Temple Hill Lion's Club Pavilion - Now and Then

I remember watching Shatter for the first time many years ago with my grandad - most likely in the early 80s - and being fascinated by an ornate pavilion that features in the film. As a youngster I used to think it would be cool to go there but had no idea at the time that, one day, I would be living not that far away from it. Life can be funny sometimes. What I didn't realise until today is that it is another of the pavilions in Hong Kong funded by the Lion's Club (there are other Lion's Club pavilions on the Peak - the famous one - and another in Shatin). 

Anyway, the pavilion marks, more or less, the end of the Wilson Trail Stage 4/start of stage 5 and so was my destination for a hike this morning. Absolutely tired out from walking up hills in hot, humid weather, I took the opportunity to grab a few comparison snaps for a Now/Then.

Inter-Pol - Tang Ching (1967) - Shatin Pass Road, Tze Wan Shan

Following the car chase where the pair outwitted their pursuers, 009 drops his buddy off next to the old Wong Tai Sin Infirmary on Shatin Pass Road. It's now run by Tung Wah Group of Hospitals but still has the same wall with the circular/honeycomb upper section.

Police Story - Jackie Chan (1985) - Shatin Pass Road, Tsz Wan Shan

After his disaster in court, in the HK version of the film Ka Kui is given some punishment by having to man Sha Tau Kok police station. In fact the location we see Jackie at doesn't look like Sha Tau Kok police station and the use of that name - using a fake signboard - was more likely to emphasise how far out in the sticks he was for the local audience. The scene is a slight comedic break from the main story and I don't remember it being part of the film when it was given an international release, but I could be wrong.

Anyway, back in the main thread and Ka Kui goes to meet May following the embarrassment that was his court appearance. Whilst with her he gets a call from his informant telling him Salina is being held hostage at an address. Whilst chatting to May, his crappy car rolls down the hill and takes out a phone box where he was just on the phone to his contact.

The fake phone box was located on the pavement in front of a retaining wall that holds the local CLP offices, just down from the junction with Tsz Wan Shan Road. You can see in the second image that the car has just turned the corner from Tsz Wan Shan Road.

T.N.T Jackson - Jeanne Bell (1974) - Tsz Wan Shan, Kowloon

The location of T.N.T's dodgy meet up turns out to be somewhere near Tsz Wan Shan, or at least that is where one of the quick shots takes us as the taxi heads up Shatin Pass Road towards the shanty town that was replaced by the Shatin Pass Estate. The only problem is that the original Shatin Pass Estate was already built by 1973/4 so I am beginning to think this may in fact be some stock footage or perhaps older footage re-purposed for this film.

Looking at the images below, the most prominent feature is the modern looking (rather incongruous) building on the hillside. This is the Tsz Wan Shan police station and is still there - albeit now dwarfed by the surrounding development. Just to the left is a slope that marks the back end of the local service reservoir and we should be able to see the Shatin Pass Estate at the top of this slope. So either this footage was filmed pre-1967, or the original Shatin Pass Estate was tiny, or the dates given by Wikipedia about when it was built are wrong.

If anyone has any other ideas about why I can't see the estate, feel free to leave a comment.

Shatter - Stuart Whitman (1974) - Shatin Pass Road: Finale

As previously mentioned, the end of this scene takes place at the iconic Lion Pavilion at the crossroads of Shatin Pass Road where the trails lead up to Lion Rock. Aside from the obvious mass of tree growth that is now evident, and a new lick of paint on the pavilion, not much has changed.

Even the dai pai dong seen in the background of the second screen capture is still there serving up a delightful selection of doll noodles and soda to weary hikers.

No expansive views anymore thanks to abundant tree growth, but here are a couple of snaps from a recent hike I did up there.

A sad reflection on my photographic skills is that Streetview has a better shot of this place - though perhaps the google car was able to ascend on a less busy day because it captured a nice car-free view of the area. The lower one is the view up the side road where the aforementioned dai pai dong still stands. Whether it's owned by the same people is unclear, perhaps the next time I am there I will ask.

Shatter - Stuart Whitman (1974) - Shatin Pass Road: Part 2

We get some cool scenes of Kowloon as the cars head up the hill. Starting with the first picture which shows the proper start of the hill climb just past Fat Chong Temple.

A little further up we also catch a glimpse of the old version of the Shatin Pass Estate at the background. The current buildings are quite new and significantly higher than the original, but we can see what the originals looked like courtesy of the HK Memory website:

https://www.hkmemory.hk/collections/public_housing/All_Items/images/201307/t20130702_61462.html

Actually, the above picture is a great example of why we can't get the same views today as we used to, not that it is necessarily a bad thing, but the amount of greenery that now covers the hillsides (all over HK) mean former views are now blocked. Personally I prefer the additional, and the views are only blocked because I am limited to using Streetview at the moment. You get a good idea of the barren nature of the area from the next few shots.

The white building on the lower left is the Tze Wan Shan Police Station. It's still there although now painted in the more usual blue/grey colour scheme now on all local police stations.

Now, although this car chase scenes terminates at the Lion Pavilion - a very well known landmark along the Wilson Trail where the trail breaks off from the road to head north - the film makers have tried to cheat us a bit and also shot some further footage further east along the road. These are the shots below which show this more easterly section of the road near the intersection with Kwun Ping Road. Lion Rock can be seen in the distance on the top picture below.

Shatter - Stuart Whitman (1974) - Shatin Pass Road, Tze Wan Shan

One of my more vivid memories of this film is from watching it on UK television with my grandad back in the (most likely) early 80's. I particularly remember this scene when Shatter is followed up Shatin Pass road to the Lion Pavilion. I'll cover the Lion pavilion in the next post to keep the picture count manageable, but here is a quick shot of the junction of Shatin Pass Road and Tze Wan Shan Roads - just down the road from where the Fat Chong Temple stands.

Tze Wan Shan on the left, Shatin Pass Road coming up the hill

Looking up Shatin Pass Road

All those years ago watching this film  I never quite thought that one day I would be hiking up this road - it's one of the easier ways of getting up into the Kowloon mountains. Anyway, here are the corresponding Streetview captures. As you can see, HK is much greener than it used to be (thankfully) and the mesh fence on the left hand side of the bottom screen capture (above) has now become the aforementioned Fat Chong Temple.