if you look at the images in that post you will see some familiar hills in the background. In Drunken Master this is the location where Beggar So and Fei-hung stay whilst the latter undergoes his rigourous training in preparation for learning "Eight Drunk Immortals Fist". I've already explained what has become of this place in that other post so I won't labour the point here, it's too depressing for me to think about. Actually, my feeling is that this particular location is a bit further south and west given the proximity of Ma On Shan in the background of some images - perhaps nearer to Ma Kwu Lam village? Of course it might just be the product of the focal length of the camera lens making the background look closer.

Knockabout - Yuen Biao (1979) - Shap Sze Heung, Sai Kung

After redoing my Golden Studios post recently and learning that the "Chinese street" set (seen in such films as The Magnificent Butcher and The Young Master) was only constructed in 1979, I thought I would watch Knockabout to see if the set was being used. It turns out, no. Pretty much all of the scenes in this film look to be shot out and about in old buildings and villages in the New Territories - making it really difficult to track down the locales.

Knockabout was apparently Yuen Biao's first starring role as a young 21/22 year old and tells the story of how he and his brother (played by Leung Kar-yan) are a couple of scam artists that eventually try to scam the wrong person (Lau Kar-wing). Impressed by their target's kung fu skills they force him to take them as his students and get embroiled in his rather not-so righteous life.

The film's finale (and a few of the middle scenes where Yuen Biao is training with Sammo) is about the only place where I can confidently say I know where it was shot: Shap Sze Heung. This is the large area east of Ma On Shan that incorporates locations such as Nai Chung, Three Fathoms Cove and Tai Tung Wo Liu, and was popular up until fairly recently because of its flat open views with Ma On Shan on one side and the sea on the other. That said, can you guess what has recently happened to the place? If you said "a massive high rise development" then you would be correct. Every bit of flat land between the few villages that were here is now being filled up by residential skyscrapers. Check out the latest Google Streetmap images. So another former (relatively) unspoilt location bites the dust as Hong Kong's money-grabbing property developers squeeze every last drip out of the place.

Actually, this is a good example of why finding some of the more obscure rural locations on this, or any other, film is really hard. You never know how long stuff was/is around for. Sometimes, with the lack of any distinguishable background features, you just have to rely on blind luck.

Anyway, rant over. Here are some shots from the film at this location. I think given the background cues, this was shot around where the golf driving range was (it's just been removed as part of this huge redevelopment) between Tseng Tau Tsuen and Che Ha Tsuen. Nothing lasts for long in Hong Kong it seems.