Rich and Famous - Chow Yun Fat (1987) - Wong Nai Chung Road, Happy Valley

Lam and Mak pull up and park their scooter in the small car park on Wong Nai Chung Road, opposite St Paul's Primary Catholic School. Yung and the hitmen park their old red Jaguar not far away near a circular tree planter. In the film this is supposed to give them a view up to the church, but in reality is at least 100m up the road from where the church is located on Broadwood Road. In the last image you can see a low canopy in the top right of the frame.This was located in the playground of the school and was still there until just a few years ago. It was removed sometime between 2016 and 2020.

Ultraviolet - Milla Jovovich (2006) - Parsee Cemetery, Happy Valley

After the rebel hemophages take the boy "Six" to kill him, Violet (Jovovich) follows them to a cemetery. It's not shown on screen but the large masonry arch is the entrance to the Parsee cemetery in Happy Valley.

I haven't been to this particular cemetery yet (I've only visited the Muslim and Jewish ones - both very interesting to wander around), so I can only assume the scenes following were filmed inside the same cemetery. I'll make an effort and wander over to confirm at a later date.

Blackhat - Chris Hemsworth (2015) - Wong Nai Chung Gap

A few quickies to finish off the Blackhat posts. First up is this one from the raid sequence when the police head to Shek O. After lifting off from the helipad at the HK-Macau ferry Terminal we get a quick glimpse of the Kowloon peninsula opposite side of the harbour before switching to another view above Happy Valley looking up Wong Nai Chung Road towards the "gap".

The top picture of course shows the ICC (Hong Kong's tallest building...for the time being) and the blue residential building right next to it is The Harbourside. Jean Claude Van Damme fans may not realise that their idol occupies a penthouse flat there (on the 75th floor) when he is in Hong Kong.

The second picture shows the Tsim Sha Tsui part of Kowloon and by the time of filming (July 2013) you can see that the New World Centre has already been demolished and the site is being cleared for its replacement (the area directly below the chopper). The last picture below shows the view up to Wong Nai Chung Gap. The two tall buildings are the Summit and Highcliff - locally referred to sometimes as the "Chopsticks" due to their rather skinny appearance from certain angles.

Codename: Wildgeese - Lewis Collins (1984) - Hong Kong Cemetery, Happy Valley

Part of the plot is that Collins' character is driven to wipe out the drug menace in the Golden Triangle because his son had been killed by drugs. In this scene, he goes to visit his grave in the Hong Kong Cemetery next to Happy Valley racecourse. In the top picture you can see the cemetery's small chapel in the background.

Yellowthread Street (TV Series) - Bruce Payne (1990) - Wong Nai Chung Road, Happy Valley

Another shot from Big Circle when Pak (Tzi Ma) gets dropped off by the mysterious gwailo. The area is just outside of St Paul's Catholic Primary School - you can just see the sides of the entrance in the screen capture.

The area pretty much looks the same now as it did back then - perhaps a little cleaner and greener now, but that could just be a result of the video quality of the screen captures. You can even spot the same metal door at the top of the driveway (to the left of Tzi Ma's head in the lower pic).
 

Yellowthread Street (TV Series) - Bruce Payne (1990) - Hong Kong Tennis Centre, Hong Kong

During Middleman, Marenta (Robert Taylor) heads out to the tennis club to pick up the bad guy's ex-wife to see if she can coax him out of his hostage holding. The drive takes just a couple of minutes - fairly impressive when you consider the hostage taking was being done at Kowloon's British Military Hospital in Ho Man Tin and the tennis club Marenta ends up going to is the Hong Kong Tennis Centre along Wong Nai Chung Gap Road on HK Island.

The main difference these days just seems to be that the opposite side of the road has seen a lot of plant and tree growth and is looking much greener.

Double Impact - Jean Claude Van Damme (1991) - Wong Nai Chung Road, Happy Valley

Here's another that had me scratching my head, on the positive side the place confirmed (again by Thomas, many thanks) was one I had pondered for many days but in the end gave up because the road layout didn't match despite it being one of only a small handful of places that have a single tram track.

Anyway, thankfully Thomas' rather more expert local eyes have spotted a shop sign that belongs to a dispensary that can still be found today: Regal Dispensary (義成藥房). So, here we are anyway at the intersection between Wong Nai Chung Road and Sing Woo Road next to the Happy Valley tram terminus.

The first shot shows the camera looking east along Wong Nai Chung Road with the prominent Salem advert to the right hand side (that marks the entrance to Sing Woo Road. Here is a modern day comparison and as you can see (and this is why I dismissed it initially) the road has been completely rerouted and shifted several metres to the north of its old position. The old position now nicely paved and our only clue to its relation to the film is the curvy white corner building just past the trees. Look carefully on the screen grab and you'll see it in the background, albeit shrouded in darkness.

The next shot has the car driving up Sing Woo Road. You can see the tramline in the bottom of the screen and look carefully to the right of the traffic lights poles and you can just make out the 'Regal Dispensary' that Thomas spotted and confirmed our location.

Once again here is a modern day comparison but taken much further from the north due to the limitations of Streetview (no, I haven't been to Happy Valley in about 5 years so have nothing in my photo collection that will help). Again you can see the extent of the road rerouting.

But where is Regal Dispensary (義成藥房)? Well, moving in a bit closer  we can see it on the right hand side (just to the right of the traffic lights) - seemingly occupying the same spot it did 20+ years ago when the film was made.

Big thanks go to Thomas.

Double Impact - Jean Claude Van Damme (1991) - Wong Nai Chung Rd, Happy Valley

Back to Hong Kong again but staying with the tenuous link of Happy Valley and we have a quick snippet from the car scene at the beginning of the film as Frank follows his friend's car back to their house as he watches for anything untoward.

It's a brief glimpse but we see the cars driving down Wong Nai Chung Road on the west side of the Happy Valley Racecourse.

I must admit, I was a bit flummoxed by this place at first because the tram line made me spend a long time looking up and down the main tram route for a similar area - to no avail. It wasn't until I noticed that there is only one tram rail that I realised it must be a part of the line off the main route. My excuse is I haven't really explored this part of town other than visiting the nearby Muslim Cemetery

Anyway, the above Streetview grab shows the area today - hasn't changed a bit unsurprisingly other than the appearance of an extra high rise at the back. The wall on the right by the way marks the various cemeteries along this stretch of which the Muslim site is just one.