Narazumono - Ken Takakura (1964) - The Cenotaph, Central

A further meeting between Minami and the Japanese lady takes place at the Cenotaph in Central. Lots of nice views around the whole area including the elegant former Hong Kong Club. Sadly, Queen's Building had already gone by this time, replaced by the Mandarin Oriental Hotel a couple of years prior to filming.

The Road to Hong Kong - Bob Hope (1962) - Hong Kong Club, Central

In a rather weird use of stock footage, the Hong Kong Club is used to establish a shot that was obviously meant to still be in India. I guess this colonial style of building is one that can be found in many of the tropical and sub-tropical places the Brits decided to invade during their empire building. In the film, we see it, and the Cenotaph, from the direction of the southern side of Chater Road near to the Supreme Court building.

Noble House (Mini series) - Pierce Brosnan (1988) - The Cenotaph, Central

This area is off-limits to pedestrians these days but it does appear, at some point in the past, to have been freely accessible to the public. The other thing to notice in this scene, which I had failed to do previously, is that the Standard Chartered building is missing beside the HSBC building. This puts a date on the filming sometime around 1987. According to wiki, the Palmer and Turner (now P&T) designed current building didn't start construction until March of that year. In this scene it looks like an empty space, so whether or not that counts as construction started I have no idea.

Although I failed to capture it in the screen grabs below, the Cenotaph was only recently (Nov 2013) declared a protected monument. Modeled on the very same Cenotaph back in London, this one was originally erected in 1923 to commemorate the Great War, but obviously has since been changed to remember World War Two as well - quite apt seeing as the structure still shows obvious signs of damage from bullets fired during the defence against the Japanese invasion in December 1941.

Flatfoot in Hong Kong - Bud Spencer (1975) - Chater Road, Central

We are suddenly spirited back to Hong Kong-side as Rizzo and the Japanese boy walk along Chater Road with the old Hong Kong Club building behind them, as well as the Cenotaph, City Hall and the Supreme Court Building. Rizzo sits the kid down on the side of one of the Statue Square pools.