Forbidden Nights - Melissa Gilbert (1990) - Yuen Yuen Institute, Tsuen Wan

This next film is a made-for-TV biopic that details the experience of Judith Shapiro when she went to China to teach English in 1979. It stars Melissa Gilbert as Shapiro and Robin Shou as her love interest, Liang Heng (spoiler alert: later, husband), and their clandestine affair that causes all kinds of trouble for everyone. There are some interesting locations used in the film, including one which I have been familiar with for quite some time but never knew it was ever used in a film, until now. More on that in a later post.

One of the first main locations is the Yuen Yuen Institute which is used as the backdrop for Shapiro's trip to Beijing. Those familar with this place will know it contains an ornate pagoda modeled on the Temple of Heaven in Beijing. Given that this film was shot circa 1990, it's no surprise that the film makers chose Hong Kong as the substitute given the events of the previous year and the touchy film subplot (dare I even say it in the current Hong Kong political environment) concerning democracy protests. The film also has a co-starring role from Tzi Ma. Both he and Robin Shou no doubt fresh off their filming for Yellowthread Street the year prior. Tzi played Det. Eddie Pak throughout the whole series and Shou apeared in the episode The Red Pole.
 

Gen Y Cops - Edison Chen (2000) - Tsuen Wan Plaza, Tsuen Wan

Tsuen Wan Plaza is the mall that Kurt runs into as he tries to escape being caught.

Hacker - Callan McAuliffe (2016) - Ting Kau Bridge, Tsing Yi

On their way from the airport to town, the trio's taxi takes them across the Ting Kau Bridge. Although in true HK Taxi driver style, it looks like he is taking them the long way around by driving north over the bridge towards Tsuen Wan area. You can see Tsing Yi and the Tsing Ma Bridge in the background. However, in the second image, the taxi is heading back the other way, so maybe they cottoned on to his overcharging shenanigans?

Operation Lipstick - Cheng Pei-pei (1967) - Tai Mo Shan Road, Tsuen Wan

In case you weren't convinced that the previous location was Route Twisk, the next shot of the kidnap truck shows it turning off Route Twisk and up Tai Mo Shan Road. You can barely make out the words of the road sign but this junction looks quite similar even today despite all the extra tree and vegetation growth covering the hillside. Here's a GoogleEarth comparison.

Operation Lipstick - Cheng Pei-pei (1967) - Route Twisk, Tsuen Wan

The next movie comes courtesy of Celestial's Youtube channel (@ShawBrosCinema) which has put up several videos of their remastered Shaw Bros collection that I assume have not yet been picked up  by anyone for license/release. A big shout out to Will Kouf of SilverEmulsion.com who made me aware of the channel via his Bluesky account.

The film is a comedy starring Cheng Pei-pei (RIP) as a night club singer who is embroiled into James Bond type intrigue as a gang kidnaps a a scientist in an attempt to get hold of the plans of his ground breaking science invention.

The opening exterior shots of this movie involve the doctor's car being hijacked despite its police outrider escort. These scenes were all shot along Route Twisk - the former military road that snakes across the west and north slopes of Tai Mo Shan, Hong Kong's highest mountain. The modern views of these sections of the road are so covered in trees that it was quite hard to find the exact locations, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

Karate from Shaolin Temple - Kazuma Kenji (1976) - Yuen Yuen Institute, Tsuen Wan

Wu pursues the boss man to the Yuen Yuen Institute where he and Musashi get into it as Musashi mistakenly tries to protect the boss from who he believes to be the bad guy. This is also the same place where Wu meets Musashi again later and the pair are seen by the gang, leading to Musashi's capture.

The place has changed a bit over the years but elements seen in the screen shots below are still around such as the small pagodas and the archway behind the actor in the second image. However, I don't think the yellow arch seen in the last two images is still around and believe it was replaced by the current larger ornamental gateway.

The Peking Medallion - Robert Stack (1967) - Dragon Garden, Tsuen Wan

While we're on the subject of Dragon Garden, a quick interruption for another pandemic find that I neglected to post earlier. This is a throw back to seven years ago when I was posting locations for The Peking Medallion. In the film, Nancy Kwan plays the ruthless head of a local triad and we are first introduced to her as she is swimming in a pool at her gang headquarters. In reality the gang HQ was Ching Chun Koon in Tuen Mun (see this post for the reminder). However, the pool that Nancy is initially seen swimming in was elsewhere...Dragon Garden. The give away is the curved, red railing on the steps down to the pool.

