We're Going to Eat You - Norman Chui (1980) - Tang Chung Ling Ancestral Hall, Lung Yeuk Tau

We saw it just a few posts ago as the location where Wang Jang Lee picks up his kill contracts in another of Seasonal's films, Drunken Master. In We're Going to Eat you the place plays a rather more significant role as the location of, not only, the village meetings (where the food is divided up between the ever-hungry inhabitants), but also the location for the slaughterhouse scenes and the alleyway connecting the front gate entrance (Lo Wai) to the slaughterhouse area.

The area used for the slaughterhouse is actually a walled courtyard on the east side of the hall. You can see the outside of it on GoogleEarth here. Being a Tsui Hark film, we get a plethora of weird angles from low to high, so I've just included the more conventional views in the screen caps below.

The alleyway connecting the entrance to the courtyard is indeed an alleyway connecting this courtyard to the front of the hall. It's formed by the main hall structure and a couple of lower side blocks (one of which can be see in the courtyard grabs above). Remember, in the film the front entrance was actually shot over at Lo Wai (literally a minute's walk away).

And lastly we can see the main courtyard inside the hall where all the meetings take a place and is also the same location where the finale was shot as the remaining survivors set off fireworks as they rollerskate around avoiding the horde. This area is the one that is usually open to visit as part of the heritage trail.

We're Going to Eat You - Norman Chui (1980) - Tin Hau Temple and Courtyard, Lung Yeuk Tau

It was just a few weeks ago that I did a post for Mr Vampire that used the (now) carpark in front of the Tin Hau Temple in Lung Yeuk Tau. Well, here is another film that used the same space. In We're Going to Eat You it is the area in front of the temple/police station where Agent 999 first tries to speak with the chief of police before being attacked by hungry villagers. This is the same area later where 999's fellow traveller (Hon Kwok-choi) is captured following a comedy fight setpiece. In this film though we do get a peek inside the temple when it was still in a pre-renovation state of dilapidation.

We're Going to Eat You - Norman Chui (1980) - Lo Wai, Lung Yeuk Tau

The location of the village slaughterhouse, where all the victims are taken to be chopped up, is one of the walled villages along the Lung Yeuk Tau Heritage Trail. Lo Wai has some rather identifiable steps up to its main gate and although Tsui has framed the footage to prevent the gatehouse from being seen, it's obvious where we are. The front gate is the only thing we ever see though and I wonder if the reason is because even back in 1980, the villagers didn't want strangers to'ing and fro'ing through their habitat. The whole area was given some renovation a while back so its interesting to see what the area looked like before the heritage trail was inaugurated.

We're Going to Eat You - Norman Chui (1980) - Rocky Harbour, Sai Kung

Despite the opening shot being of Shing Mun Reservoir, when the next shots show the two unfortunate initial victims of the villagers after they have arrived by boat, they are looking at their departing boat as it makes its way across Rocky Harbour - the northern section of Port Shelter in Sai Kung, just off the north tip of Kau Sai Chau.

We're Going to Eat You - Norman Chui (1980) - Shing Mun Reservoir

I'm currently working on a bit of a Tsui Hark side project for a friend and as a result was watching Hark's second directorial feature, We're Going to Eat You, as part of my research. I honestly can't watch Hong Kong films these days without making the locations my main focus, so I usually have to watch them twice, once for the locations and then again for everything else.

The story concerns a village where the inhabitants are cannibals and trap unwary travellers, murdering them and then chopping them up for distribution amongst the villagers. It's a bit gruesome in parts but is most definitely a satricial comedy (a criticism of China's "Great leap Forward"). Melvin Wong stars as the reformed bandit, Rolex, who is sought after by Norman Chui's "Agent 999". Eddie Ko plays a rather evil village boss.

The film opens with a shot of the submerged trees at Shing Mun Reservoir and it's supposed to be the coastline of the plaace where the cannibalistic village is. However, I'm not sure how much subsequent filming was done here. Most of the forested scenes in this film make it impossible to know where they were.