Wader Studios on Castle Peak Road - Now and Then

Here's another comparison that people might appreciate, especially those who were unaware of the whereabouts of Wader Studios (there have been a surprising number of inaccurracies over the years, most recently in the "World Film Locations: Hong Kong" book by Intellect Books which, weirdly, placed the studios in what I believe is Kwai Chung Park!).

Anyway, this is the view along Castle Peak Road just north of Shek Pai Street. The top image is a merge from the Thai film Aorm Aok Jao Praya supplied to me by my UK based friend AP (who has been instrumental in sourcing many of the films I have used on the blog at his own expense), you can see the original screencaps here. The old studios were replaced by the Wah Tat Industrial Buildings, two blocks of which can be seen on the left of my image below. The Now image was taken back in 2019 when a visiting Lee fan wanted to see where Bruce Lee had filmed the HK studio shots for The Big Boss. Sadly, there is nothing tangible left to show.

Aorm Aok Jao Praya - Arunya Narmwong (1972) - Wader Studios, Kwai Chung

The best thing about getting my hands on this film is that it cleared up an old mystery that has been bugging me for a few years. This film provided the answer courtesy of this following location. This is Wader Studios on castle Peak Road just outside of Tsuen Wan. It was an independent company with three large sound stages and various post production facilities that made its money by renting out its facilities to other film companies rather than making its own movies. It's believed that more than 1000 films were made here during its 20 year operation until it closed in 1973 and was redeveloped into the Wah Tat Industrial buildings. There is a very detailed history of the place here, but I should say that the guy who wrote it is a d*&k for downloading my Wader screen grab (from Die Mädchen von Hongkong), cropping off the watermark and not even giving me a link back or reference. I had to add one myself in the comments...

Anyway, we've seen the exterior of the studio before. The building was used in Die Jungen Tiger von Hongkong , Heisser Hafen Hongkong and Die Mädchen von Hongkong. At least these are the ones I have found so far, there may be more (like this one).

However, I had no idea what was on the other side of that building until this film showed me and I suddenly realised that this was the same location that this scene was filmed in Die Jungen Tiger von Hongkong AND that Bruce Lee had been photographed at whilst completing pick-up shots for The Big Boss - you can see a large selection of those photos here, but in particular note this one (and similar) and this one. So another mystery eventually solved, completely by fluke.

On with our Thai film. Our heroine is being escorted around Hong Kong by a chaperone who takes her to see a film being made at Wader Studios. We get a nice shot of the car approaching and turning into the front of the studio along Castle Peak Road.

Once behind the front office, we come to the garden (for want of a better word) that separated the front building from the sound stages which can be seen in the background below. This is the area where Bruce lee was photographed and also where that earlier scene from Die Jungen Tiger von Hongkong was filmed.

We then catch a view looking back up towards the main building and if you clicked on the second Bruce Lee photo link I provided above, you should be able to see that this is the same building that Bruce is standing in front of as he monkeys around for the camera complete with those rather unique red light posts. I'm glad to finally have this mystery solved.

Die Jungen Tiger von Hongkong - Robert Woods (1969) - Wader Studios, Kwai Chung

Here's another old location that I was struggling to find but the answer just landed in my lap courtesy of a Thai film I have been watching called Aorm Aok Jao Praya (Thai: อ้อมอกเจ้าพระยา). This location has also been stumping me for a while because it also features as a place where Bruce Lee was photographed during production of The Big Boss and I could never work out where he was, even though it was obviously somewhere in Hong Kong.

Anyway, mystery solved and it turns out this is on the back lot at Wader Studios. I'll put up lots more screen images when I get around to posting about the Thai film I just mentioned, but until then here are the images from this German film from 1969. Incidentally, you may remember that in this film, the exterior part of Wader also stood in for a warehouse in Singapore for this scene.

Die Jungen Tiger von Hongkong - Robert Woods (1969) - Wader Studios, Kwai Chung

After rarely seeing Wader at all on this blog, it has been popping up left, right and centre throughout these German productions. In this film it is filling in as a freight processing centre in Singapore. The intrepid heroes have blagged their way into delivering a suspect cargo in an attempt to find out what may have happened to Woods' wife. However, Singapore was a bit beyond the films budget and so the crew just headed over to Kwai Chung and stuck a sign on the front of the studio block - much like they did in Heisser Hafen Hongkong.

Das Mädchen von Hongkong - Joachim Fuchsberger (1973) - Wader Studio, Kwai Chung

I mentioned the area around Wader Studio in the last post and part of the old front wall has shown up in this film. It's the only identifiable piece of the studio that I can see (there are likely other bits but because of the general lack of information out there they are most likely going unidentified by yours truly).

Anyway, the giveaway in this shot is the large characters on the gate which are the Chinese name of the Wader studio (華達).

If you want to see where the gate was in relation to another post featuring the studio, then Gwulo.com has a picture that will help.

This last shot of Joachim Fuchsberger was snapped looking out from the main gate back towards Castle Peak Road. The studio closed not soon after this film was made.

Heisser Hafen Hongkong - Horst Frank (1962) - Wader Studios, Kwai Chung

The year before Horst Frank and Brad Harris filmed Weiße Fracht für Hongkong they were in HK to film another German potboiler by the name of Heisser Hafen Hongkong (English title: Hot Harbour Hongkong). Once again, Horst Frank plays the baddie whilst Brad Harris takes on the role of a HK Police Inspector.

Coincidentally, after only just recently talking about Wader Studios over on Gwulo.com, the building cropped up at the start of this film standing in for a factory in Japan. The exact location seems to be elusive with various places given but I think the theory that the Wah Tat Industrial Centre was built on the old site holds more water simply because the Chinese name of these buildings is the same as the Chinese name for the studio (華達 - Wah Tat).

 The position might be further confirmed by the third picture which shows the opposite side of the Castle Peak Road. The type of stone shown on the opposite bank is very similar to the road bank opposite the factories today - although there has been extensive further excavation to widen the road and also to create the Shek Lai playground.