The Protector - Jackie Chan (1985) - Victoria Harbour

No film in HK is complete without at least one shot of its famous harbour, so here it is, albeit at night (arguably the best time because the smog gets hidden). The harbour is probably at least 100 metres narrower now than it was back in 1985. The brightly lit building centre-screen is Jardine House.

The Protector - Jackie Chan (1985) - Kai Tak Airport, Kowloon

It's been a while since I did a The Protector post because I thought I had finished it, however, looking back at the original post from 2010 over at my now defunct Wordpress blog, I realised I had included a couple of extra easy ones for the sake of completeness. So here they are so I can finish this one good a proper. It's a quick nighttime shot of a plane (supposedly the one carrying JC and Danny Aiello) landing at Kai Tak airport. Worthy of inclusion here simply for the fact that we all love Kai Tak.

The Protector - Jackie Chan (1985) - Tsing Yi Container Processing Terminal, Tsing Yi

These days most of the container business is concentrated on the SE side of Tsing Yi, but back in 1985 when this film was made, this site on the western side of the island, was a much busier place.

The container terminal is the setting for the film's finale where we see some naked women (hooray!), a fight with Bill "Superfoot" Wallace (double hooray!), and Danny Aiello blow up a sniper with a bazooka (triple hooray!!!).

We start with a view across the dockyard towards the northern part of Tsing Yi. The road on the right is Tsing Keung Street. The site is split into two parts, the lower part along the shoreline is the processing area and the upper part, seen in the foreground, serves as a container storage area. It's in the storage area that the baddies are supposed to have their drug labs (staffed by naked ladies for some bizarre reason that only James Glickenhaus can explain...or not). Actually, this whole view below is now dominated by the Tsing Ma bridge spanning from Tsing Yi to Ma Wan Island (that's the bit of land behind the derrick's upper part).

In the shot below we have Danny Aiello getting a jolly good eyeballing of the dockyard from the vantage point of the nearby hillside. The yellow derrick you can see seems to still be around, but whether its the same one we can see here is hard to say - the site seems to have had multiple derricks at various points, but is now down to one - perhaps a reflection of the fact that a large proportion of container traffic now goes elsewhere?

Anyway, in the shot below if you look carefully you will see a small island centre-left at the top. This is Tang Lung Chau and is a small rocky islet off the coast of Ma Wan Island.

The Protector - Jackie Chan (1985) - Nathan Road, Kowloon

It took the sharp eyes of my friend and regular contributor, Thomas, to spot the exact location of these grabs taken along Nathan Road for The Protector.

It's from the part of the film when the two heroes, JC and Danny Aiello, are fresh off the plane from NYC and hop in a cab to go to their hotel.

It was really the top photo which helped because hidden behind all that neon on the right hand side is a large vertical advert for the NanYang Commercial Bank (that's it with the red outline on the right) - more commonly known these days as just the N.C.B. The second grab was actually just taken a bit further up by about 100 metres and if you look carefully on the upper shot you will see that cluster of yellow signs in the background that feature much closer on the second grab.

Anyway, many thanks to Thomas and he kindly provided the current day location, from which I have made the following Streetview grabs. The top shot above corresponds to the top shot below and you can see that although the neon has gone and the buildings have changed a bit, the bus stop on the left remains.

And here is the same junction we see on the film shot where Nathan Rd intersects with Dundas Street.

The Protector - Jackie Chan (1985) - Fei Ngo Shan, Kowloon

In the scene when JC calls up the kidnappers to arrange a deal he makes the call from a public telephone box atop one of Kowloon's most visible landmarks. You may not know its name - Fei Ngo Shan - but if you have been to HK you will undoubtedly have seen it from some point or other. There is actually a road that goes all the way to the top so you don't have to be a mountaineer or hiker to make it there but once at the top views all over the territory can be had.

In the next screen cap you can see what was Kai Tak airport behind JC. At the time of filming this was still a bustling part of the territory, now it's a wasteland waiting to be turned into a cruise ship terminal.

The Protector - Jackie Chan (1985) - Far East Finance Centre, Hong Kong Island

In the film it's used as the location of the baddy's (Roy Chiao) evil HQ, but in reality it's the Far East Financial Centre - a gold-coloured skyscraper that has been sitting on the HK waterfront since 1982. Seeing as the film was made in 1985 then I guess the film makers thought it represented the modern look of HK. To be honest its bright gold colour may remind the locals of a bar of gold but to me it just looks a bit tacky.

The Protector - Jackie Chan (1985) - Shum Wan, Lamma Island

JC fans will know that there are in fact two versions of The Protector. There's the US version released internationally (that even did a stint at my old local Odeon Cinema back in Coventry when I was a schoolboy - though sadly I was too young to get in thanks to its 18 certificate) and the rewritten HK version that JC did because he was so pissed off at James Glickenhaus, the director. Due to the rewrite a bunch of scenes got chopped from the HK version and the following scene is one of them. It's when JC and gang go to meet Moon Lee's uncle on his junk only to find he has been killed and the boat set on fire (in the HK version he is found at a dockyard and Bill Wallace turns up again for another rumble). Here is a grab from the scene in the US version when they go to the bay and find uncle's boat on fire.

Check out the rock formation on the left hand side. This is important because it was key to identifying the location. So here is the same location today complete with the rock formation - although my camera hasn't stretched it the way the film's camera has (plus I was slightly further around as you can see by the angle).

