Legacy of Rage - Brandon Lee (1986) - Stonecutter Island, Kowloon

Stonecutter Island (or is it Stonencutters? I never been able to determine which is correct) features extensively in this film because it was the old barracks there that stood in for the prison that Brandon is sent to after being found guilty of manslaughter. But it's not just the old Stonecutters barrack buildings that appear on film, there are a few other locations as well so I'll include them here as well.

First up is the block where Brandon is imprisoned. The building itself is still around and is located on the slope of a hill at the north west side of the island (although it's no longer an island). The best way to show this is by with a GoogleEarth link.

As you can see, when Google did their 3D rendition of Hong Kong (circa 2015 I think, it's not particularly up to date and certainly not complete) the block had lost its naked brickwork and acquired a white paint covering.

The beach cleaning scene, as Brandon ponders escaping, was filmed on the northwest coast of the island. Look closely at the background in the third image below and you'll see one of the "prison" blocks. This beach has now completely disappeared due to the reclamation and redevelopment of the north side of the former island. The GoogleEarth view here will illustrate what I mean by the development.

Next up is a quick scene as Regina is taken to see Brandon in her husband's car. The tall thin structures on the left are part of the barrack's firing range and it is still located on the east side of the island - although its wood veneer has been removed and the upright sections have now been painted white (same as the barrack block mentioned above). The road the taxi is on below is now completely out of bounds for civilians but is does run parallel to Ngon Shung Road.

Last but not least is the supposed front entrance to the prison. Again, this is now off bounds to non-military - although perhaps on the various PLA open days it is accessible? - but it is/was located at the eastern section of the island. We see it later in the film when Brandon gets out of prison and in that scene you can see one of the old Victorian towers in the background. As far as I know that structure is still there and can be seen on the left hand end of the row of trees in this GoogleEarth view.

Something Good - Luca Barbareschi (2013) - Container Terminal 8, Stonecutters Island

The film finale takes place in the container terminal on the northern side of the expanded-by-reclamation Stonecutters Island with Stonecutters Bridge in the background.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - View over Stonecutter Island, Kowloon

We move on to episode 2 in the series and this one is called Murder Royal. This episode looks as though it was mainly shot in the US with a few HK-based establishing shots to try and keep the authenticity up. I can't think of a single scene involving the actors that made me think it was shot on-location. The plot involves a foreign King arriving in Hong Kong with his son and entourage for the purpose of undergoing a serious medical procedure. At the same time a plot is afoot to have him and his son assassinated so that the throne can be usurped by certain nefarious characters.

It's never mentioned as far as I can remember, but the attire of the Royals and their entourage reminds me a little bit of the formal dress in Brunei.

Anyway, to start with there is a rather nice panorama of Stonecutters Island in its original form i.e. as an actual island. These days it has been subsumed by the West Kowloon reclamation and the whilst most of it still contains the off-limits naval base (now with the PLA), a small section is partly accessible to the public as part of the container processing zones and surrounding road infrastructure.

Can anyone see what is wrong with the panorama? The capture below is a stitch of a camera pan from left to right.

Okay, so if you thought something looked odd, it does. This footage used in this episode has been flipped horizontally. A more-frequent-than-you-realise phenomenon that I have observed over several years of this blog. here's how it should really look. The more familiar orientation of the Hong Kong hills in the background. The large building in the bottom left is still around, its actually the two long terrace blocks that make up the old tenements (built in 1959) between Fuk Wing Street and Fuk Wah Street in Cheung Sha Wan. There is an alleyway between the two called Kim Shin Lane. The slant on the buildings on the right hand side are where the two blocks meet Castle Peak Road at an angle.

Strangers - John Simm (2018) - Container Port Road South, Stonecutter Island

After Lau has been kidnapped, her kidnapper is stopped by the police because his rear light is broken. Funny thing is though that this place is a dead end. This is the service road that runs underneath Stonecutters Bridge (you can see the bridge at the top of the image) and the car has basically just driven from the dead end by the sea wall when it is stopped. You can see where the road ends behind the car as it is turning. In the second image you can see how close this place is to one of the container terminals.

Transformers: Age of Extinction - Mark Wahlberg (2014) - Stonecutters Bridge, Kowloon

Hong Kong's newest suspension bridge also gets some air time in this film. We last saw it (or at least the road that it carries) during our Largo Winch posts, but this time we see it from above as various cars/bots race over it.

A very typical hazy view for this time of year (winter).

Largo Winch - Tomer Sisley (2008) - Container Port Road South, Stonecutters Island

This one is a bit sneaky because the film makers want you to think that this is at the airport as the tough dudes await Largo's arrival.

