Crossing Hennessy - Jacky Cheung (2010) - Mount Austin Road, The Peak

After a successful day's photo shoot, Loy and Man-yu have a takeout in her car parked along Mt Austin Road. You can see the famous "Umbrella Seat"in the background of the first image below. The car is parked next to a luxury residential development imaginatively called "The Mount Austin".

Soldier, Soldier - Robson Green (1992) - Mount Austin Road, The Peak

Once again we find ourselves at the small junction where Mt Austin Road meets a small names road that connects to Lugard Road in front of the so-called 'Umbrella Seat'. It's a popular spot on this blog, though that's not surprising given the open view it offers of the harbour and beyond (assuming there's no smog of course).

The house in the background is #25 Lugard Road (aka Bishop's Lodge). It must be one of the most photographed private buildings in HK by default. There's also a nice panning shot taking in the view, but I've merged it into the panorama below rather than chuck up several separate screen grabs. It's hard to tell if the yellow colour is from the quality of the film print or whether it's pollution. But, in all honesty, the view is a lot clearer than most days during the winter time.

Chinese Box - Jeremy Irons (1997) - Mount Austin Road, The Peak

This place keeps cropping up every so often. It's the nameless connecting road between Mount Austin Road and Lugard Road up by the old umbrella seat.

Kung Fu Killers - Grant Page (1974) - Mount Austin Road, The Peak

Back again to Mt Austin Road (we were just here with The Man From Hong Kong), or at least the small nameless road that links it with Lugard Road by the 'Umbrella Seat'. In this instance, Page is up to some kung fu shenanigans with movie actor Carter Wong.

The Man from Hong Kong - Wang Yu (1975) - Mount Austin Road, The Peak

We've been up at the umbrella seat on Mt Austin Road before, this time though it's with Wang Yu who was unanimously described as a complete wanker (a real nasty piece of work, I believe someone also said) by everyone who worked with him on this film (and this seems to be a general opinion of the man anyway).

Anyway, here we are above the city with its great view from the area of the Umbrella Seat. This is one of only two or three scenes from the film that weren't filmed from a helicopter. Most of the real action was filmed in Australia.

I believe that might be the house known as the Haystack on the top right above?

Yellowthread Street (TV Series) - Bruce Payne (1990) - Mount Austin Road, The Peak

More specifically the area around the famous and rather antique "Umbrella Seat" that sits at the junction of Mt Austin Road and the nameless path that connects it to Lugard Road down the slope. The cops are following the so-called Middleman and follow him here from the vehicular ferry pier (because its just a short walk away, right...?). The first shots esatablish the location bu giving us a nice (although a bit hazy even for 1989) view over the harbour starting with a side view of #25 Lugard Road (see first pic below).

A familiar view to anyone who has been up to the Peak, but vastly different from the current view due to the addition of many new buildings - too many to list.

We get to look down the nameless path that connects Mt Austin Rd with Lugard Rd.

Those last two shots show the so-called Umbrella Seat with its great view over the harbour. According to comments over on Gwulo (see earlier link), this 1989 version of the seat was actually erected in the 1920's. The roof was changed at some point to a slatted version before the original was restored - perhaps because the people responsible (don't ask me who it would be, HK Govt is notoriously filled with Depts and sub-Depts that spend all their useful time passing the buck around themselves, no one ever willing to take responsibility for anything) realised its provenance?

Here's how it looks today courtesy of Streetview. Note the roof seen in 1989 is back in place following its short vacation sometime in the 00's. Or perhaps it is just an identical replacement? Who knows...?

The final shot shows us looking back down Mt Austin Road as the Middleman is not-too-subtly followed back. There isn't much of a wide angle in the screencap, but you can see from the Streetview that the garden on the right has had a bit of a revamp. We've also lost a lot of trees in the background - I'll assume that happened when they built the houses on the left - part of The Mount Austin development.