Showing posts with label Valley View. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Valley View. Show all posts

Saturday, October 7, 2023

That Man Bolt - Fred Williamson (1973) - Valley View, Jardines Lookout

We interrupt this Legacy of Rage broadcast to bring you a location that I could not track down when I first looked at this film back in 2015. Over the years the tools at my disposal have got much better (3D GoogleEarth is a HUGE help) and so I had remembered this place from That Man Bolt. It's a rather nice looking property with an extensive garden that Bolt (Fred Williamson) wakes up at one day. It's been a while since I saw the film so I can't remember the story but I expect it was some sort of romantic liaison.

I was eventually able to identify part of the background and have pinpointed it to the property located at 15 Cooper Road in the Jardines Lookout area above Happy Valley. The building is still around and also goes by the name of Valley View (also 愉苑 in Chinese which basically means "happy garden"). It was built in the 1950s, and if you look at GoogleEarth you can still make out the kidney-shaped pool and stone bridge in the back garden.

I have no idea who owns the property but a lack of recorded transactions are usually indicative of it being owned by a limited company. This allows it to change hands via selling the company rather than the property - a common occurance in Hong Kong because it avoids Govt stamp duty and usually keeps the owner anonymous (unless their names get leaked in a "panama papers" style data dump).