In actuality, this road viaduct is part of the Tsing Sha Highway that leads onto Hong Kong's newest bridge - Stonecutters Bridge. The area is surrounded by freight processing terminals (Container Terminal 8 to be precise) and the building at the back is the office of Modern Terminals Limited. This explains why the film makers chose the upward angle for the camera shot - I guess it was to hide the stacked containers. Anyway, the road we are on is romantically called 'Container Port Road South'.

Here is the current Streetview so you can see that the road does not, in fact, go into the side of the building (trust me, I consider all feasible options when tracking down these obscure places!).

That Man Bolt - Fred Williamson (1973) - R.M.S Queen Elizabeth, Victoria Harbour

A year before Roger Moore made The Man with the Golden Gun which used the RMS Queen Elizabeth as a secret office of the British Intelligence Services, we can see it in the background of one of the scenes when Bolt meets Griffith's way out on a boat in the harbour.

Actually, seeing as the thing caught fire in January 1972, I imagine these pictures were taken not that long after the "accidentally-on-purpose" accident - well perhaps less than a year at least.

Now, we know the approximate position of where the wreck was towed to following the fire thanks to looking at it previously (somewhere under Tsing Yi's more recently reclaimed Container Terminal #9 on its SE tip), which would make the area where the boat is somewhere between Tsing Yi and Stonecutters Island - the lower/southern end of Rambler Channel.

However, it's always nice to have a bit of extra confirmation and we get this with a couple of extra shots that show Mei Foo Sun Chuen in the background (see below behind Fred's head).

And also a quick look over to what I believe must be Stonecutters Island (due to its rather low profile) with HK in the far background.

That Man Bolt - Fred Williamson (1973) - Kowloon Peninsula from the air

A great aerial view of Kowloon can be seen in this sequence. This film has made great use of helicopters and the production crew has snapped some really interesting views. This one is no different to the others in that it's 1. a great view and 2. flipped! Here is the scene as you watch on film.

To those familiar with Hong Kong, the shape of Stonecutter Island in the top photo should really be the giveaway of the reversed nature of the film. Never mind. Here is the sequence reversed i.e the correct way round.

It makes much more sense now, and to make it even more sensible here is a rough stitch up to show the whole panorama.

Some things to note (although you may have to zoom in for a better view). The road intersection centre screen is where Hong Chong Road joins on to Princess Margaret Road. Out of sight below camera where Hong Chong Road disappears is actually where the Cross Harbour Tunnel starts.

The picture is almost demarcated by Chatham Road South as it heads towards Princess Margaret Road, splitting the land into the green side: Yau Ma Tei and King's Park, and the brown side: Ho Man Tin and Hung Hom. Anyway, here is an annotated version of the above picture to help.

It largely speaks for itself, but in case my markings are difficult to decipher here is the legend:

TST - Tsim Sha Tsui
KBC - the Kowloon Bowling Club on Austin Road
KCC - Kowloon Cricket Club.
Gun Hill - Gun Hill Club Barracks
Ferry Point - Ferry Point Estate.
C De R - Club De Recreio on Gascoigne Road
QE - Queen Elizabeth Hospital
POLYU - the site that now holds the Polytechnic University Campus.
HH Terminus - Hung Hom Train station

That Man Bolt - Fred Williamson (1973) - Western Harbour views

Some views that aren't reversed are shown over the opening titles as the camera pans anti-clockwise from Kowloon over to the island. A great view of Yaumatei Typhoon shelter including the Ferry Point Estate at the bottom of the screen. The typhoon shelter as we see it below is completely gone with all of that waterfront area reclaimed into West Kowloon and much of it now part of Olympic Station.

As the camera moves left we can see Stonecutter Island in its former isolated glory - now completely attached to mainland Kowloon courtesy of the container processing terminals around Lai Chi Kok.

Followed by a view over a relatively undeveloped waterfront around Central and Sheung Wan. The square building on the waterfront just left of centre is, I believe, the car park that still sits next to Rumsey Street. The area to the right of it became the Shun Tak Centre but at the time of filming was still a very low rise Macau Ferry terminal (we will see it close up in a later post). The ferry piers to the left were the variouys outlying island piers I believe with the Central vehicular ferry pier being the double pronged pier on the left. The piers area has been moved north over the years (i.e towards the camera) and of course the vehicular pier was removed in the 1990s.

The title sequence ends with a Macao hydrofoil heading away from HK with the western end of HK Island in the background and Green Island.

And a nice shot of the under construction Connaught Centre (now Jardine House) to round it off. This makes me think that this film was filmed pretty much around the same time as Enter the Dragon or perhaps slightly earlier as Connaught Centre in the latter film appears to be more complete.