Daddy Cool - Mammootty (2009) - Tai Mei Tuk, Tai Po

For anyone who has bothered making the trip out to the Plover Cove reservoir in north Tai Po, then you would have passed through the village of Tai Mei Tuk on your way there. All public transport here stops at the carpark next to the entrance to the reservoir dam wall. In this film they shot a few brief scenes of the actors riding the rental bikes along the road. The same area can be seen when Antony's wife (Richa Pallod) turns up dressed like a traffic cop. That scene was filmed in the south east corner of the carpark.

The lower images are from a car drive filmed along Ting Kok Road in front of the village.

Pataya, seen in the background, still operates

The Head Hunter - Chow Yun Fat (1982) - Sirmio, Tai Po

This location, Sirmio, on its own was one of the main reason I wanted to include this film on the blog.

One of three "castles" built by Eu Tong Sen in the pre-war period, this schloss-style mansion was located on the north shore of Tolo Harbour and caused a bit of a mystery for us on Gwulo/Batgung (can't remember which) back in the day. We eventually tracked it down to a headland now occupied by a large housing development called "Fortune Garden", just off Ting Kok Road. As you can see from the screencaps below, the building was on its last legs by the time this film was shot there and another of Hong Kong's grand mansions soon bit the dust and disappeared. Thankfully, there are some nice photos from the 1960s over at Gwulo and we have films like this to save it for posterity. Incidentally, there is one remaining artifact from the property that is still intact and it's a pagoda located on the headland above the water of the harbour. I have no idea if it has been integrated into the current housing estate or whether it can be reached from the beach. If anyone knows, please feel to comment.

Anyway, Sirmio is the location where Yuen goes to confront his boss only to be followed by both Vickie and the Yuen's crazy former Vietnamese army colleague, Kam, who wants to take revenge for Yuen abandoning him to the North Vietnamese back during the war.

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

For the remainder of the car chase, the film crew shifted to the northern side of Tai Po and Ting Kok Road. Specifically this is the section of the road near to Po Sam Pai village. It's here where the Yakuza finally get the upper hand and are able to kill the kidnappers and take the girls back to their families, only to find out the angry families were expecting the girls to be off to earn them money. The sandy area on the right of the frame in most of the images, was the formation works for what is now the Tung Tzs Nursery area - a small fish pond area between Po Sam Pai and Chim Uk.

Police Story 2 - Jackie Chan (1988) - Ting Kok Road, Tai Po

When the bombers use a public telephone box to make their next extortion demand, they use a call box in Tai Po near to the Tin Hau Temple on Ting Kok Road. The scene starts with a beat policeman walking along Mei Sun Lane (top image). This is an interesting shot for me because in the background is Eightland Garden. This is the very first place I stayed when I first visited Hong Kong in 1995. My friend's family had a flat in there. The taxi driver dropped me off on On Chee Road ecause he had no idea where the place was and I was left to wander around asking in my stilted Cantonese where the address was. An old person who spoke English took pity on me and showed me the way. 

Anyway, nostalgia aside, the cop takes a call to go an find out who is using the phone box. The phone box is on the other side of Ting Kok Road and the bad guy jaywalks across the road to grab a cab when he is stopped by the cop. Actually, this area looks very much the same now as it did back in 1988, with the exception of Mei Sun Lane which now looks slightly less ramshackle.