The Protector - Jackie Chan (1985) - Man Mo Temple, Sheung Wan

Perhaps one of the most famous temples on HK Island rears its head in The Protector - 25 years after it appeared in The World of Suzie Wong, but looking very similar to how we now it today. You also get a nice shot looking up Ladder Street. Visitors to the area today will recognise the red-tiled round window of the neighbouring antiques emporium.

What has disappeared in the intervening years are the octagonal headed fire hydrant (a increasingly rare relic of  HK's past) and of course the red pillar box. Both were also seen on The World of Suzie Wong, but have since been replaced/removed.

The Protector - Jackie Chan (1985) - Former Victoria Barracks, Central

I have Pete Spurrier to thank for this one because he is the one who first suggested that this building was part of the former Victoria Barracks (as opposed to Central Police Station where I initially thought it could be) - sure enough old photos confirm the same buildings and if you look closely at the film you can see a large D painted onto the side of what I assume is this same building.

The D is a red herring because the actual letter given to this block was B. I have no idea why it was later replaced with a D (which referred to a different much smaller block that once served as the HQ of the Brigade of Gurkhas. Anyway, Blocks A through E, all built in the 1860's, were all demolished to make way for Hong Kong Park.

They looked like pretty cool buildings and it's a shame these ones have gone. Of course though several other former barrack blocks do still exist inside HK Park and are being used for multiple purposes.

Here is an older view of the block courtesy of the HK Public Records Office. Taken from the same angle as it was filmed, more or less.

The Protector - Jackie Chan (1985) - Shek Pai Wan Road, Aberdeen

Here is one that was quite fun tracking down - and its identification was in part down to my good friend Thomas Ngan.

It's a scene which shows us JC and Aiello heading to their hotel after arriving at the airport. Although the building containing the hotel has been redeveloped into Yen Shing Mansion, this almost circular building seen on film is still around and arrives here today courtesy of Streetview again. Here's the grab from the film.

And here is the location today: Shek Pai Wan Road in Aberdeen.

The Protector - Jackie Chan (1985) - Beas River, Sheung Shui

There is quite a story behind these gates seen in a scene when JC and Aiello head to return the bribe money to the gangster boss played by Roy Chiao. They drive to the New Territories location in a small jeep and you see them go through these stone gates.

Although they now front the Beas River Riding school - it managed to gain some fame as one of the Hong Kong locations used for the equestrian events during the Beijing 2008 Olympics (the other being Penfold Park) - these gates were once located on Hong Kong Island (in the Causeway Bay are to be precise) and were on the front of the old Jardines Stables. Jardines are one of the famous so-called 'Hongs' that were responsible for establishing Hong Kong as a trade base (mainly opium in the beginning). Jardines are still around and are the ultimate owners (through various subsidiaries and complicated cross-company shareholdings) of well known local businesses such as Wellcome Supermarket, Mannings and even IKEA.

On an aside, noted HK-based Bruce Lee historian - Paul Li - has told me that the pick-up shots for Bruce's final battle with Han Ying Chieh in The Big Boss we filmed at Beas River. I may have to look into this further and see if anything is useful enough to be included on this blog.

The Protector - Jackie Chan (1985) - Peking Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

Here is a shot of Jackie Chan and Danny Aiello walking along Peking Road in Kowloon on the way to the massage parlour in The Protector.

Peking Road feels much the same now, twenty five years later, although some changes ought to be mentioned. Club Tasogare only recently disappeared and was replaced by the Peking Road branch of Delaney's. This same sign can be partially seen in the rickshaw scenes with John Saxon in Enter The Dragon, so the club was around for a fair amount of time - 30+ years I'm guessing. In case you didn't realise it was a Japanese girly bar.

On the left you can see JC and Danny walking along the pavement (Aiello has a red jacket on) and behind them but above their heads is the old facade to what was previously the Hyatt Regency Hotel (and also formerly called The President Hotel). This was a popular hotel that came down circa 2006 (same year I moved to HK) and has been replaced by another TST monolith called iSquare (apparently the i stands for international).

Note that the building on the right of the screen grab, is actually still there and now houses a Giordano and Bossini store.

The Protector - Jackie Chan (1985) - Aberdeen Harbour, Hong Kong

Speaking of Aberdeen as we were a couple of posts ago, here are some colourful shots from JC's The Protector. JC hated the original film (largely because of excessive profanity and gratuitous female nudity) and even went so far as to film scenes for an almost completely different HK release.

Here is a 1985 view of the Aberdeen floating restaurants (left Tai Pak, centre Jumbo, right Sea Palace).

Very colourful. Okay, these days you can still find the dragon-style queue cover that extends to the road but the Sea Palace pontoon is now used for general boat traffic now that the restaurant has gone.

As you can see by my own poor photographic efforts - taken in 2010 - the Tai Pak has since been moved over the where the Sea Palace used to be. Actually, you have to look hard because the Tai Pak is quite squat and hidden by the various boats. The main thing you should notice from the film is how much Ap Lei Chau (the island behind the Jumbo) has been developed. Most of the high-rises you can see were built to re-house the many boat people that used to live in Aberdeen. The floating city has almost gone but the harbour is as busy as ever.

Here is a shot of the remaining jetties (taken from water-side).