Third Street, Sai Ying Pun - Now and Then

Here's another location that has remained unidentified until now. It is from a sequence at the very start of Soldier of Fortune and is part of the opening montage of establishing shots that kicks off the story in Hong Kong. It's literally the first scene in the movie.

The brief scene shows a bustling street that really could be anywhere on Hong Kong Island but the clue to this scene is the right hand side of the frame (top image) which shows part of a concrete structure. The structure is the old Sai Ying Pun market, identifiable by the horizontal grooves that have been added to the buiding's exterior.

Here's how the same bit of Third Street looks today. The version of the market partially seen in Soldier of Fortune was replaced by the current version at some unknown point (please comment if you know when it happened).

Vengeance - Johnny Hallyday (2009) - Western District Community Centre, Sai Ying Pun

After the hit, one of the assassins is put into a line up for Hallyday to identify, but he has other ideas and the man goes free. Hallyday intends to make him an offer and waits outside the police station for him to leave so he can follow. Although still supposedly in Macau, the "police station" is one we have seen before on the blog and, coincidentally, it was used as a police station then as well. Here's the reminder. The first screengrab is the view up Western Street. The second grab is at the end of the building along Third Street where Hallyday is waiting. Interestingly, it looks like the film makers tried to keep the illusion of it being in Macau by putting a fake Macau-style street sign on the wall. 

Foxbat - Henry Silva (1977) - Third Street, Shek Tong Tsui

As the chase develops, we see the ambulance and various following vehicles charge down Third Street past a couple of famous local schools. The first one we see is the tail end of St Anthony's (top picture on the right with the red window decoration) and immediately next to it you can just make out the window shades/ledges of St Louis Industrial School next door. We get a better view of St Louis' as the camera moves further down Third Street. The school actually occupies the whole space to the right of the road, even back at the 90 degree bend that can be seen at the back of picture two.

Noble House (Mini series) - Pierce Brosnan (1988) - Western District Community Centre, Sai Ying Pun

What is supposedly Aberdeen Police Station in the series, is in fact nowhere near Aberdeen but in the middle of Western Hong Kong Island in Sai Ying Pun. Locating this place was made easy by the street sign in the second picture, but this place is quite well-known so it wouldn't have taken too long given the absence of other clues.

The Western District Community Centre started life as a hospital, the old Tsan Yuk Hospital to be precise, built in 1922 and still going strong. You can read more about it on the wiki entry here. It has been given a Grade 3 status which, as you should all know by now, means totally nothing in terms of its ongoing survival.

Real building, fake sign

Coincidentally, the building also contains the Conservancy Association's Centre for Heritage. Streetview below.