The Fighting Dragon - Yasuaki Kurata (1975) - Tsim Sha Tsui Bus Terminus

I think this was just a transitional shot, but it's worth including because it shows the old KCR train terminus just a few short years before it was demolished (in 1978, despite much local opposition to the plan).

Many of the shots in this film are quick zooms in and out and unfortunaetly the picture quality being quite poor means that there are alot of shots in this film that are too blurry to include. This one isn't so bad despite the zoom.

Karate from Shaolin Temple - Kazuma Kenji (1976) - Tsim Sha Tsui Bus Terminus

Following his fight, Musashi is followed around by one of the gangsters and approaches a girl who he thinks might be his long lost sister as she walks towards Ocean Terminal.

Narazumono - Ken Takakura (1964) - Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon

Narazumono (English title: An Outlaw) is a Japanese gangster film shot in 1964 starring Ken Takakura as a hitman with a conscience (I believe John Woo cites this as one of his inspirations for The Killer). This one was a real hard one to get hold of and so I have to thank my good friend, Arnaud, for lending me the French version. Sadly, this means the plot is really not something I could follow so well, but it doesn't matter because for me it is always the locations that matter most. This is a good thing because Narazumono has a whole ton of them, split between Hong Kong and Macau. It's one of the most comprehensive films I have come across yet in terms of the variety of locations. There are so many, I am finding it quite hard to locate them all.

Incidentally, if you can read French, then Arnaud's book on HK cops and gangster films might be of interest to you.

The film kicks off with Takakura's character, Minami, waiting at the waterfront in Tsim Sha Tsui for something or another. It turns out he is waiting for a target an is about to carry out an assassination. We get some glimpses of the harbour, as well as the area in the bus terminus next to the old KCT terminus, as well as a view of the hillside that the Marine Police HQ used to stand on before Li Ka-shing decided to rip it all up and chuck in a bunch of high end jewellery stores.

For the hit, a car pulls up and Minami jumps in the back to carry out his contract. We catch a brief glimpse of the KCR terminus, followed by the Star ferry before the opening credits kick in with a nice long shot of the station as it used to look.

The next shot then shows the car driving out of the bus terminus. The top image (below) is the view looking towards the junction with Canton Road. The tree topped hillock is the grounds of the Marine Police HQ and in the following images you can see the stone retaining wall of the hill on the left hand side. The old white YMCA building is beyond it and behind that, the Peninsula Hotel. You can just see the old fire station with its red doors in that last photo. Of course, this was thankfully saved and is still around.

Flight to Hong Kong - Rory Calhoun (1956) - Star Ferry Bus Terminus, Tsim Sha Tsui

A fair bit of action occurs around the bus terminus next to the Star Ferry pier in TST. We get a couple of views towards the old pier building (it was replaced by the current one the following year) as well as a quick glimpse back at the end of the film so that we can see the columns at the western end of the old KCR Terminus (last image). Note that the second image is a studio based back projection. You can tell by the different lighting and focus on the car in the foreground. You can see a nice colour shot from the exact same era over at Gwulo.com.

Le Monocle Rit Jaune - Paul Meurisse (1964) - Sea Terminal, Tsim Sha Tsui

This next film is a French film from 1964 called Le Monocle Rit Jaune. It's one of a series starring Paul Meurisse as "Le Monocle", a detective with rather nifty pistol shooting skills. The film starts in France before the action moves over to Hong Kong where an assassination takes place in Tsim Sha Tsui as a ship passenger disembarks near the short lived Sea Terminal.

The murder takes place at the bottom of the escalators of the circular structure that led up to the Sea Terminal building. This film predates the opening of Ocean Terminal by at least 2 years and it appears the Sea Terminal was a stop gap whilst the larger Ocean terminal was being constructed. We also get a nice view over the TST bus terminus (most likely filmed from the old railway building).

Sea Terminal

Game of Death - Bruce Lee (1978) - Star Ferry, Tsim Sha Tsui

Some shots of the TST Star Ferry and adjoining bus terminus from 1978 that I had neglected to do last year (yes, by now you should have realised how disorganised and adhoc this blog is).

Double Impact - Jean Claude Van Damme (1991) - Tsim Sha Tsui Star Ferry, Kowloon

I'm gonna kill a few birds with one stone here. As the number 1 thing to do on a foreign film shot in HK - we get the requisite shot of the famous Star Ferry ferries (now under-utilised and under threat due to stupid, but expected nonetheless, Govt planning and bureaucracy) and their Kowloon-side berth.

The first few shots show the ferry heading off to Kowloon-side, the film camera being positioned on HK Island looking north across the harbour. We know this because in the background we can see the Man Buildings (aka Ferry Point Estate) again.

On the last grab we can just see the gold buildings of the 中港城, or China Hong Kong City building that stands on Canton Road in TST - they are the 4 patterned glass buildings top right. Then we see the ferry pulling into the TST pier, this time with the camera on Kowloon-side looking south towards HK Island with Victoria Peak in the background. Look through the haze and you will see Jardine House just to the right of the ferry, and further to the right of that building are those that we just saw along Connaught Road. as mentioned in previous posts, this whole view has changed immensely and is now dominated by the IFC development which includes IFC2 - HK's second tallest building.

Finally we disembark the ferry and take a right along the sea front right next to the public piers. If you have ever caught a shuttle over to the restaurants on Lamma Island - this is the place you are usually picked up. The round metal railings you can see are still there, as is the ferry building behind.

The last shot shows us looking back towards the bus terminus behind JCVD. This was for a while under threat of being redeveloped into a sterile plaza - the bus terminus was going to be relocated to the other side of Nathan Road - almost certainly the final nail in the coffin of the Star Ferry. Thankfully, in this case the uproar was so loud that the Govt suddenly woke up to the nonsense of the idea and the Star Ferry lives on...until the next time that is.

The World of Suzie Wong - William Holden (1960) - Bus Terminus, Tsim Sha Tsui

Not much has changed here since 1959/60 when the film was shot, however, one major change is the rebuilding of Star House at the back from this humble two-storey place into the 18+-storey place it is today. Plans were afoot to turn the bus terminus into a plaza and move the buses to Mody Rd, but I believe this stupid idea has been thwarted by some people with rather more common sense than is usually shown by HK Govt bureaucrats. It's a good job because moving the buses away would almost certainly finish off the Star Ferry once and for all.