Showing posts with label Wan Loi Tea House. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wan Loi Tea House. Show all posts
Friday, August 25, 2023
Bloodfight - Yasuaki Kurata (1989) - Wan Loi Tea House, Mongkok
Just when you thought Hard Boiled was the only movie to shoot in this now-demolished teahouse in Mongkok, there is a brief scene in Bloodfight where Ryu is partaking in what is known as "Yam Cha" in the local vernacular. Literally meaning to "drink tea", it is the Cantonese term for eating dimsum. The restaurant was demolished quite soon after Hard Boiled filmed there and I recently did a modern day comparison.
Friday, October 22, 2021
Wan Loi Tea House (雲來大茶樓) - Now and Then
I was in Mongkok yesterday and took the opportunity to grab a current picture of the block where the Wan Loi Tea House (雲來大茶樓) was located. As mentioned in my original post, the building was demolished immediately after the filming was done and replaced by the Sun Ming Building seen in my current image.
Saturday, October 9, 2021
Hard Boiled - Chow Yun Fat (1992) - Wan Loi Tea House, Mongkok
Actually, I'm not sure if this place had an 'official' English name, but the Chinese is 雲來大茶樓. This is the traditional style teahouse (with overhead poles for hanging your pet bird cage) where the shootout takes place at the beginning of the film.
There's a locations feature uploaded onto Youtube (from an old Dragon Dynasty release) which places the restaurant where the Langham Office Tower is today, but this is incorrect (one of several fudges on that short feature). The restaurant was in Mongkok but was located one block to the south, at the junction of Shanghai Street and Soy Street. The Sun Ming Building now stands on the site.
Sun Ming was completed in 1993, and wikipedia notes that the location was chosen because it was about to be demolished. They should have just let John Woo shoot for an extra few days and I am sure most of the demolition work would have already been completed. I would have loved to visit it when it was open because Hong Kong really doesn't have any teahouses like this anymore. Sadly, even on my first trip in 1995, I was already two years late.
If you want to know how to get there, Sean Tierney has put together a rather amusing little video for his (sadly on hiatus) "Silver Spleen" Youtube channel. Link here: https://youtu.be/kSExMu0MDg4
There's a locations feature uploaded onto Youtube (from an old Dragon Dynasty release) which places the restaurant where the Langham Office Tower is today, but this is incorrect (one of several fudges on that short feature). The restaurant was in Mongkok but was located one block to the south, at the junction of Shanghai Street and Soy Street. The Sun Ming Building now stands on the site.
Sun Ming was completed in 1993, and wikipedia notes that the location was chosen because it was about to be demolished. They should have just let John Woo shoot for an extra few days and I am sure most of the demolition work would have already been completed. I would have loved to visit it when it was open because Hong Kong really doesn't have any teahouses like this anymore. Sadly, even on my first trip in 1995, I was already two years late.
If you want to know how to get there, Sean Tierney has put together a rather amusing little video for his (sadly on hiatus) "Silver Spleen" Youtube channel. Link here: https://youtu.be/kSExMu0MDg4
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