The Head Hunter - Chow Yun Fat (1982) - Dragon Garden, Tsuen Wan

Yuan's boss takes his own orders from an even higher bossman who lives at Dragon Garden in Tsuen Wan. This place is no stranger to this blog as it has been featured in multiple films and TV shows, although most people only know it from The Man with the Golden Gun (here's the full list so far). It's currently leased to a religious educational institute.

Hitman - Jet Li (1998) - Riviera Ice Chalet, Tsuen Wan

The ice rink that Lo's daughter takes Fu to, to try and pick his brain, was the Riviera Ice Chalet located on 3/F of Riviera Plaza in Tsuen Wan. Sadly the place closed down circa 2012 and it looks like the whole mall was closed down the year after. The mall is attached to a large residential development (Riviera Gardens) and due to its difficult-to-reach location failed to attract anyone other than nearby residents. The structure is still there but apparently now empty. Although it seems that the mall owners are in talks with international schools about turning it into the Hong Kong branch of a western private fee-paying school. Time will tell. It seems though that since then it has appeared in a couple of movies including Donnie Yen's Raging Fire. Perhaps I will try and get a copy to see at some point.

Rich and Famous - Chow Yun Fat (1987) - Yuen Yuen Institute, Tsuen Wan

The respected leader of the gang committe (or whatever he is) calls for a meeting between the two warring gangsters at the Yuen Yuen Institute in Tsuen Wan. A popular filming location for local and foreign movies alike (see here).

We're Going to Eat You - Norman Chui (1980) - Shing Mun Reservoir

I'm currently working on a bit of a Tsui Hark side project for a friend and as a result was watching Hark's second directorial feature, We're Going to Eat You, as part of my research. I honestly can't watch Hong Kong films these days without making the locations my main focus, so I usually have to watch them twice, once for the locations and then again for everything else.

The story concerns a village where the inhabitants are cannibals and trap unwary travellers, murdering them and then chopping them up for distribution amongst the villagers. It's a bit gruesome in parts but is most definitely a satricial comedy (a criticism of China's "Great leap Forward"). Melvin Wong stars as the reformed bandit, Rolex, who is sought after by Norman Chui's "Agent 999". Eddie Ko plays a rather evil village boss.

The film opens with a shot of the submerged trees at Shing Mun Reservoir and it's supposed to be the coastline of the plaace where the cannibalistic village is. However, I'm not sure how much subsequent filming was done here. Most of the forested scenes in this film make it impossible to know where they were.

A Touch of Zen - Hsu Feng (1971) - Shing Mun Reservoir, Tsuen Wan

While we're on the subject of King Hu films supposedly shot only in Taiwan, I thought it is worth including some shots of the last 30 minutes or so of A Touch of Zen. The Chinese title 俠女  (Haap Lui in Cantonese) means "chivalrous woman" and refers to the main character, Yang Hui-ching (Hsu Feng), who has escaped the clutches of a corrupt eunuch who has had her family killed. Most of the film was indeed shot in Taiwan, but the last half hour of extended finale - as the righteous fugitives battle the eunuch's military commander (Han Ying-chieh) and his two sons (one of them played by Sammo Hung) - was shot at two locations in Hong Kong.

This first location is when Mr Gu, along with his newly-acquired baby son, falls asleep among some trees next to what looks like a river. The river is in fact Shing Mun Reservoir and the trees are a cluster of paperbark trees which are quite famous at this location and have featured in numerous films over the years. In fact, King Hu returned here the next year to shoot scenes for The Valiant Ones.

This area is located at the northwest side of the reservoir and is fairly easy to get to. It has changed a bit (and the reservoir is never quite this full these days) but the paperbark trees are still there.

The film's star, Hsu Feng, retired from the film world a while back and now runs a large property development company in Hong Kong set up by her late husband (Tomson Group).

Bloodfight - Yasuaki Kurata (1989) - Yuen Yuen Institute, Tsuen Wan

A popular filming place, the Yuen Yuen Institute is where, after agreeing to become his student, Masa takes Ryu for some training and philosophical pep talks.