Police Force - Wang Chung (1973) - Junction of Prince Edward Road West and Waterloo Road

The police follow the woman to a hairdressers on Waterloo Road and send in Shen Yan as a pretend customer to see what she does. There are some nice views around the area before the Waterloo Road flyover was constructed. I believe the orange/brown temporary east/west flyover that can be seen was part of the initial works to build the Waterloo Road flyover which now traverses the junction from north to south.

St Teresa's Church in the background

Looking down Waterloo Road from the junction

This looks like a temporary flyover on Prince Edward Road

In this last image there are two pale yellow mansion blocks located at 116 and 114 Waterloo Road. Built in the mid-50s, both of these blocks were still around until quite recently, however, 116 (above the red car) has just recently been knocked down for redevelopment.

Hong Kong Godfather - Leung Kar-yan (1985) - Wholesale Fruit Market, Waterloo Road

The planned attack on the rival gang goes awry when a pre-emptive attack by them takes place as Han's gang are getting ready. I haven't been able to work out where the main attack occurs - it's obviously a warehouse in the NT somewhere but has been edited to imply it is adjacent/nearby - but the subsequent aftermath of Playboy Lung being chased takes us to the Yau Ma Tei Wholesale Fruit Market as he struggles to escape multiple machete wielding attackers. The fight continues through the narrow lanes of the fruit stalls before spilling over onto Waterloo Road as he tries to escape. Believe it or not but this kind of stuff still goes on in Hong Kong today.

Karate from Shaolin Temple - Kazuma Kenji (1976) - Baptist Hospital, Waterloo Road

Wu heads out to find a doctor for Musashi to help him with his wounds and heads to a nearby hospital to look for one, unsuccessfully. The hospital is the Baptist Hospital, or at least the original version of it. It's been expanded and redeveloped significantly since the film was made. The entrance portico you see below was facing west onto Waterloo Road opposite Cornwall Street.

Karate from Shaolin Temple - Kazuma Kenji (1976) - Waterloo Road, Kowloon Tong

Another one of the gang is seen leaving a love motel in Kowloon Tong (yet to be identified) and we see him being taken down Waterloo Road in a rickshaw. The building in the background with the arched windows in the Harilela compound (itself a location) with one of the married quarters of Osborn Barracks in the distance behind. This puts the rickshaw close to where Essex Crescent joins Waterloo Road.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Adam Baldwin (2000) - Kwong Wah Hospital, Kowloon

The bad guys, looking for a character called the "tiger" from some mystical prophecy, go into a local hospital to checkout the new borns. The establishing shot is the main entrance of Kwong Wah Hospital.

The hospital has a really cool museum located behind the main building, set up in one of the hospital's original Chinese-style buildings. Well worth a visit if you are in the area.

Bloodfight - Yasuaki Kurata (1989) - King's Park Reservoir Steps, Waterloo Road

Although this is also King's Park related, it's a little distance from the location of the other post and I thought this would be worth including because it is rumoured that Bruce Lee himself used to run up and down these very same steps to keep fit. Although I've never been able to confirm this myself, it is quite possible given that the steps have been there as long as the reservoir as far as I can tell (circa 1934) - and we know he went here on at least a couple of occasions with his dad. Perhaps Yasuaki knew this about Bruce and was paying a small homage to his former friend?

I can confirm that going up this set of steps is an absolute killer, especially if it's a warm day, but the reservoir park at the top is worth a look-see and has been featured on this blog in the past. In the film, Masa runs up the steps with his weighted wooden sandals on to train his legs.

Police Story 2 - Jackie Chan (1988) - Miami Mansion, Waterloo Road

After being harassed at her own apartment, May goes to stay with her aunt, but it turns out they have followed her there as well. Hong Kong has at least two Miami Mansions - there's also one in Causeway Bay - but this one is located on Waterloo Road between Boundary Street and Prince Edward Road West, right behind St Teresa's Church.

Waterloo Road by Yau Ma Tei Wholesale Fruit Market - Now and Then

I went for a wander last week and used the pedestrian bridge at the western end of Waterloo Road where it originates at the former waterfront (now Ferry Street). I was reminded that Tsui Hark shot an establishing shot for Knock Off here in 1997 so I took the opportunity to try and get a comparison.

It's been a little over twenty years since that film was made but there has still been a bit of change with the construction of a couple of new high rises (the taller one centre screen of my 2021 image is called "Waterloo Tower"). The building on the left is called the Wah Tak Building and has been given a new lick of paint, but other than that, the view remains fairly similar.

Vanessa - Olivia Pascal (1977) - Harilela Compound, Kowloon Tong

One of the more surprising locations from this film (or any film for that matter) is the use of the Harilela mansion/compound as the main filming location. In Vanessa, the titular character's deceased uncle owns this house and Vanessa has now inherited it. We go back to the property several times throughout the film and are a variety of views inside and out.

