The Generation Gap - David Chiang (1973) - Junk Bay, New Territories

One of the gang's favourite hiding places is in amongst the wrecks awaiting deconstruction at Junk Bay/Tseung Kwan O. The large floating gantry structure was one of the so-called "screed and lay" barges that was used to lay a flat bed of stones on the seabed for the large segments of the original cross harbour tunnel to sit on.

I had a chat with Tymon who wrote that linked article (he is also responsible for the HKmaps.hk website that has been a huge help to me over the years) and he told me this was a very specialised job so the structures were basically custom built for a one-off use. This also explains why it couldn't be reused and was sold off for scrapping in Junk Bay.

The name on it is Severn River Trans-Harbour Construction Ltd. 

Following immense reclamation in the bay, that structure marks the location of what is now Pui Shing Garden next to the Ming Tak Estate in Hang Hau.

Anyway, it features prominently in the film as the location of Ling Xi's final battle against his fellow gang members as he finally realises he has spun out of control and no longer wants to be a criminal.

Flight to Hong Kong - Rory Calhoun (1956) - Haven of Hope Jetty, Junk Bay

Here's another one I forgot to post back in the day despite including it in my Gwulo rundown a couple of years back. I scratched my head for quite sometime before being able to recognise some of the background hills and pinpointing the location of this small pier. There's a little bit more information here, but essentially this wooden jetty/pier was constructed to facilitate access to and from the Haven of Hope Hospital on the west side of Junk Bay back in the 1950s. The hospital was built for the purpose of treating those with TB so the remote location was intentional. Even today, HK sometimes suffers from an outbreak of this disease, largely from being imported from nearby territories where it has yet to be eradicated. The lack of roads meant the only access to the hospital was by sea, hence the pier.

In the movie, this is the undisclosed remote island where the diamond thieves/hijackers force the passenger plane to land before making off on a small motorboat with their haul. The only thing we know is that it is not supposed to be in Hong Kong but somewhere between Hawai'i and the Asian mainland.

The hospital is still around, but the amount of reclamation in Junk Bay and subsequent development means that it is now a major urban area to the west of Kowloon (officially it's part of the New Territories, not Kowloon). The pier is long gone, replaced by Ling Hong Road and I could probably get there in about 30 minutes if I still had my motorbike. In 1956, this was a major outing for the film crew so I suspect this pier scene and the subsequent boat raid sequence were shot on the same day/shoot. The fact that Tony (Rory Calhoun) rides around in the same boat used by the diamond hijackers in this scene seems to confirm that.

Legacy of Rage - Brandon Lee (1986) - Tseung Kwan O Stage 1 Landfill, Tseung Kwan O

Brandon appears to be working at the Tseung Kwan O Stage 1 landfill.  At least that's where he is when Mr Wong drives up to him to tell him about May being kidnapped by Michael.

In 1986 the landfill was still pretty much in its infancy, but has since been completed and turned into a much more picturesque green hillock with sporting facilities and a promenade around the edge. In the background of the first image is Hong Kong Island. The camera lens makes it look much closer than it is. The buildings in the background belong to the Hing Wah Estate in Chai Wan with some of the ash halls/columbariums belonging to the Cape Collinson Crematorium sitting on the slopes behind. The third image is also looking towards Hong Kong Island with Mount Parker in the distance and Devil's Peak poking up on the right.

Flight to Hong Kong - Rory Calhoun (1956) - former Junk Bay, Tseung Kwan O

The attempted cargo heist scene was filmed in the, then unreclaimed, northern section of Junk Bay -essentially what is now the Po Lam area of Tseung Kwan O. Of course it's completely unrecognisable now and even the mountains you see in the screencaps below are now very difficult to catch a glimpse of from ground level because of all the high rises blocking the view.

The first image below shows the view looking almost directly northwest between Razor Hill and Tai Sheung Tok. The ridgeline in the distance is Kowloon Peak. This image is actually a stitch of several screen caps from a camera pan. It's hard to believe that all of this area covered by water is now solid land and has high rises built on it. 

The next image shows Razor Hill.The flattish area on the left side of the hill is Pik Uk Au where Rise Park Villas now stands. Old readers may remember that flat area was used for filming A Queen's Ransom, so you can see the reverse view (back down into the bay) here.

The next image shows the view towards the mouth of the bay with the top of Tung Lung Chau just visible in the distance and Junk Island on the right of frame.

Vanessa - Olivia Pascal (1977) - Joss House Bay, Tseung Kwan O

At one point in the film, Vanessa and her new friend from the house go and do some naked sunbathing on a secluded beach. It took me a while to find this place because it has really changed beyond recognition. This was a beach at the very tip of the Tseung Kwan O peninsula that is currently part of the so called Area 137 Fill Bank - an area of recently reclaimed land between Junk island (Fat Tong Chau) and Tit Cham Chau. In fact, a tiny part of Tit Cham Chau can just be seen poking into screen from the right in the top screen grab. The large island in the background is Tung Lung Chau and the smaller islet just beyond the beach is Kwun Tsai.

