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.

Kung Fu Killers - Grant Page (1974) - Park Hotel, Tsim Sha Tsui

Okay, not the Park Hotel as we would normally expect to see it, but rather the view from the roof courtesy of an interview between Grant Page and Stuart Whitman. You may remember that Whitman was in town for the filming of Shatter and Page managed to get hold of him for a talk about kung fu. The white buildings at the back correspond roughly with the current HK PolyU buildings, so it's possible they were part of the original campus, however, I'm not certain.

Note the KCR track that still ran from the old terminus in Tsim Sha Tsui and was on the other side of the old Chatham Road Army Camp which is just out of site below the hotel, along Chatham Road (today's East TST area where the History and Science museums stand). Anyway, a big thanks to Thomas once again for identifying the location, but does that mean this is the hotel where Page stayed and where they filmed the bar fight in the finale of Shatter? Still not sure.

Shatter - Stuart Whitman (1974) - Tsz Wan Shan, Kowloon

Here's a long standing puzzler from Shatter that has just been solved by Thomas, but really given its position in the film it should've been easy for me to get. It involves some scenes prior to the car chase scene that ends up at the top of Shatin Pass Road at Lion Pavilion.

It turns out that film geography was spot on this time (for a change) and this sequence, just prior to the scenes shot at Shatin Pass Road, was filmed along Tsz Wan Shan Road...in reality just down the hill from the junction with Shatin Pass Road.

The estate has since been rebuilt but Thomas has provided some links with photos showing how the estate used to look from the HK Memory website and a personal blog. A big thanks to Thomas for the identification.

Shatter - Stuart Whitman (1974) - Wanchai Road, Wanchai

Many thanks to Gweilo8888 for identifying the next location from my Shatter stragglers. I had asked on my help page if anyone could identify the hotel that Shatter (Stuart Whitman) stays at. On film it was identified as the Good World Hotel and I didn't know if it was a real establishment or not.

Well, it turns out it was real. I've posted Gweilo8888's comment below.

...The "Good World Hotel" is listed in a 1951 Chinese-language book indexed by Google as being at "62 Wan Chai Rd".

The same name also appears in the 1964-65 Hong Kong Trade Directory as being in Wan Chai, and although the formatting of the text snippet is wonky, it seems to list them at "62-78 Wan Chai Road". 

Looking at Centamap, there's a "62-76 Wan Chai Road", which is now the somewhat bizarrely-named Fully Building, occupied 12/1981. So my guess is that the Good World Hotel is a real place in Wan Chai, and was demolished for construction of the Fully Building about 5-6 years or so after Shatter was filmed.

The buildings across the street date back to 1951-1967, incidentally, so the view out the door in frame grab 16 should match one of them, although I really can't make out much in it myself.

I can't match the background either which leads me to think that the hotel entrance was slightly further up the street and opposite a new building (called "83Wanchai") that stands at 77 - 83 Wanchai Road.

Shatter - Stuart Whitman (1974) - O'Brien Road, Wanchai

Another identification courtesy of Thomas. I think, in all honesty, I would never have found this one alone, the changes are just too great since the film was made. But anyway, thanks to Thomas and his rather vast local knowledge we now know that one of the opening scenes of Shatter - which is displayed in the title credits - is the corner of O'Brien Road and Lockhart Road in Wanchai.

As Thomas noted in his reasons for the ID, two of the buildings seen in the screen capture below are still around today.

As you can see by the Streetview below, the road now sits underneath the Wanchai walkway which joins Wanchai MTR station with Immigration Tower on (what was) the harbourfront. It's a familiar walk to anyone who has had to apply for a visa or permanent residency in HK (I myself had to do multiple trips courtesy of various visas for myself and children followed by our ROA applications).

Anyway, the buildings Thomas noted as still standing are the two on the left hand side of both pictures. They've changed a bit but you can still make out the same aspect and dimensions as they were back in 1974. The closer one is the Hong Kong Building and was built in 1966, the one next to it further away is Mercantile House built a year later.

Once again many thanks to Thomas Ngan for the ID.

Shatter - Stuart Whitman (1974) - Lee On Building, Argyle Street

Another identification courtesy of Thomas. This one has a little bit of added significance though as you will read because there is some Tai Chi history thrown in for good measure.

The scene is a memorable one because it is the one where Shatter returns to Ti Lung's flat to hideout from the guys trying to kill him and he witnesses Ti Lung putting his kung fu students through their paces on the apartment roof.

Looking west: Sincere Building (still around too) on the right

Looking north: towards Lion Rock

I did try and work out where this was myself and got reasonably close (enough to satisfy that I wasn't too far from the spot anyway) but just couldn't nail the correct building. In steps Thomas with some real kung fu history as he identified the rooftop as belonging to the Lee On Building on the SE corner of  Argyle Street and Fa Yuen Street. I've pasted Thomas' comments below.

"As for Ti Lung's flat with those Kung Fu scenes, it was Mongkok alright. That's the roof of the building at the south-east corner where Argyle Street meets Fa Yuen Street. The building is called Lee On Building and it still exists.  Tai Chi master Cheng Tin Hung used to teach there. After his passing some years ago the Building management would not allow further activities at the roof anymore...The Hong Kong Tai Chi Association is still on 12th Floor though."

I must admit I don't know much about Tai Chi or Cheng Tin Hung, but being from the UK and an avid reader of Combat magazine between '86 and '92, Cheng Tin Hung's student Dan Docherty is a name I recognise. Anyway, you can read more about him over on wiki.