The house is one of Kowloon Tong's more famous (and certainly larger) properties and sits on the corner of Waterloo and Durham Roads. The Harilela family have interests in a diverse range of businesses but are probably most well known (in HK anyway) for owning the Holiday Inn Golden Mile on Nathan Road in Tsim Sha Tsui. The (recently deceased) family patriarch, Hari Harilela, started off in Hong Kong as a humble tailor before making some rather astute investments and diversifying into other areas. It was he who had this house built in 1967 (to his own specifications) with a view to having the whole family (numbering around 100 members) living under the same roof. The place is huge as a result - 82,000 sq ft - and it appears it's still not large enough for everyone as there is an annex next door used by the younger family members. You can see the GoogleEarth 3D rendered version of the property here. The SCMP also did a recent article on the house which can be viewed here. The video is worth a watch.

In the film, after being driven around most of Hong Kong by what she thinks is a taxi, Vanessa is dropped off in front of the building and our initial view is of the front drive as seen from the slope that comes up from the underground parking garage. There are a couple of striking wall mosaics on either side of the front door which can also be seen in the following images.

On entering the building, we catch of glimpse of the entrance hall with its domed ceiling and adjacent courtyards. These are details that can be discerned on the roof of the 3D rendering I linked to earlier.

At the other end of the hallway is the curved staircase to the next floor with a statue in the centre.

There are a few scenes filmed in other rooms as shown below. The first one is the Mogul room. It's the main entertaining area and has 32 gilded arches and a couple of huge dining tables. Apparently it's on the ground floor just to the right of the entrance hall. The second image I am assuming is from one of the bathrooms as it has a sunken bath.

The final image below is of the outdoor pool that sits in the south west side of the property. You can see the front drive with its mosaics/wall friezes in the background.

So, my only question is how did the film company get to use the property and would Mr Harilela have been so accommodating had they known what was going to be filmed in some of the rooms? If anyone knows the story behind the property in this film, please feel free to leave a comment.

T.N.T Jackson - Jeanne Bell (1974) - Kowloon Tong, Kowloon

After her rendezvous in the dodgy location where she was attacked and got to show off her (admittedly, very naff) kung fu skills, T.N.T gets a lift out of harms way by a passing motorist. The next couple of forward facing in-car shots were filmed just down the road from me along Suffolk Road (top picture) and then Waterloo Road. The rear facing in-car shots (close ups of the two actresses) were shot in the Philippines and not Hong Kong. 

The Nissen huts at the end of the Suffolk Road in the top picture belonged to Osborn Barracks on the other side of Waterloo Road. The hill in the background is the Kowloon Tsai Park hillock that used to host the famous Kai Tak checkerboards. In fact, despite the poor image quality, you can just make up the west facing checkerboard on the immediate left of the driver's head at the top of the slope.

At the end of Suffolk Road, the car turns left onto Waterloo Road in its pre-flyover days. Without the flyover we have a clear view up the road to the white telephone exchange building on the corner of Junction Road, and behind it is the main block of the Baptist Hospital. The block of flats on the left side of the road in the distance is Pine Tree Gardens and its still marks the corner with Cornwall Street opposite the hospital. In the distance on the hill side is Lung Cheung Court on Broadcast Drive. All these buildings mentioned are still around.

There's also another brief glimpse of Suffolk Road a bit later as Charlie (Stan Shaw) goes to see Elaine, who lives there. You can see the former military ground that occupied the space between Suffolk Road and Norfolk Road (Nissen hut in the background). The hill in the far background was removed in the 1990s to make way for Festival Walk. 

Yellowthread Street (TV Series) - Bruce Payne (1990) - Waterloo Road, Kowloon

Another Yellowthread Street location recently discovered, this time from Episode 5 - Angel Eyes. It's an opening shot of a road filmed as it's getting dark. The shops signs weren't much help this time but the layout of the road ahead made me think of Waterloo Road close to the intersection with Nathan Road. Actually, the opening image turned out to be a little west of Nathan Road at the junction with Shanghai Street. Most of the buildings seen in the images can still be found.

Heisser Hafen Hongkong - Horst Frank (1962) - Junction of Waterloo Road and Shanghai Street, Mongkok

Here is another impressive find by Thomas when you consider this film is 55 years old. The scene is not really important, it's just one of the many establishing shots that was used throughout this film, but it's just nice being able to locate these small snippets and give them a little bit of historical context. In this shot we are looking up Shanghai Street from the junction with Waterloo Road and there are various businesses that can be seen including what looks like a place called the "Mido" (not to be confused with the famous eaterie in Yau Ma Tei) and this place on the corner called "Goldengate". 

Also notice the rather new looking building on the left in the lower photo. This is #3 Waterloo Road and was built in 1962 - the same year this film was made, hence why it is looking so new. It's still there but, like with many other older buildings with balconies, the balconies have since been filled in (illegally!) to make more internal living space. Let's face it, these days the traffic on Waterloo Road is so busy it's not really the sort of place where you would want to sit outside breathing in all that vehicle exhaust!