Sadly, the beach is no more and has been absorbed into the reclamation to become a concrete hard standing with a pier on it. But the outlook hasn't changed much. Sadly, these are the only images I can show that keep the blog within the "safe for work" category. There are some other grabs that show the view back towards HK Island.

Die Jungen Tiger von Hongkong - Robert Woods (1969) - Junk Bay, Tseung Kwan O

Another German film, this time shot in or just prior to 1969. This stars American actor, Robert Woods, as a husband coming to Hong Kong to search for his missing wife. The film also revolves around a bunch of rich playboys who get up to all sorts of illegal activity in a quest to fill in their spare time. The opening scene is of one of their own playing Russian Roulette for kicks on a beach in Junk Bay. The ridge line opposite is the headland in Yau Tong that ends at Lei Yue Mun. Devil's Peak is at the far right of the second picture. The massive changes in this area mean it's difficult to pinpoint the beach where the filming took place but my guess is it was in the area that now sits underneath the industrial estate.

A Queen's Ransom - George Lazenby (1976) - Razor Hill Road, Pik Uk Au

There's a twist in this film and it involves a Cambodian Princess (played by Angela Mao) and an accompanying shipment of gold. The Cambodian party set up camp on a small plateau overlooking a rather picturesque bay. It turns out the bay is Tseung Kwan O (Junk Bay) and the plateau has since been built on with various developments on either side of what is now Razor Hill Road.

This small plateau is in an area called Pik Uk Au - or Pik Uk Gap - and Razor Hill Road starts from Clearwater Bay Road just opposite the famous Pik Uk prison. This 1976 view is now blocked at the end of the road by a development called Rise Park Villa. Razor Hill (or at least a lower part of it) is on the left in the the bottom two pictures.

Bruce Lee in G.O.D: Shibôteki yûgi - David Lee (2000) - Clearwater Bay Studios, Hang Hau

Once upon a time there was a discovery made in the Media Asia film vault (Media Asia had bought a large portion of Golden Harvest's film catalogue in the late 1990's) consisting of a rather significant (for Bruce Lee fans anyway) amount of footage shot by Bruce Lee for his unfinished project, Game of Death. The footage had never been seen before and Media Asia licensed it to a Japanese company called Artport and a Canadian film maker called John Little. Little went on to use the footage in his acclaimed Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey film. Artport used the footage by incorporating it into this film: Bruce Lee in G.O.D (Shibôteki yûgi).

In order to make the docu-drama, scenes revolving around Bruce Lee's life during the making of G.O.D were filmed in Hong Kong using mainly local actors (Bruce Lee played by David Lee) but little was done to deal with the modern setting so we have basically lots of scenes involving the Hong Kong of the year 2000 but have to imagine it's the 1972/73.

Although I never actually made it over to Golden Harvest studios (one of the big regrets I have about my earlier trips to HK) I have been told that it was still standing empty in 2000 so I have no idea why Artport decided to use a stand-in for the sake of this film. The stand-in is in fact Clearwater bay Studios over on Ying Yip Road in Tseung Kwan O.

As far as I know the studios are still very much in use and run by Sil-Metropole who use it for both filming and post-production services. The buildings with the red roofing are staff quarters. In the top picture you can also see neighbouring Hang Hau village and the nearby high rises of Fu Ning Garden.

Ferry to Hong Kong - Curt Jurgens (1959) - Junk Island (Fat Tong Chau), Tseung Kwan O

Here is a real piece of forgotten history that took me a while to figure out. There is a sequence in the film when the ferry, after suffering a severe amount of damage in a typhoon, is struggling in to shore when a boat load of pirates - led by a very young Roy Chiao - come aboard to rob and pillage. As the boat is nearing the coastline we get a nice view of what looks to be an uninhabited island in the background.

Now, believe it or not but the strip of land in the background isn't actually an island at all, but is in fact the Lei Yue Mun headland, and the bumpy bit just behind the boats sail is Devil's Peak! Here is a modern day comparison of that ridgeline so you can see for yourself.

What you need to bear in mind here is that this area of Hong Kong has seen a vast amount of change with a huge amount of reclamation. I believe in the first shot we can see Junk Island (aka Fat Tong Chau) which has since been joined to the mainland (in this case with the Clearwater Bay peninsula) by reclamation, much in the same way that Stonecutter Island has been 'attached' to West Kowloon.

The shoreline we see above, in the fourth picture, was most likely part of the old coastline before reclamation took it away and replaced it with the Tseung Kwan O Industrial Estate.