Inter-Pol - Tang Ching (1967) - Shaw House, Movietown

009's investigations lead him to "Club Fantasia" where one of his fellow airplane passengers works as a singer. It turns out she is indirectly mixed up in the counterfeit dollar conspiracy via one of her band members. The club didn't exist in real life because anyone with any knowledge about Shaws will be able to recognise the curved lintel and blue tile surround of Shaw House in Movietown.

Operation Lipstick - Cheng Pei-pei (1967) - Shaw House, Clearwater Bay

A familiar sight to any Shaw fan worth their salt is the front of the old Shaw House building with its curved concrete canopy. Shaw House has often stood in for other locations in a variety of Shaw productions and co-productions (examples: The Million Eyes of Sumuru, Shatter) and in this movie it serves as the front entrance for the Silver Dice Night Club where the gang are stationed and where Lee (Cheng Pei-pei) is offered a job.

The Million Eyes of Sumuru - George Nader (1967) - Shaw House, Clearwater Bay

The next time we see a bit of the old Movietown is when Nader bumps into the British intelligence officer (played by Wilfred Hyde-White, who I remember best from the 1980's Buck Rogers series). The venue of the meeting is the front courtyard in front of Shaw House with its famous blue-tiled arch.

There has been recent talk about Movietown being redeveloped which is inevitable in HK these days. Many of the buildings have been given heritage listings but in reality unless they are made a gazetted monument they can all easily be ripped down without any repercussions for the instigator. Actually, in HK I think even if a gazetted monument was "accidentally" destroyed there would be little the Govt would do to deter it happening again. Such is the way HK Govt works.

Anyway, let's hope that any future redevelopment would at least keep the iconic and stylish Shaw House as some sort of clubhouse, or hand it over to the Govt (or me ;-) ) and turn it into a Shaw Museum.

Bons Baisers de Hong Kong - Les Charlots (1975) - Shaws Movietown, Clearwater Bay

Saving the best for last and the film's finale was shot in and around the Shaw Movietown plot over in Clearwater Bay in Sai Kung. Any self-respecting Shaws fan should be able to recognise a lot of what follows including the main gates, the old Chinese village set including the famous wooden bridge and also the lovely views from the back of the lot towards the hills and mountains surrounding Sai Kung and Port Shelter. As a result, this post probably has far too many screencaps.

Those same yellow gates are still hanging at the front entrance and the wall at the side hasn't changed much. Thankfully Shaw House still stands on it little hill but entrance into the place is as difficult as it was in the film. Without prior arrangement you just can't get in anymore. The 3rd picture shows the view looking back towards Clearwater Bay Road from the front gates. Here is the current Streetview.

Moving inside the complex and there is a chase scene across much of the Shaw Chinese town set. Some familiar sights to be seen for any Shaw fan as mentioned earlier. I enjoy Shaw films but I have no idea how many times these sets were reused...no doubts tens and possibly hundreds.

Finally the views over Port Shelter from the far back of the studio lot. The island in the bottom screencap is Sharp Island, a very popular local dive spot.

Five Golden Dragons - Bob Cummings (1967) - Shaw Brothers Movietown, Sai Kung

Back in the 60's, Movietown was the biggest studio lot in HK and so it's no surprise that many a foreign production would use their facilities - even when Shaws weren't directly involved in production, they rented out their studio space to anyone willing to pay for it.

And so it is with the next scene where a cab driver is unceremoniously blown up by a bomb in his taxi. The explosion was quite big, so I guess doing it on a real HK street was not an option, so instead the famous Chinese town street on the Movietown back-lot served as a stand-in. To the average standard Shaw film fan the place should be immediately recognisable.

The same street seen in the top picture is also re-used later as a stand-in for somewhere else, but the tree in the background is a bit of a giveaway, so I guess they could easily have filmed both scenes at the same time.

There's also another scene when the cops are looking at a helicopter arriving, supposedly at the airport, when in fact they are at the back of the Shaw house. The metal yellow posts held up a roof structure between the Shaw house and a building behind it and the zig zag concrete stair at the back went up the hill onto the Chinese town set seen above.

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.

Sunset - Paul Chin Pei (1971) - Shaw Bros House, Clearwater Bay

Speaking of the Shaw Bros house (as I just was), the iconic building can be see a bit later in the film when Zhongkang turns up to give out some tickets to his brothers violin recital. The oval doorway you can see is actually the house's main entrance, but has been altered with the words Concert Hall stuck above the curved lintel.

Sunset - Paul Chin Pei (1971) - Shaw Bros House, Clearwater Bay

I'm not doing these scenes in any kind of order so here is a shot from a little bit into the film when we find out where Zhongkang (Paul Chin's character) is working: at a car workshop.

The clue for this location can be seen in the background and perhaps is only obvious to people who have been to the location. It's changed a lot but the house in the background is unmistakable and can be seen when a taxi is called for one of the workshops clients who also happens to be Zhongkang's estranged mother.

Of course it's the Shaw Bros house with its odd window shades and smaller arched window openings underneath. The terrain has changed quite a bit because the new office block was built at about the same location where the workshop would have been built but the embankment seen behind the taxi cab is still there - albeit on the other side of a concrete wall.