Anyway, once again a big thanks to Thomas for going above and beyond the call of duty for this one. 

Heisser Hafen Hongkong - Horst Frank (1962) - Nathan Road, Yau Ma Tei

Yes, another shot from Nathan Road, again from the Yau Ma Tei area but this time looking north towards the junction with Waterloo Road. The interesting thing here is the fact that the English character in the film works as a reporter/journalist for the Hong Kong Tiger Standard. And here we see their offices back in 1962 at somewhere around where the Bangkok Bank building is found today.

The small block building in the background was at the junction with Waterloo Road (on the northern side of the road) but I have no idea what it was. Gwulo has a much clearer picture of it here, and I suspect the presence of a "telephone exchange" tag on that picture may be the explanation of what it was. Can anyone confirm?

Hong Kong Tiger Standard was the original name of the HK Standard newspaper, still in circulation but a sad shadow of its former self. The tiger in the original title came from the founder, Aw Boon Haw, who is more famous in HK for his Tiger Balm empire. The politics of the paper (and it's Chinese sister paper, Sing Tao) is now very much pro-CCP - a far cry from its early pro-Kuomintang stance. In fact, one of its former Editors-in-Chief is Robert Chow - a name familiar to a large "silent majority" of Hong Kongers who actually secretly want to punch him.

The Pillow Book - Vivian Wu (1996) - Nathan Road, Yau Ma Tei

As a part two for the last post, this scene quickly follows. This one was a bit trickier to track down though - the neon sign with the two characters "人人" seemed so familiar to me but I just couldn't place them. In the end I found out they belonged to a removal company called 人人搬運. Low and behold, the first time their website (http://www.yanyanmover.com/) loaded it had a picture of the very same advert - but no address.

Then I found a rather excellent little website: Neon Signs.HK, that has done a great job at collating the existing neon signs in HK. It's well worth a look. Anyway, it turned out that the sign in question is on the corner of Waterloo and Nathan (an area I used to frequently pass on the bus). Mystery solved and a great website discovered.

Here's the best view I could find on Streetview, closer views were obscured by a passing bus.

Knock Off - Jean Claude Van Damme (1997) - Waterloo Road, Kowloon

Just before JCVD visits his buddy Eddie and the mass chase and fight ensue, there is a brief glimpse of the Yau Ma Tei fruit market as seen from Waterloo Road. Most of the action is supposed to be happening inside the various warehouses and cock lofts of the buildings inside the fruit market.

Despite the wholesale fruit market being a fairly well-established part of Kowloon life, we've only come across it once before on this blog (so far).

As you can see even since 1997 a new high rise has gone up down the road (at the junction with Shanghai Street), but there is still plenty other buildings around including the block on the left of both the screen grabs and the Streetview picture. It's the Wah Tak building built circa 1964.

Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold - Tamara Dobson (1975) - Waterloo Road, Kowloon

This one was a bit of a head scratcher until I realised the bridge in the back of this shot was actually the previous version of the KCR railway bridge where it crosses Waterloo Road near Wylie Road.

This is the Honda motorcycle shop where John Cheung's character works and where the Chinese agents have their training room.

I don't think the section of building we can see above containing the Honda dealership is still around, I have a sneaky feeling it has already been replaced by a newer building called Nelson Court (built 2001). Of course, the camera angle may be deceiving my eyes because the section of store front does look very similar to Tsui Yuen Mansion which is still around today. Anyway, feel free to offer opinions on how far down the road the camera is positioned. There are some other things still around including some of the buildings at the background behind the track/bridge. The nearest one (yellow, on the right) is Gay Mansion (built 1966), and just behind that is the Tsan Yung Mansion (built 1964) - this was the same building that used to house the Blue Taxi Cab Company Limited seen in David Chiang's The Taxi Driver. It's the one with the curved lower floor facade and small red balconies. Following that, just behind the red balconies is the slightly older Liberty Mansion (built 1962). There is another older building still standing but it is hidden on the far side of Liberty mansion in this screen shot. Here is the modern Streetview for a reasonable comparison.

The KCR track has been upgraded to a double track in the late 70's and I suspect it was this event that saw the replacement of the bridge with its current much larger version.

In the film we get a brief glimpse of the view from the shop and the greenery on the other side of the road. This is the grounds of the Wylie Road garden and that space currently has a basketball court on it.

Yellowthread Street (TV Series) - Bruce Payne (1990) - Kwong Wah Hospital, Kowloon

A brief glimpse of this well-known Kowloon-side hospital as DI Vale (played by Ray Lonnen, who sadly died earlier this year) goes to visit a so-called Spirit Runner who was hit by a car.

Kwong Wah Hospital has a veritable history of its own which you can read about on wiki. But in the meantime here is a Streetview grab showing the same entrance today.