Anak - Vilma Santos (2000) - Victoria Park

Some more of the opening scenes as we see a bunch of Hong Kongers doing their morning exercises in Victoria Park with the Central Library (note, Central Library is not located in Central, but in Causeway Bay in Wanchai District) in the background.

International Prostitution: Brigade criminelle - Jean-Louis Broust (1980) - Gloucester Road

The next scene shows the car driving down the section of Gloucester Road that runs alongside Victoria Park. On the right side of the frame are the residential blocks that occupy the block between Kingston Street and Cleveland Street. Just beyond is the Park Lane Hotel and Windsor House.

Strangers - John Simm (2018) - Victoria Park, Wanchai

The scene where Michael Cohen (the journalist) meets his ex-wife to strike a deal over child custody starts off with an establishing shot of Victoria park. You can see Central Library in the background. This is a bit strange because the actual meeting occurs elsewhere.

Ein Sarg aus Hong Kong - Heinz Drache (1964) - Caroline Hill, Hong Kong

Welcome to the year of the Rooster and here is a new film to kick start it all off. Ein Sarg Aus Hong Kong (English title: Coffin From Hong Kong) starring German film icon, Heinz Drache. Lots of good locations to be found in this film but we'll start off with this nice panorama taken from the hills above Caroline Hill. My guess - from the angle - would be somewhere near to the modern day "No.111 Mount Butler Road" development, but better informed answers are welcome. Of course, this view encompasses several distinct areas including So Kon Po and Tai Hang, but seeing as the Caroline Hill stadium is the most prominent thing in the first picture, that's the title I've gone for.

You can just about see the old incarnation of the Govt stadium at So Kon Po in the bottom centre of the first picture but the South China Athletic Association Ground is more obvious to its right. Scrolling to the right (east) you can see the open area of Victoria Park fronting the harbour and finally in the last picture on the far right is the former cottage/squatter area along the slopes of Lin Fa Kung Hill and Mt Butler. Autostitch has mapped them together into a nice panorama below (click to enlarge).

Spider-Man: The Dragon's Challenge - Nicholas Hammond (1979) - Victoria Park, Causeway Bay

There are a couple of views concerning Victoria Park, one from on high that is really focusing on the typhoon shelter but captures the edge of the park in frame, and a close up view as the film's protagonists go for a morning wander to watch all the oldies doing their tai chi.

The top picture below shows the aforementioned aerial view of the Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter with a very grassy looking Victoria Park at the top of the screen.

Just to prove that the park was once a nice grass covered bit of open space, here are some pictures of the actual grass...now a rarer thing in Hong Kong than Spiderman himself - most of the Park has subsequently been replaced by astro-turfed pitches and painted concrete. The same goes for most other parks all over the territory - finding real grass is difficult indeed.

Yellowthread Street (TV Series) - Bruce Payne (1990) - Wanchai Aerial View

Another one of the series' cityscapes that shows off Hong Kong in all its glory. This time we have what can only be a helicoptered shot taken from above the streets of Wanchai District. The shots, which pans south, starts off over looking the HK Island-side of the cross harbour tunnel and continues across Causeway Bay area. On the first shot we can see causeway bay Typhoon shelter and the tunnel entrance below it. The flat land to the right of the shelter (in reality to the south) is Victoria Park.

 The flyover that snakes away through town is Canal Road West.

Hennessy Road starting bottom left and
Morrison Hill Swimming Pool complex bottom right

Bloodsport - Jean Claude Van Damme (1987) - East Lake Seafood Restaurant, Causeway Bay

I take my hat off to Thomas for correctly nailing this one. I was convinced that the so-called "East Lake Hotel" was fictitious, and I was only partly correct. Indeed, the building used in the film was not a hotel but in fact a restaurant called the East Lake Seafood Restaurant, and it occupied the first floor of the Mayson Garden Building located on Hing Fat Street. This fact was later confirmed by Neil Macdonald who worked as the location manager for Salon Films when they were making Bloodsport.

Here are some of the comments from that particular bit of sleuthing.

Thomas: There are Chinese characters behind the No Entry traffic sign and it appeared to read 東湖, which looked like a Local Restaurant. 東湖 = East lake. Maybe they just faked part of the business sign...There is another Restaurant there today and its entrance is not the same as East Lake. Street View does not show the current restaurant though.

Neil: The East Lake Hotel was actually the East Lake Seafood Restaurant at the junction of Wing Hing street and Electric Road. Salon Films production office was just round the corner, on Wing Hing street. We only used it as an exterior.

Me: Thanks Neil - that sounds like the same place that Thomas had identified in the comments above. Or perhaps the other side of the same block?

Thomas: It's the same block! I'll try to take a few pictures the next time I walk buy for you. The current restaurant is the Majesty Chinese Restaurant (http://www.openrice.com/restaurant/sr2.htm?shopid=110018&tc=sr1). The current Street View did not show this though.

Now, the actual angle used on the film was indeed the corner where Hing Fat Street joins with Wing Hing Street and here is the best comparison I can do with the film without going down there and taking it myself.

The building facade has changed completely but the lights and crossing are still there, and on the screen grab from Bloodsport you can see the trees on the right that are located within the boundary of Victoria Park (this is essentially the NE corner of the park for those needing a bit of context.

Anyway, once again, many thanks to Thomas and Neil.

2025 Update: The restaurant that replaced East Lake has itself been replaced and it looks as though the space is now leased out as an old peoples' home. Also, Salon Media Lab have since relocated to the Freder Centre in Kowloon. In case you don't know where that is, Strangers used the same building as a police station in 2018.