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.

Shanghai Street, Yau Ma Tei - Now and Then

The following screen caps from Ein Sarg aus Hongkong were taken from Shanghai Street looking east over to the old market that once occupied the public square in front of the temple. We can see Heinz Drache and Angela Yu Chien about to cross the road at the corner of Shanghai Street and Public Square Street. The only building still around in this shot (other than the temple which can be just seen through the trees in my photo) is the white building at the back which stands on the corner of Temple Street and Public Square Street. For those who don't know, this is the building that has the Mido Cafe in it. You can see it in the screen cap just above the two actors' heads.

Earlier in the film is a brief view of the area to the right (south) of this one, although it was obviously filmed at the same time. It's the Market Street side of the square with the old toilet block at the junction  (this same shot was later reused in The Million Eyes of Sumuru). Note the Chinese tenement buiding in the background with the wooden arched apertures.

The old film gives a good idea of where Temple Street once emerged onto Market Street - it's the gap between the toilet block and the Chinese tenement. However, that section of Temple Street disappeared with a significant amount of development and, as you can see by my own image, the area at this end was filled in by what is actually a refuse collection centre. The section of Temple Street between here (Market Street) and Kansu Street (one block down) was shifted approximately 20 metres to the east - running along where the old Chinese tenement once stood. Much of the space where Temple Street used to run was taken over by the construction of the YMT multi-storey carpark (currently being demolished as of 2021). As you can see, the toilet block is still going strong and hasn't changed at all over the last 50 years or so.

The Black Dragon's Revenge - Ronnie Van Clief (1975) - Tin Hau Temple, Yau Ma Tei

Ronnie and his buddy also try to make contact with the journalist and instead are duped into meeting one of the bad guys masquerading as him. They arrange the meet up for outside the Tin Hau Temple in Yau Ma Tei. Note that by 1975, the temple and surrounding area was already looking pretty much as it still looks today. The old market having been ousted from the public square and the front wall of the temple (and the temple itself) undergoing a renovation.

Strangers - John Simm (2018) - Tin Hau Temple Square, Yau Ma Tei

Jonah and David go for a coffee to discuss their common issues at the open square in front of the Yaumatei Tin Hau temple. The last time we saw this on the blog was when a scene in Blackhat (filmed in 2013 but released in 2015).

Flight to Hong Kong - Rory Calhoun (1956) - Temple Street, Yau Ma Tei

This is a familiar strip for regular readers of this blog, although it has changed a lot over the years. The year before this was shot, Clark Gable was also filmed at this same location during Soldier of Fortune. If you compare the following images to the screen grabs from this post, you can see the common elements between both films including some of the signboards and of course the steps that lead up to the front of the temple.

Heisser Hafen Hongkong - Horst Frank (1962) - Shanghai Street, Yau Ma Tei

Another from-the-car perspective as we drive southbound along Shanghai Street between the junctions it shares with Public Square Street and Market Street. This one is a bit of a blur but it is the Shanghai Street end of the former public market that stood on what is now the open public square in front of the Yau Ma Tei Tin Hau Temple.

The final couple of screenshots show us looking up Market Street towards the temple. Note the considerable lack of taller buildings on the other side of the temple (Nathan Road). A similar view taken the year after shows that the On Cheung Building had already been built at the back.

Weiße Fracht für Hongkong - Dietmar Schönherr (1963) - Temple Street, Yau Ma Tei

Next up is the old Tin Hau Temple in Yau Ma Tei at a time when Temple Street still ran across the front. These days the space is now taken up by the public square (official name: Yau Ma Tei Community Rest Garden) and the temple has undergone vast renovation. This was filmed just a few years after The World of Suzie Wong and as you can see the outer wall that can be seen in that film is still in place here, replete with the little green windows.

As the camera pans to the right though we get to see an old tenement that used to stand on the location of where the Kowloon Government Offices and Post Office are now sited.

