Karate from Shaolin Temple - Kazuma Kenji (1976) - Tiger Balm Gardens

The gang who are in conflict with the boss start taking out the gang's men one by one. The first one is killed whilst walking around Tiger Balm Gardens.

Tokyo Gang vs Hong Kong Gang - Ken Takakura (1964) - Tai Hang Road, Causeway Bay

After being shot at at Magazine Gap, we next see the car driving down Tai Hang Road, not far from the junction with Tung Lo Wan Road. The tall building seen at the back left is the brand new (at the time) Ming Sun Building that still stands on the corner of Tung Lo Wan Road and Wun Sha Street. On the right hand side we can see the ramp that leads down from the St John Ambulance Building.

Visa to Canton - Richard Basehart (1960) - 28 Tai Hang Road, Tai Hang

In the film, Richard Basehart's character is friends with a family who supposedly save him when he was shot down during the war, and so he has become and adopted "big brother". The family seems to be well to do and live in a rather large property somewhere. The establishing shot for their home is a rather grand looking place with some art deco styling and two Chinese characters embedded into the roof. This one took a while to locate because these screenshots were the only clue I had and thankfully I recognised Grandview Mansions on the hilltop in the background.

Anyway, it runs out that this property was located at #28 Tai Hang Road. The site is now occupied by a mid-60s era mid rise residential block called "Kan Oke House". As I sometimes do when I find something interesting on film, I posted the house on Gwulo.com and a local historian filled in the background details (and at the same time was obviously in awe of my location detective skills).

So, the house was built by a local merchant called Kwok Hin Wang in 1928 and the two characters in the roof, that you can't really make out in these screencaps (I believe there is a HD bluray release though, so perhaps that would be clearer) are 勤屋. In Cantonese this is pronounced as "kan uk" which basically translates to industrious/hardworking house. So the current building name, Kan Oke, is (and this happens a lot in Hong Kong) a name homage to the former occupant of the site.

Looking at the aerial images of the area, there are none available between 1960 and 1962, and by the time 1963 comes around the house had already been demolished and the plot was sitting empty. It was still empty in 1964 and by 1966 Kan Oke House had been built.

The first image obviously shows the view looking down Tai Hang Road. I probably shouldn't need to mention that the area looks vastly different today.

Or how about this for a nicely cleaned up stitched version.

Casse-tête chinois pour le Judoka - Marc Briand (1967) - Tiger Balm Gardens, Tai Hang

This was a favourite location for filming during the 60's courtesy of the brightly coloured statues. The gardens were demolished in a few stages, beginning with the upper portion where the "Double Tenth"
archway was located. This upper section was demolished crica 1983 to make way for Ronsdale Garden (completed 1986). It was either foresight on bahlf of the Aw descendants, or just lucky happenstance because the upper portion of the garden contained quite a bit of Nationalist/Kuomintang imagery including the aforementioned gate (see below).

The concrete archway was made up of two Chinese characters for the number 10 (十十). For those not aware of this bit of history, the 10th of October (i.e. 10/10) 1911 was the start of the "Wuchang Uprising" that basically kicked off the revolution that eventually overthrew the Qing Dynasty and established China as a republic. It's still celebrated as the National Day in Taiwan, but is only marked in passing by the Communist-run Mainland of China under a different name.

I was lucky enough to see the gardens (or at least the remainder) pre-handover, and although well past its peak, it was a fun day afternoon wandering around the terraces. No post about this place can go without a plethora of other images so here they are.

True Light Middle School in the background (still there, unlike the garden)

Heisser Hafen Hongkong - Horst Frank (1962) - Tiger Balm Gardens, Tai Hang

I think we have seen Tiger Balm garden enough times on this blog for me to dispense with the usual brief description, so I shall just post some pictures. The place features fairly extensively in a couple of scenes so we get to see some areas that are not necessarily featured very often. It would be great to have a 3D map of the place so I could place all the locations, so if you know of one please let me know in the comments (and if there isn't one then that is a challenge to whoever reads this and has the ability to do that kind of stuff).

Remember that the garden's founder, Aw Boon Haw, was a staunch Nationalist/Kuomintang supporter, and I suspect that some of the Nationalist imagery in the garden was one of the reasons Li Ka-shing was so keen to bulldoze it post-handover. One example is the famous gate over the stairway that contained "Double Ten" references.

I personally believe the largest loss due to the redevelopment was, arguably, one of Hong Kong's most iconic pagodas. The white pagoda was a landmark and also highly ornate. It's a real shame that it wasn't kept along with the mansion.

You'll notice that the pagoda in this lower shot has the national emblem of the R.O.C on it. It's the famous blue sky with white sun emblem. Anyway, we'll finish off with some of the bizarre images that the garden was more famous for.

Roaring Fire - Hiroyuki Sanada (1982) - Tiger Balm Mansion, Tai Hang

It's not been such a popular location for the films and shows I've covered on this blog (only I Spy has directly used it previously), but here is the Tiger Balm Mansion (a.k.a Haw Par Mansion) standing in as the evil guy's HK HQ.

Sadly no vast shots of it from a distance because in this film the building is supposedly in the middle of nowhere, so all we get are a couple of close angles as Joji runs through the garden.

Actually, even a close up shot like this wouldn't be enough to hide its surroundings these days because the grassy slope behind the mansion has been completely replaced by Cheung Kong's The Legend. Yes, another cheesy OTT name for a residential complex.

But luckily for us, the mansion was preserved when the redevelopment was done and the Govt are currently deciding what to use it for. Personally I think it would make a great location for a school, but that's just me.

And so ends our look at this film for now until I can get some of the more difficult places identified.