Hong Kong Godfather - Leung Kar-yan (1985) - Pitt Street, Yau Ma Tei

The foot chase continues along Pitt Street as the badly injured Playboy Lung desperately tries to escape. He runs to the end of Pitt Street and jumps over the railings on Ferry Street onto a passing truck. Again, this area has changed a bit. The area around Ferry Street is now a large highway with a flyover sitting above it. The last image shows the truck driving off down Ferry Street with the Yaumatei Catholic Primary School in the background on the south side of the Fruit Market.

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.

Golden Needles - Joe Don Baker (1974) - Arthur Street, Yau Ma Tei

In remembrance of Joe Don Baker who died just a week or so ago (7th May 2025) here is another one of those pandemic finds that I am gradually getting around to posting. 

The location of "Finzie's Bar" in the film was Arthur Street in Yau Ma Tei. Most of the buildings seen in the movie have since been replaced including the location of the bar entrance which was in one of the buildings directly opposite Hi Lung Lane. However, one recognisable building is still around and that is located at the north end of the street on the right hand side. It's #2 Man Ming Lane and you can see the side of the last image. It was built in 1952 which is very old for a Hong Kong residential building.

Hi Lung Lane looking towards Arthur Street

Both images above looking north towards Man Ming Lane

#2 Man Ming Lane, behind Si Ming's head, is still around

Hacker - Callan McAuliffe (2016) - Yau Ma Tei Police Station

Another popular filming location is this colonial-era police station on Canton Road in Yau Ma Tei. It's been included in a variety of posts on this blog over the years (see here), and in this film it is where Alex and Sye get put in a cell following their arrest after the fight at the nightclub. More recently the building has been decommissioned and I'm not sure what it is currently being used for.

Hitman - Jet Li (1998) - New Lucky House, Yau Ma Tei

Fu is shacked up with a bunch of other killers-for-hire in what appears to be New Lucky House in Yau Ma Tei. At least that is where the "Hitton Inn" is still located today. This building was recently in the news because of several hundred fire compliance orders that had been ignored by the building's owners and the Buildings Department - and the inevitable fire occurred in April this year (2024), killing 5 people and injuring around 40.

Yakuza on Foot - Tomisaburô Wakayama (1969) - Temple Street, Yau Ma Tei

The gangs strike back by targeting the drug dealers on the street and grab a couple of guys from the front of the Tin Hau temple in Yau Ma Tei. Regular readers may recognise the old front wall of the temple with its square window apertures that can also be seen in The World of Suzie Wong, but this wall has since been demolished (sometime in the early 70s). What is still around though is the white building in the background, which is the Kowloon Government Offices. Note also that this was when Temple Street still ran right in front of the temple (hence its name), before this section was removed and replaced by the extended public square area.

Yakuza on Foot - Tomisaburô Wakayama (1969) - Tung Kun Street, Yau Ma Tei

Whilst walking around, the trio stumble across a women they first met on the boat, and she says she knows where Shimamura's wife is and offers them a lift. The initial shot shows the men walking north along Ching Ping Street with the Ferry Point Estate in the background. As the camera changes angle though, we can see the car has just pulled out of Tung Kun Street. In the background is the Kei To Primary School building which is still around.

Yakuza on Foot - Tomisaburô Wakayama (1969) - Reclamation Street, Yau Ma Tei

One of the first clear images we have (once the opening credits have finished) is of the trio as they walk north along the middle section of Reclamation Street. The rickety old building behind them with the curved corner once occupied the plot where the Kansu Street Jade Hawker Bazaar stood until a few years ago. People with good memories might recall that there was a better capture of this place in Asia-Pol Secret Service. People with even better memories may also recall that the block is also the same one featured in the opening scenes of Enter the Dragon, although by the time of that last shot, the curved end of the building had already been demolished. Incidentally, this location was also used in Narazumono, although in that film we are looking in the opposite direction. In hindsight, I should have named all those other posts as 'Reclamation Street', because it's as clear as daylight in the following screencaps. However, this section of Reclamation Street no longer exists, the area is now just a turning circle for the top end of Battery Street. I created an entry for it on Gwulo and some additional information was added by David Bellis.

