Yakuza on Foot - Tomisaburô Wakayama (1969) - Port Shelter, Sai Kung

The final scene, as the two gangs say their farewells aboard a couple of junks, was shot in the northern secton of Port Shelter. It's a bit misty but the background shows the low lying islets of Cham Tau Chau (left) and Pak Sha Chau (right) with the larger Sharp Island on the left hand side of frame. And with that, we bid farewell to this movie.

Yakuza on Foot - Tomisaburô Wakayama (1969) - St Paul's Church Facade, Macau

A final shot for Macau is of the St Paul's facade seen from a couple of different angles. The top image obviously taken from Monte Fort.

Yakuza on Foot - Tomisaburô Wakayama (1969) - Casino Macau Palace, Macau

The Oriental Travel organisation is based in the casino floating in Macau's Inner Harbour - the Casino Macau Palace. I may have mentioned in an old post that the original casino structure started life as the very first Sea Palace restaurant in Hong Kong before being bought by Stanley Ho, taken over to Macau and repurposed as a casino. This was back in the early 1960s. It appears that by the time this movie was filmed in 1969, the original structure had already been replaced by this wooden version, familiar to anyone who has watched The Man with the Golden Gun and other movies from that era e.g. Flatfoot in Hongkong.

Yakuza on Foot - Tomisaburô Wakayama (1969) - Monte Fort, Macau

Another of the establishing shots for the shift of the story to Macau is a couple of shots in and around Monte Fort. Again, you might be able to spot a couple of similar angles from, Narazumono, shot 5 years earlier.

Yakuza on Foot - Tomisaburô Wakayama (1969) - View from Penha Hill, Macau

The action moves to Macau as the location of Oriental Travel's HQ appears in the form of the floating casino. The first establishing shot is a view from the top of Penha Hill looking north, a view that was also captured, in greater detail, a few years earlier in Narazumono. In fact, it looks like the camera was located in exactly the same position.

Yakuza on Foot - Tomisaburô Wakayama (1969) - Temple Street, Yau Ma Tei

The gangs strike back by targeting the drug dealers on the street and grab a couple of guys from the front of the Tin Hau temple in Yau Ma Tei. Regular readers may recognise the old front wall of the temple with its square window apertures that can also be seen in The World of Suzie Wong, but this wall has since been demolished (sometime in the early 70s). What is still around though is the white building in the background, which is the Kowloon Government Offices. Note also that this was when Temple Street still ran right in front of the temple (hence its name), before this section was removed and replaced by the extended public square area.

Yakuza on Foot - Tomisaburô Wakayama (1969) - Tai Pak Restaurant, Aberdeen

The two gangs are on their way for some lunch at the Tai Pak when Oriental Traval once again attack them. So a shootout follows from the lower deck of the restaurant as the attackers zip past in a boat.

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.

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.

Yakuza on Foot - Tomisaburô Wakayama (1969) - Tiger Balm Gardens, Tai Hang

A perennial favourite in the foreign movie list of Hong Kong locations is the former Tiger Balm Gardens. In the film I believe that Haw Par Mansion is supposed to be the home of the big boss of Oriental Travel, but I may have misunderstood. Sadly, this film doesn't showcasee the place as it deserves, but luckily, we have a whole slew of films that have shot in and around here over the years.

Yakuza on Foot - Tomisaburô Wakayama (1969) - Sai Kung Tin Hau Temple

Immediately after stealing the drugs from the Sikh dude near the airport, the Chinese gang are next seen being chased along the front of the Tin Hau temple in Sai Kung village. They then run to the waterfront to the concrete pier and help distribute small amounts of the stash to the addicts in the hope of them reducing their intake will help ween them off the drug.

Yakuza on Foot - Tomisaburô Wakayama (1969) - Fui Sha Wai, Tai Po

More than ten years ago I posted about some of the sites the first season of I Spy visited in Tai Po and one of them was a walled village, Fui Sha Wai, about a mile or so north of the main town. Well, just four short years after those scenes were shot, the crew of this film turned up and shot a huge sequence in and around the village. This is the location chosen by the triads to confront the Yakuza for stealing some of their 'flower boat' prostitution earnings via the Yakuza's brothel in town. What ensues is a sword fight, Japan v China, before the gang from Oriental Travel show up and start shooting at everyone. It's here where the two gangs decide to settle their difference and come together to get rid of their common enemy: foreigners!

As I mentioned in the old I Spy post, the main gate of the village has been remodelled since the 1960s, but other than that the area looks more or less the same (albeit with rather more houses in the vicinity).

Yakuza on Foot - Tomisaburô Wakayama (1969) - To Kwa Wan Road, Kowloon

The scene where one of Oriental Travel's drug mules is attacked by the triads, and has his drug stash stolen, was filmed at the very top end of To Kwa Wan Road where it reached the perimeter fence around the Kai Tak airfield site. This location is now the start point of the relatively new Shing Kai Road that now traverses the old runway and airport site.

Yakuza on Foot - Tomisaburô Wakayama (1969) - Queen's Road Central

You might recognise the next sequence as being filmed on the section of Queens Road Central just up from the junction of Wellington Street and continuing around to Hillier Street area. Look closely at image 2 and you can see at the top of the frame is one of the domes that belonged to the Central Theatre - located where Central Mansion now stands at 270-276 QRE. There was a big discussion on Gwulo many years ago about what this roof belonged to until it was solved by user 'Herostratus'. This sequence is also reminiscent of the opening ambulance scene in Love is a Many-Splendored Thing, which tracks the ambulance down the same stretch of road at one point, however, I neglected to post it back in the day, so perhaps will chuck it up in a couple of weeks.

Yakuza on Foot - Tomisaburô Wakayama (1969) - Tung Kun Street, Yau Ma Tei

Whilst walking around, the trio stumble across a women they first met on the boat, and she says she knows where Shimamura's wife is and offers them a lift. The initial shot shows the men walking north along Ching Ping Street with the Ferry Point Estate in the background. As the camera changes angle though, we can see the car has just pulled out of Tung Kun Street. In the background is the Kei To Primary School building which is still around.