It's a nice little link there I think, but I was scratching my head as to how and why Shaws were filming up there until I read that Cheng Tin Hung had been involved as a fight choreographer (and a small cameo at the beginning) in a Shaw's production -  The Shadow Boxer - the very same year that Shatter was made. Both films, The Shadow Boxer and Shatter, shared a crew member: Johnston Tsao Chuang-sheng. Incidentally, he also worked on the other Shaw/Hammer co-production The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires. Anyway, I guess it's not beyond the realms of possibility that the roof was borrowed as a courtesy between friends or recent acquaintances.

So if there are any disciples of Mr Cheng out there who are curious about seeing what their sifu's rooftop used to look like, look no further.

Once again, many thanks to Thomas for filling in the detail that I would never have been able to find.

Shatter - Stuart Whitman (1974) - Queen's Road Central, Hong Kong

Time to clear up some of the identifications that were eluding me. This one is courtesy of Thomas Ngan who spotted the window of the West Wing of the Central Govt Offices on Ice House Street in the background. Here's a reminder.

The red building at the back is a mystery and is the current site of 8 Queens Rd Central. But look to the left and you can see the window that Thomas was talking about. The Streetview grab below confirms this is the corner of Ice House Street.

But what about that red building? I still have no idea but a search of 8 Queen's Road Central brought up the following business card for an old furniture store - was this the same building?

I must admit the building's colour is quite striking, so I am sure there is someone out there who must be able to remember what it was. If so please feel free to leave me a comment. In the meantime, once again thanks to Thomas for lending me his eagle eyes.

Shatter - Stuart Whitman (1974) - Hong Kong Macau Ferry Terminal, Sheung Wan

The last Shatter post until I can get a few of my unknowns identified. This one is pretty much the last scene anyway and shows Ti Lung together with Whitman and Cushing at the pontoons of the Hong Kong and Macau Ferry Terminal as the former duo arrive back from their mission to Macau.

Of course this whole area was redeveloped into the rather significantly taller Shun Tak Centre, but the newer pontoons aren't too far from this earlier location.

Note the Far east Hydrofoil pontoon at the back, this was the company owned by the STDM (Societe de Tourismo de Macau - the company that had the Macau gaming monopoly for so many years) set up by Stanley Ho and Henry Fok.

Tai Shan ferry behind Ti Lung 

Note the "Tai Shan" ferry behind Ti Lung and the "FEH" liveried hydrofoils in the other pictures. The first Jetfoils (manufactured by Boeing) weren't introduced to HK until the following year - 1975.

Shatter - Stuart Whitman (1974) - Shaw House, Clearwater Bay

Although supposedly travelling to Macau to confront the bad guys, the film made full use of the Shaw Bros facilities at Movietown (remember, this was a co-production between Shaws and Hammer films) by using some of Shaw House. We don't get to see the house itself, because I suppose it would have been considered a dead giveaway to most viewers, but we get some shots of the central driveway and fountain surround.

Hmm, I wonder if that was Sir Run Run's Rolls Royce?

The curved arch above the main entrance is unmistakable here, in fact we've seen it on this blog before.

Shatter - Stuart Whitman (1974) - Lau Fau Shan, Yuen Long

Not quite the film's finale, but almost, as Shatter goes out to confront the bad guys at Lau Fau Shan up in the far northwest part of the New Territories (it's actually part of Yuen Long District). Its halcyon days of oyster cultivation are now over - perhaps as a result of the amount of pollution in Deep Bay these days - and these days it is perhaps more popular for its various restaurants (just don't eat the oysters!) and the mangroves along the coastline and its nearby wetland area. It's also the origin of the Shenzhen Bay bridge - one of the various entry points into the mainland from Hong Kong.

The screen capture immediately above quite clearly shows the small range of hillocks on the Shenzhen side of the bay. They are still there - not yet leveled by the rapid development that has gone on - but now this particular view is blocked by the aforementioned bridge crossing. The larger northern part of that small ridge line can also be seen in the capture below.

Shatter - Stuart Whitman (1974) - Barker Road Peak Tram Station, The Peak

We've been here a couple of times before, most notably on Bud Spencer's Flatfoot in Hong Kong and of course with Clark Gable in Soldier of Fortune. Here we are with Stuart Whitman as he ascends Hong Kong's very famous Peak.

The tram station hasn't changed at all, it's pretty much the same as it was then, but the view at the back has increased in height significantly. The lone tower block you can see on the lower picture is the circular Century Tower (1) - a rather nicely shaped residential block that is still around (and still very stylish), but these days it isn't so prominent, being surrounded with a whole bunch of new stuff. I can't recreate this view using Streetview (or anything else for that matter) because it looks to have been filmed from the side of the track itself, rather than the more easily reachable roadside below, but here is a picture of the station I took at the beginning of the year when I walked up Old Peak Road.

Shatter - Stuart Whitman (1974) - View over Central from May Road, Mid-levels

A rather nice view from May Road where it passes over the Peak Tram railway. I can't recreate the same view today due to the additional tree growth, but in the film the tram passes right under the camera and there is only one place where this happens with the nearby Grenville House apartment complex in view and that is the section at the bottom of Tregunter Path.

Here are the caps - Grenville House is the balconied building on the right.

There's quite a lot to see in the top couple of snaps courtesy of the rather nice city view and I expect most people will be able to recognise buildings such as the Connaught Centre, Hilton Hotel, HSBC (previous version), Bank of China, Standard Chartered (previous), as well as what used to be on the site of the current Estoril Court and the older version of the Peak Tram station building (now called St John's Building - did it retain the name of its predecessor?).

Anyway, Autostitch has also rendered a fairly decent consolidation of these four pictures.

There is also a reverse view from the same spot showing the stone balustrade of the bridge over the track.