We've seen this block before (although it was only in the background) on the recently looked at Ein Sarg aus Hongkong - filmed the year after in 1964.

Ein Sarg aus Hong Kong - Heinz Drache (1964) - Shanghai Street, Yau Ma Tei

A couple of posts ago we saw Market Street on the southern side of the public square in front of Yau Ma Tei Tin Hau Temple. In this post we see the other end of it where Public Square Street joins with Shanghai Street at the northern side of the square.

Look carefully and you can see the building behind and above Heinz Drache's head is the same one today that houses the famous Mido Cafe on the corner of Temple Street.

Ein Sarg aus Hong Kong - Heinz Drache (1964) - Market Street, Yau Ma Tei

I had no idea that the latrine block along Market Street in Yau Ma Tei had been around for quite so long but here it is back in 1964 (on the right hand side of the frame). You can see part of the covered hawkers market that used to occupy the square in front of the Tin Hau Temple. This is another scene that was used in Sumuru but I didn't post about it back then because I wasn't sure where it was at the time. The old building in the background would have been on Temple Street where the Kowloon Govt Offices now stand. Actually, I think the Sumuru print has better colour.

Ein Sarg aus Hong Kong

The Million Eyes of Sumuru

Blackhat - Chris Hemsworth (2015) - Tin Hau Temple Square, Yau Ma Tei

The crew discover a common meeting point of their three fraud suspects and it just happens to be the public square in front of the famous Tin Hau Temple in Yau Ma Tei. Over they head along with the rather excellent Andy On (playing a HK police officer) to see if they can find out how the bad guys are getting all their information.

This temple and the square in front has been seen on this blog previously but doesn't appear to have been used for movie filming since 1960 when The World of Suzie Wong included some scenes (at least not that I know of just yet) so it's nice to see it on screen again.

Roaring Fire - Hiroyuki Sanada (1982) - Public Square Street, Yau Ma Tei

Well, actually Nathan Road where it intersects with Public Square Street, but if I just wrote Nathan Road it could mean anywhere along that rather lengthy piece of tarmac. Anyway, after hopping onto another bus via the hanging Emperor Jewellery sign, the two buses are side by side each other at the traffic lights.

No bus hopping occurs and Joji (Sanada) heads down Public Square Street whilst his pursuers are whisked away north up Nathan Road.

You can just see the green roof of the Yau Ma Tei Tin Hau Temple on the right hand side of the last picture. I wonder what all those pedestrians were thinking when they saw those crazy guys go by on the top of the buses?

Soldier of Fortune - Clark Gable (1955) - Tin Hau Temple, Yau Ma Tei

No sooner have we left Temple Street in The World of Suzie Wong and we find ourselves seeing a view taken only 5 years earlier for Soldier of Fortune. Although judging from the screen grabs of both films, it looks as though a wall was constructed in front of the temple at sometime between the two films being made (i.e. sometime between 1955 and 1959/1960).

The scene also pans across so we see the temple as Clark Gable's character pops inside to consult one of his informants. Believe it or not this temple once stood at the waterfront - no, it hasn't been moved but the sea that used to be to the front of it has just been reclaimed so much that the place now sits over one kilometre inland. This is a common occurrence in HK.

Here is a more recent shot of the Temple front. I suspect that a bit of rebuilding of the temple has gone on as well as the wall that stands in front of it.

The World of Suzie Wong - William Holden (1960) - Tin Hau Temple and Temple Street, Yau Ma Tei

On film we are led to believe that the following shots are around the Nam Kok Hotel in Wanchai (but we know the Nam Kok was actually on the corner of Hollywood Road and Ladder Street). In fact, this area - used here (several times in fact as you can see) is actually outside the Tin Hau Temple in Yau Ma Tei. The (locally) famous Mido Cafe building is the curved corner building in the background and Temple Street to its right. Actually, I believe that the area that is being filmed was indeed part of Temple Street at the time but the road has since been dissected by the creation of the public square that now stands here.