This last image shows the HKJC Polyclinic in the background.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Adam Baldwin (2000) - Yau Ma Tei Police Station

No longer a Police Station because it was decommissioned a couple of years ago. I did make a trip here last year with David Bellis from Gwulo and, after seeing a gathering in the rear carpark area, we popped in to have a look around only to be instantly told to get the hell away. Such is life in the new National Security-conscious Hong Kong.

In the movie this is the exterior used for the Police station in the film where one of the gangsters is set free after he refuses to talk. So Mr. Hyde follows him back to his opium den (yes, quite a few of these Hong Kong cliches pop up) to extract the information he needs.

One of the things I can gather from this sequence is that this was before the local police stations were all given a new grey/dark blue coat of paint. Back in 2000 it was still the white/light blue colour scheme (seeing little things like this please my nerdy brain).

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea - Stephen Rea (1995) - Yau Ma Tei Wholesale Fruit Market

The sites of Nikos and Li's walk seem to change between Hong Kong and Kowloon. In this scene they are walking through Ya Ma Tei's famous wholesale fruit market.

The Big Game - Brendan Boone (1973) - Shanghai Street, Yau Ma Tei

One of several street scenes shot for this film is along the Yau Ma Tei section of Shanghai Street. I believe this is the junction with Dundas Street, looking south.

Bloodfight - Yasuaki Kurata (1989) - Nathan Road, Yau Ma Tei

For the neon light fans out there - sadly mostly now replaced by LED or otherwise completely removed, just like everything else that made Hong Kong special - here is a brief night sequence. I thought these lights seemed familiar, and it turns out they were. Check out this post for Powaqqatsi. But here's the thing, the Powaqqatsi footage was a year or so before this film, but appears to be more up to date (it shows the "New Buckingham Nightclub"), so I can only conclude that this Bloodfight footage is older, borrowed/licensed footage.

Bloodfight - Yasuaki Kurata (1989) - Mau Lam Street, Yau Ma Tei

Despite the brawl between Ryu and the gang taking place at a cafe in Causeway Bay, after a brief chase through some alleyways, Ryu manages to kick one of the guys through the windscreen of a car on Mau Lam Street in Yau Ma Tei. That's quite an impressive kick!

For those who haven't read my Bruce Lee Guide to Yau Ma Tei, Mau Lam Street is where Bruce's family (i.e. his siblings and paternal grandparents) were living when he was born in 1940. They only moved to Nathan Road after baby Bruce and his parents returned from the US in 1941.

Four Assassins - Will Yun Lee (2011) - Shamrock Hotel, Nathan Road

Despite an illustrious history and career in local 50s and 60s Cantonese movies (so I've been told), this is the first time I've seen the Shamrock Hotel on a modern foreign production. Opened in 1952, the Shamrock Hotel was once the tallest building in Kowloon which is quite hard to imagine given by how relatively small it is these days. There was a demolition scare a few years ago when the owner put it up for sale, but it seems that either the owner had a change of heart, or the new owner has, and has turned it into what I believe might be serviced apartments. Its name has been changed to Synloc Tower.

In the film this is, supposedly, the main setting for much of the story as the hotel where the four killers meet up, and as such we are given several establishing shots of the hotel disguised as the "Shum Shui Hotel".

Despite being set in the "Shum Shui Hotel", the interiors were shot in a specially constructed set in one of the buildings in the old Perowne Camp in Tuen Mun. Don't take my word for it, you can see some of the production photos over at the film's old website (https://www.fourassassins-movie.com/the-location-2/). I don't recognise the main building in the top photo but I suspect all of the interiors were shot in one or more of the old buildings at the former camp. Once occupied by Ghurkas, part of the camp has been redeveloped into a residential condominim complex called "The Royale"- although I believe the old temple has been preserved - the rest of the camp is currently used by the Crossroads Foundation.

Four Assassins - Will Yun Lee (2011) - Kansu Street, Yau Ma Tei

At the north end of Woosung Street was Tak Hing restaurant (德興海味). The neon signage in the image below though was located along Kansu Street-side of the building where the restaurant was located. I'm not sure when the restaurant closed but the signage most likely came down when the building was externally renovated in 2019.

Four Assassins - Will Yun Lee (2011) - Temple Street, Yau Ma Tei

A rather generic view of one of Hong Kong's night time street markets, but the presence of Asian Curry Chicken (亞星咖喱) at the bottom right tells me this is Temple Street just south of Kansu Street.