Macao - Robert Mitchum (1952) - Shau Kei Wan Typhoon Shelter, Hong Kong

I'm yet to settle on a new film to start 2023, so instead here is a post from a film I first covered 6 years ago. As far as I am aware (so far), Macao was the first movie to incorporate location footage in Hong Kong and Macau specifically commissioned for the purpose - albeit back projection and establishing shots only. My previous posts on this film only included the Macau footage but if you look carefully at the beginning of the film, there is the following footage taken from the eastern edge of Shau Kei Wan Typhoon shelter.

Look carefully and you can see Lion Rock in the distance (centre frame), however, the area seen in the foreground has long since been reclaimed and redeveloped and now has the East Island Corridor running over the top of it on an elevated highway bridge.

I wonder how much more footage Dick Davol (the cinematogapher tasked with capturing it) shot and whether or not it has cropped up elsewhere?

Les Anges Gardiens - Gerard Depardieu (1995) - Shau Kei Wan, Hong Kong

Here's one I forgot to post before I disappeared to Taipei for three weeks last month. It's from Les Anges Gardiens and was fom the mid-film boat chase. The scene where the bad guys disembark their boat was shot in Shaukeiwan typhoon shelter, in almost the exact same position that I was looking at a few months before for Supermen Against the Orient.

Supermen Against the Orient - Robert Malcolm (1973) - Shau Kei Wan, Hong Kong

Although most of this film appears to have been filmed on studio sets, there are the odd moments when the crew ventured out to capture the real Hong Kong. This scene was taken at the eastern side of Shaukeiwan typhoon shelter.

The pointy hill at the back of the fourth screen grab is Devil's Peak. The buildings at the back are in the Cha Kwo Ling/Kwun Tong areas. You can still get to this spot today but you have to get to it through the (excellent) Museum of Coastal Defence. This section of the typhoon shelter is where the (supposed but probably not) old HMS Tamar anchor is sited. GoogleEarth has a fairly decent match - albeit greener and more built up.

Shadow of China - John Lone (1989) - Aldrich Bay Typhoon Shelter, Shau Kei Wan

One of the last locations on this film for us is this quick trip over to Shau Kewi Wan and the typhoon shelter in Aldrich Bay. This is a good way to illustrate the colour difference between the laserdisc and VHS versions of the film.

The building under construction at the back is "Felicity Garden" opened in 1990. The big space on the right with the wooden hoarding in the lower picture is the future site of the Eastern Magistracy. The section of water you can see was also eventually reclaimed and now has The HK island branch of Munsang College and a new development called "Les Saisons".

Forced Vengeance - Chuck Norris (1982) - Shau Kei Wan Typhoon Shelter, Hong Kong

Blink and you'll miss it but when Chuck goes to visit his Vietnam war buddy, Leroy (played by Bob Minor), you are given the impression that we are in Aberdeen still, however, the background tells us we are actually in Aldrich Bay aka Shau Kei Wan.

Leroy lives in the white building above, right in front of the water. But when we look back we can see the distinctive shapes of Kowloon Peak on the left and the Anderson Road quarry at the right. Now if you look carefully at the area directly behind Chuck's head you will see some more excavation. This is actually Cha Kwo Ling and is where the entrance (Kowloon-side) of the Eastern Harbour Tunnel is. The tunnel didn't open until 1989, but the area looks bare because it was quarried and mined for many years (producing feldspar and quartz aggregate). If you pass this place today you won't see any of that type of activity, but you may recognise some of it from the opening of Double Impact.

Now, as can be expected, this part of HK has also seen lots of change and the waterfront has been beautified significantly, and so the closest I can get to a similar angle is the part of the waterfront directly in front of the Tam Kung Temple - on Tam Kung Temple Road.

Now, I'm not saying this was the exact position, but this is about as close I can get without physically going there. I haven't been there for a while, but if you do go to Shau Kei Wan you can a lot worse than visit the Museum of Coastal Defence. Great place and not far from here.