Cracker: White Ghost - Robbie Coltrane (1996) - Tsing Yi Container Processing Terminal, Tsing Yi

The container terminal where Dennis imprisons his girlfriend is one we have seen before a couple of times on this blog, first in The Protector where it was used for the finale and secondly in Double Impact where one version of JCVD gets his butt kicked.

Actually, there are a few container yards here and the sign at the front gate (on Tsing Keung Street - see top picture below) shows that the space is shared by several companies. The place was looking a bit empty in Double Impact but it seems as though business was booming once again when the Cracker team turned up.

These days the place is just marked as "dockyard" and "open storage" on maps but I think it is still very much in use. The Exxon Mobil Oil Terminal seen in the lower two pictures is also still around and operational. Tsing Yi Road can be seen on the left of the lower picture as it curves around the southern part of the island.

Double Impact - Jean Claude Van Damme (1991) - Tsing Yi Container Processing Terminal, Tsing Yi

Yes, that's right, the same place I just posted used in the finale of The Protector was also used 5 years later for a scene in Double Impact when JCVD is taken by the gang boss to a deserted area and promptly beaten up inside a container by Yang Sze (aka Bolo).

I had been wondering where this place was for a while although I already knew it was the same location for both films, but have finally seen some clues on screen that link Tsing Yi with this place.

This was a toughy, but the combination of the yellow derrick, the raised appearance of the area and the nearby slopes, as well as the glimpse of the NW corner of Lantau Island in the background mean that this area is the upper storage level of the container processing terminal along Tsing Keung Street on the west side of Tsing Yi.

Of course, as I mentioned in the The Protector post, this whole area has changed significantly with much of the cargo processing moving to the Kwai Chung side of Tsing Yi as well as the creation of the Lantau Link (i.e. Tsing Ma Bridge et al) which now occupies much of the skyline in the background.

The Protector - Jackie Chan (1985) - Tsing Yi Container Processing Terminal, Tsing Yi

These days most of the container business is concentrated on the SE side of Tsing Yi, but back in 1985 when this film was made, this site on the western side of the island, was a much busier place.

The container terminal is the setting for the film's finale where we see some naked women (hooray!), a fight with Bill "Superfoot" Wallace (double hooray!), and Danny Aiello blow up a sniper with a bazooka (triple hooray!!!).

We start with a view across the dockyard towards the northern part of Tsing Yi. The road on the right is Tsing Keung Street. The site is split into two parts, the lower part along the shoreline is the processing area and the upper part, seen in the foreground, serves as a container storage area. It's in the storage area that the baddies are supposed to have their drug labs (staffed by naked ladies for some bizarre reason that only James Glickenhaus can explain...or not). Actually, this whole view below is now dominated by the Tsing Ma bridge spanning from Tsing Yi to Ma Wan Island (that's the bit of land behind the derrick's upper part).

In the shot below we have Danny Aiello getting a jolly good eyeballing of the dockyard from the vantage point of the nearby hillside. The yellow derrick you can see seems to still be around, but whether its the same one we can see here is hard to say - the site seems to have had multiple derricks at various points, but is now down to one - perhaps a reflection of the fact that a large proportion of container traffic now goes elsewhere?

Anyway, in the shot below if you look carefully you will see a small island centre-left at the top. This is Tang Lung Chau and is a small rocky islet off the coast of Ma Wan Island.