A Cause to Kill - Ivy Ling Po (1969) - Tai Hang Tung Road, Shek Kip Mei

After picking up the briefcase from the hotel, the taxi takes Hsin Li further north and drops her off on Tai Hang Tung Road, just north of Boundary Street. She alights right next to a set of steps that lead up into Yau Yat Tsuen. This area has actually changed relatvely little. The only big change is the redevelopment of the Tai Hang Tung Estate in the background. The estate still exists bit with more modern blocks replacing the old H-shape ones you can see here. Long time readers may remember that this very same road appears in Narazumono here. And I also did a modern day comparison here. This scene is actually filmed a little further to the south, opposite the petrol stations that still exists.

The steps lead up to Marigold Road in Yau Yat Tsuen and are mainly used by students at the adjacent Yau Yat Chuen school (note: Tsuen and Chuen are pronounced the same way and are just two ways of writing the same word. Cantonese sadly never underwent a uniform romanisation in the same way that Mandarin did with Pinyin and is one of the reasons why Hong Kong place/road names are all over the place in terms of spelling).

Tai Hang Tung Estate

Shell still has a garage here

Tai Hang Tung Recreation Ground in the background

Narazumono - Ken Takakura (1964) - Boundary Street, Mongkok

Another shot from the opening credits and this time we are looking at Boundary Street towards the west. The large open spaces are still there, albeit a bit more surrounded these days by new construction. What we are looking at here are the former Mongkok sports ground (now Mongkok Stadium) on the left. You can see it had a running track at the time. On the opposite side of the road to the sports ground is what is now known as Fa Hui Park. Believe it or not that small white structure is still there. It's now marked as a library on modern maps but I have no idea whether it has always been one. The slope on the right of it marks where Tat Chee Avenue comes down from Yau Yat Tsuen. Beyond the building is (what are now known as) the Tai Hang Recreation Grounds but I suspect at the time they were still part of the Police Recreation grounds. The buildings in the far distance mark where Sai Yee Street comes up to join with Boundary Street.

Judging from this elevated angle, I suspect the film camera was positioned on the KCR rail bridge that crosses the road at exactly this point.

L'Inconnue de Hong Kong - Dalida (1963) - Aerial View of Kowloon Part 3

The final few shots of the Kowloon panorama take in the rest of the space between Mongkok and the Kowloon hills. You can't see the famous ridge line of Lion Rock because it has been chopped off by the camera however, it's the hill on the centre right in the third picture. The ridge line rises on the left hand side up to Beacon Hill. 

On the lower slopes of the hills you can see a faint line running across, made more obvious by the shaving of the hills at various points. This is Lung Cheung Road and is still the main highway linking north and east Kowloon.

Above the previously mentioned Tai Hang Tung recreation ground is a small hill called Woh Chai Shan - you can see it on the left in the upper picture and centre left in the lower pictures. These days it is a fairly anonymous hill in Shek Kip Mei (though it seems to be popular with walkers and bird watchers) with a service reservoir on the summit, but for a long time it also housed a large number of squatter huts up and down its various slopes. As part of the response to the fires (in Tai Hang Tung in 1952 and Shek Kip Mei the following year) the Govt constructed the two housing estates that can be seen above - Tai Hang Tung estate t o the right of Woh Chai Shan and Shek Kip Mei to the left. Both estates have since undergone subsequent regeneration/rebuilding.

On the right of the lowest picture is the low-rise areas of Yau Yat Chuen and Kowloon Tong, but at the mountain end of that area you can see the relatively high rise white buildings of what were the Kowloon Tsai military quarters. These have since been replaced (quite recently - 2004) by a large residential development called One Beacon Hill.

L'Inconnue de Hong Kong - Dalida (1963) - Aerial View of Kowloon Part 2

Moving to the north slightly for our next set of three pictures and the top left hand side of the top picture shows Kadoorie Hill. You can see it move to the right as the camera pans left. The main road that runs from the bottom left of the picture past the right hand side of Kadoorie Hill is, of course, Argyle Street and you can actually see more of it in the middle picture. On top of Kadoorie Hill you can make out the vague shape of the Diocesan Boys School, although the playing field is more obvious as a bare patch. Just to the right of that is St George' Court built in 1961.

To the right of Kadoorie Hill is an empty patch of ground next to Waterloo Road. It was once a hill but at the time of filming was being formed for the construction of the developments around what would become Man Fuk Road and Man Wan Road. The first block to be completed here was Sunlight Garden in 1964 - this place is perhaps more famous for being Bruce Lee's home when he first returned to Hong Kong to launch his movie career in 1971.

Look carefully along Argyle Street in the next picture and you can make out the KCR rail bridge about halfway along the road just at the tip of Kadoorie Hill. In the bottom centre veering right is Mongkok Road - perhaps better known now as the road that has the pedestrian walkway running down part of its length. Look carefully on the left hand side and you should be able to make out what looks like a river channel/nullah. This is the famous nullah that gives Nullah Road its name and as far as I know the waterway still runs underneath the road. I may pop down one day and see how much of the nullah is still visible.

The last picture below shows a little more of the Tai Hang Tung area. The large open space is still open today and consists of Tai Hang Tung recreation ground and Fa Hui Park on the other side of Boundary Street. In fact if you look closely you can see Boundary Street running through the middle of it all. On this side is the Boundary St recreation ground and the running track of what is now Mongkok Stadium. Splitting the open ground in two on the left side is the southern end of Yau Yat Chuen and at the very tip you can make out the still standing Yau Yat Chuen School.

Anyway, lots to see but too much to mention here. A little more to come in the next post.