7 Aum Arivu - Suriya (2011) - West Kowloon

Most of this film's Hong Kong locations feature during the performance of a song called "Mun Andhi" which appears to have been shot completely in the city.

The sequence kicks off at the West Kowloon waterfront (note the familiar shell-shaped tunnel ventilation building in the background of the first image) before moving to a variety of other locations around Hong Kong. The large sign they are standing on in the last image says "West Kowloon Cultural District". I'm not sure if it's still standing.

Aegan - Ajith Kumar (2008) - West Kowloon

Shiva manages to waylay the kidnap vehicle at the waterfront on the then undeveloped West Kowloon Reclamation. The weird shaped building with the yellow fins is actually part of the ventilation infrastructure for the West Kowloon Harbour Tunnel that passes underneath. Note the yet-to-be-completed ICC building at the back. Wiki tells me these Hong Kong scenes were done between 14th-24th January 2008.

SPL - Donnie Yen (2005) - Austin Road West Flyover, West Kowloon

The film's prelude is the story set up where the animosity between the cop and gangster is put into context - Wong Po (Sammo) killing a police witness and his family leaving the orphaned daughter in the care of Chung (Simon Yam). The killing happens on the Austin Road West flyover as the killer (Wu Jing) crashes his car into the witness car and then stabs the unconscious witness in the neck with his knife.

There's been a fair amount of change around here such as a traffic circle being plonked at this location and the ICC being constructed on the right side of the third image but otherwise it is still recognisable. The building behind Simon Yam in the second image is the control centre for the Western Harbour tunnel.

Something Good - Luca Barbareschi (2013) - West Kowloon Waterfront, Kowloon

Matteo's friends leave him at the restaurant because he wants to ask some questions about the cleanliness of the kitchen. It turns out that it was a lucky move because his friends end up dead along the West Kowloon waterfront. This is the same place that, the following year, the Transformers would bid farewell to the earthlings following the battle of Hong Kong.

Les Nuits Rouges du Bourreau de Jade - Carrie Ng (2010) - Helipad, West Kowloon

Although we see the approach to the helipad at the Shun Tak Centre, for the actual on screen touchdown it looks as though the film makers instead opted for the helipad located at the very tip of the West Kowloon Reclamation. I'm not sure what is there at the moment because I have never been, but a few years later this same location (more or less) was seen at the end of Transformers: Age of Extinction (the helipad is located roughly dead centre of the top screen cap in that linked post - where all the vehciles are parked in front of the Transformers). I guess the area is a bit more developed by now.

Transformers: Age of Extinction - Mark Wahlberg (2014) - West Kowloon Waterfront, Kowloon

During my first few trips to Hong Kong, the west Kowloon reclamation hadn't even started so I am always astonished when I look out of my window here in sunny Kowloon and see the ICC (HK's tallest building) rising from the middle of it. I keep expecting the thing to come tumbling down.

Anyway, the waterfront along here - which I still have yet to visit - was used for the few final scenes in the film. Although at one point the film tries to convince us that this area is in front of the previously mentioned Central Govt Offices on the opposite side of the harbour.

It's not just the robots that a made up by CGI trickery here either, some of the background has been manipulated to hide some unsightly views. For instance, in the top picture the tree-lined section at the back is actually fake and looks to have been created to hide the entrance to the Western Harbour Tunnel.

I think this might also be the first time the ICC has appeared on screen (on this blog at least).

CGI bots, CGI tree covered hill behind them

Looking towards the western end of the harbour

The Ritz Carlton is actually in the top section of the ICC

Ferry to Hong Kong - Curt Jurgens (1959) - Yau Ma Tei Typhoon Shelter, Kowloon

The ferry pier seen in the film was actually one of the public piers in Yau Ma Tei Typhoon Shelter and we get a good look around the area. There are some buildings that can be seen which have helped pinpoint the exact location of the filming and they can be seen in the following screencap.

The buildings to the left of the ferry are the blocks of what was formerly known as the "Six Street Slum" - a block of land that was once known as Marine Lot 39 but was recently (relatively speaking) demolished to make way for what is now a Govt housing estate called Prosperous Garden. These tenements and several of the streets (including Lee Tat Street) that made up the older neighbourhood were completely eradicated.  The white building on the right, believe it or not, is the rear wall of the Yau Ma Tei Police Station. It is the sole survivor and is still going strong.

That means the ferry is actually hiding the public pier and the end of Public Square Street that terminated at the water. The Govt archive has a direct comparison (albeit the following picture is from 1976 - 17 years later - but you can still see the white building on the right). If you look below you can see the same three blocks and the white Police Station building at the top right of the coastline.

Trying to compare the locale with modern day Streetview pictures is an exercise in the futile because it has changed so much. The typhoon shelter is all but gone now - filled in to create the West Kowloon Reclamation. Ferry Street is about the closest we can get to the old coastline (I suppose you can guess where it got its name from) and you can see another brief glimpse of this same area in The World of Suzie Wong (filmed a year later). However, here are some screencaps that show you what it used to be like with some modern comparison to look at.

The space we see behind Noel Purcell (top picture - he played the ship's engineer) was filled up by the Ferry Point Estate (building commenced in the early 60's).

As you can see the old public pier used in the film to stand in for the HK & Macau ferry pier, has gone the way of the rest of the typhoon shelter. Believe it or not, the coastline here - already moved west by reclamation by 1959 - is no longer within sight (it's actually about 800 metres further out). The view looking back the other way has also changed a fair amount too. The old blocks replaced by the previously mentioned Prosperous Garden estate. The YMT Police Station being pretty much the only surviving relic from the period.

The old spot occupied by the ferry on film now sits under the West Kowloon Corridor (that's the flyover you can see above). I know this is all about progress but it's comparisons like these that make me wish Hong Kong had a little less concrete and a little more open space.

I'll leave you with the best illustration of how development has affected this area. Pictures say a thousand words after all.