The Merry Wife - Li Ching (1971) - Tai Po Market Station, Tai Po

Anyone who has visited the Railway Museum in Taipo will be familiar with the old Chinese-style station building, constructed in 1913. It was actually still a working station until up to the track electrification in 1983 when a bunch of the old stations were decommissioned and then demolished. Luckily, the ornate design of Tai Po Market station appears to have been in its favour and it was turned into a great little museum that is well worth a visit if you get the chance.

This isn't the earliest appearance of the station on the blog, that accolade goes to I Spy which filmed here in 1965 (see my old post here).

This is where Zhenzhen goes to meet Lin Min as he arrives by train to visit her at home.

Yakuza on Foot - Tomisaburô Wakayama (1969) - Tai Po Road, Tai Po

The Yakuza find out that Oriental Travel have convinced some of the local girls to go with them to the middle east where they have been told they can earn good money as domestic help, however, it's a trick and really they are going to end up as drug mules for the company. The Japanese gang take it upon themselves to try and save the girls. The initial shot of what turns into a heist and a car chase was filmed along the section of Tai Po Road as it crosses the railway tracks near Yuen Chau Tsai. The distant white building in the background should be the old Tai Ping Carpet factory on Ting Kok Road. The squatter area behind the bus was cleared in the late 70s/80s and the area reclaimed for the Kwong Fuk Estate. This was the same squatter village that was seen in The Last Grenade, shot/released the same year.

Les Anges Gardiens - Gerard Depardieu (1995) - Heung Sze Wui Street, Tai Po Market

We stay in Tai Po for the next few images (although I think they appear later in the chase), this time on Heung Sze Wui Street. The top image was shot from the junction with Po Heung Street looking back up towards Wan Tau Street. Actually, I am very familiar with this street because not only did I live here for the first six months of my move in 2006, but it's also where my three kids went to Kindergarten. The car crash is at the junction I just mentioned. The Tai Po Rural Committee building (second/third images - centre screen) was demolished circa 2014 to make way for a new Govt housing development called the Po Heung Estate.

In the top photo, the area behind the red flower boards was an open concrete sports ground and this is how it was when I first visited Hong Kong. I first visited in November 1995 so I think I must've missed the filming by only a few months - what a shame. Anyway, the sports ground was subsequently developed into the Tai Po Complex.

Les Anges Gardiens - Gerard Depardieu (1995) - Shung Tak Street, Tai Po Market

In the ensuing chase that started at the fake airport, the action quickly moves to Tai Po. Of course, the flow of the sequence implies that we are somewhere in Kowloon, but the actual footage was filmed in the small streets of Tai Po Market. This following shot was filmed in a place that may be familiar to a few people even if they don't realise it. It's the corner of Shung Tak Street and Yan Hing Street - directly opposite what is now the main entrance to the excellent Tai Po railway Museum. In fact this is the same view you will see when you walk down the steps from the museum entrance there. Believe it or not but that shop is still there.

The Last Grenade - Stanley Baker (1969) - Tai Po, New Territories

One of the key early scenes between Honor Blackman and Stanley Baker was filmed in Tai Po around the former fishing community at Yuen Chau Tsai. This is the same scene, previously mentioned, photographed by our friend over on Gwulo.com.

As a former resident of Tai Po not far from this very spot (I lived there for 6 years) I find this fascinating because the small shanty town here was very real and not created for the purpose of filming. Also my brother-in-law attended the school that can be seen in the background at around the time the filming took place (circa 1969). Anyway, the scene is set with a rather picturesque view over to a very misty Pat Sin Leng.

Then we switch to the road bridge that crossed the rail track and marshland next to Island House on Yuen Chau Tsai. The lower photo shows the two hillocks that are still around and house the Old District Office (North) - the larger hill on the left - and the smaller hill on the right that has the Tai Po Bungalow sitting on top of it. This latter is now the Norwegian International School Kindergarten. The white building at the bottom of the hill is the school I just mentioned. It's the Wong Siu Chi Secondary School and just recently celebrated its 50th anniversary. I believe it was the first Govt Secondary School in Tai Po. It's been expanded since then but the building you see below is still there. 

The camera is then moved further along the road as the soldiers' vehicle drive by. The mat-shed you can see in the top picture may or may not have been erected for the filming. It is certainly the location of a later scene but I'm not sure of it was built specifically for the movie or if they just took advantage of its existence. Again, we get a closer view of the school.

Amazingly, much of the space occupied by the shanty town has remained undeveloped. The huts sat on a small marshland (that flooded at high tide) where the Tai Po River emptied into the harbour and it was - by all accounts - a rather stinky place to be. When the New Twon development started in the early 1980's, most of the town inhabitants were rehoused in the nearby Kwong Fuk Estate and the marshland was re-landscaped so that the river ran down a nullah and the marsh area was reclaimed. Nothing major has been built on here other than a rather pleasant park and a petrol station. I've tried to recreate the same angle as the lower picture using Streetview. You can still see the hillock but the older school building is hidden by tree growth. The high rises centre left are the ones built above Tai Po Market station.

A little later in the film, Baker returns to the same spot to try and get information from the local population and has a good old wander around.

I Spy (TV Series) - Robert Culp (1965) - Tai Po Market KCR Station, Tai Po

Remember I mentioned the Tai Po Railway Museum in my last post? Well, for those who don't know, the Railway Museum in Tai Po was created from the disused KCR Tai Po Market Railway station. When the track underwent electrification in 1983, the whole process saw the fall of some obsolete stations as new ones - catering for the new electric trains - came into use. Tai Po used to have two stations: Tai Po station in Tai Po Kau (later renamed Tai Po Kau station to avoid confusion) and Tai Po Market Station in the old market area. Tai Po Kau was demolished and the site was re-developed into accommodation for KCR workers, and the Tai Po Market station was turned into this fantastic little museum - well worth a visit if you are in HK.

Anyway, here is another good reason to visit the place: in the episode Affair at T'sien Cha, we get to see Cosby and Culp waiting for a train at this very spot.

I was totally astonished when AP first sent me these screen grabs, I am so familiar with this place (I lived in Tai Po for 6 years and often took my kids here) and had no idea that nearly 50 years ago Bill Cosby had beaten me to it. Amazing stuff!.

The icing on the cake is also a nicely stitched panorama, also supplied by AP, which shows the platform in its entirety.

I can tell you that the station building still looks pretty much as it does here, although I believe at some time between 1965 and the 1970's a small pedestrian bridge was added to allow people to cross the track when the train was stopped at the platform.

NB: the track was doubled here because Tai Po Market station was one of the designated passing places for trains heading in opposite directions.