The Fighting Dragon - Yasuaki Kurata (1975) - St Paul's Facade, Macau

It wouldn't be a proper trip to Macau without the old church facade being featured in at least one scene. This is after the fight with Purple Snake and the nefarious blow piped villain had adulterated his spiked tonfa with some sort of poison that has begun to affect Lung. Lung stumbles down the steps in front of the church.

Karate from Shaolin Temple - Kazuma Kenji (1976) - St Paul's Church Facade, Macau

The pair do some wandering around and sightseeing, taking in the inevitable trip to Macau's most famous location. These days you can't even move around here due to the sheer volume of tourists from mainland China.

Yakuza on Foot - Tomisaburô Wakayama (1969) - St Paul's Church Facade, Macau

A final shot for Macau is of the St Paul's facade seen from a couple of different angles. The top image obviously taken from Monte Fort.

Pedicab Driver - Sammo Hung (1989) - St Paul's Facade, Macau

Mysteriously, just after being rammed into a wall in Taipa, the pedicab suddenly appears several miles away right next to the ruins of the old church. This isn't where the weirdness ends though because you should see where the pedicab ends up after Sammo does the famous jump off the church terrace wall.

Asia-Pol Secret Service - Wang Yu (1966) - St Paul's Church Facade, Macau

The car chase ends next to the ruins of St Pauls as Wang Yu jumps from the car and runs up the nearby hill to escape his pursuers.

Tokyo Gang vs Hong Kong Gang - Ken Takakura (1964) - St Paul's Church, Macau

 The fnal destination for Fujishima and Chang is the facade of the old church. It's here where they meet with Mo (Tetsurô Tanba). Unfortunately I have no idea what happens in the plot here because I only had the Japanese version. Anyway, I believe they discuss plans for the drugs as they walk around the area of the facade. Anyway, bar the unlikely outcome of me being able to identify some really obscure Hong Kong backstreets, I think this is the last post for this film, and the last post for 2021.

So Happy New Year to everyone and let's keep hoping that the world will start to return to normal at some point this year (unlikely for those of us in Hong Kong though).

Spearhead in Hong Kong - Stafford Gordon (1981) - St Paul's Facade, Macau

After Sgt Bilinksi awakes from his drugged night in Macau, he does a quick runner back to HK via the St Paul's ruin. It's not the end of his troubles though.

Challenge of the Tiger - Bruce Le (1982) - St Paul's Church Facade, Macau

It wouldn't be a trip to Macau unless we have a visit to the old ruined church facade of St Paul's. In this instance the film makers have really thrown everything they can into the scene and have Harrison and Le attacked by a couple of dirt bike riders. I'm fairly certain that these days the riders would be overwhelmed by the sheer vast numbers of Mainland Chinese tourists, but back in 1982 it was a lot more feasible.

Le Monocle Rit Jaune - Paul Meurisse (1964) - St Paul's Church Facade, Macau

Some of the action takes place in Macau as the French detectives head over there for a rendezvous with a woman who was friends with our TST assassination victim. I've never seen the old church facade quite as deserted as this - any visit these days is similar to trying to walk through Mongkok at lunchtime.

Golgo 13: Assignment Kowloon - Sonny Chiba (1977) - St Paul's Church Facade, Macau

The ultimate target of Golgo's wrath is a slippery diplomat who takes refuge on an island fortress. The film wants us to believe that the island is somewhere near Macau so we are presented with some establishing shots of the famous church facade and some views from the nearby fort. I suspect it's stock footage but you never know.

Kung Fu Killers - Grant Page (1974) - St Paul's Church Facade, Macau

No trip to Macau is complete without checking out the old church ruins. So here is a picture of Grant Page checking it out...

...Yep, still looks buggered...

There's a reasonable amount of tourists on the steps in the last shot, however, compared to today  this looks positively peaceful.

Ferry to Hong Kong - Curt Jurgens (1959) - St Paul's Church Facade, Macau

Macau's most famous landmark features in the next part of the funeral procession as they pass the facade of the fire-destroyed church of St Paul's.

If you have ever been to Macau then you will most probably have seen this close up. All I can say about it is that the steps in front tend to be chock-full of Mainland Tourists these days (Chow Tai Fook are really missing a trick here).

Noble House (Mini series) - Pierce Brosnan (1988) - St Paul's Church Facade, Macau

Moving over to Macau, when Dunross and Tcholok head out to supposedly visit Lando Mata in his Macau retreat (which was in fact located in Shek O on HK Island). Anyway, it's a good excuse for the film makers to give us some of the main sights in Macau including perhaps its most famous facade of St Pauls.

The eighties was still a time when you could still get a clear view of the place before the thousands of Mainland Tourists turned up and chaos ensued. These days the place is so busy it's unbelievable.