Casse-tête chinois pour le Judoka - Marc Briand (1967) - Yau Ma Tei Typhoon Shelter, Yau Ma Tei

From one typhoon shelter to another, this time across the harbour and over to Yau Ma Tei. This is where the medallion turns up in the hands of a Chinese girl. She's there to meet a contact but is instead ambushed by the gang.

Despite the passage of time and massive reclamation/redevelopment, a couple of the buildings visible in the background are still around today. The third picture down shows the Yuen Fat Building centre left and the Kwong Yu Building far right. Whilst the fourth picture down shows the full extent of the Kwong Yu and Kwong Fung Buildings - the Kwong Fung building is the right hand section with the red neon sign wrapped around the corner.

Les Tribulations d'un Chinois en Chine - Jean-Paul Belmondo (1965) - Mongkok Ferry Pier, Mongkok

Until I saw this film and started investigating this location, I had no idea that there was a ferry pier in Mongkok. I knew about the old vehicular ferry pier at the end of Jordan Road but this one was a new discovery for me. You see, I also widen my knowledge about HK thanks to these films.

Anyway, after chasing the runaway king size around the southern parts of HK island for the best part of a few minutes, it finally comes to rest in front of a ferry pier. The pier is actually disguised and has a sign on the front saying (in English) "Ferry to Sey Chang".

Of course "Sey Chang" is a made up place name and the location used for it will be looked at in the next post, but anyone who reads Chinese will be able to see that the real sign above says it is the Hong Kong Island ferry service (the Chinese reads R->L): 來往香港.

Looking at an old map, I can see that the Mongkok Ferry Pier was situated at the very end of Shantung Street. So when the bed arrives, it is Shantung Street that the camera is looking up. You can compare it with the modern Streetview image at the bottom.

Shantung Street 1965

Shantung Street now

The reclamation of the harbour on the west side of the Kowloon peninsula is vast in scale and Ferry Street marks the previous demarcation between the water and dry land. There's now an additional 600 metres of land between the spot we see above and the current coastline. The reclamation actually occurred in the 1990's, but the Mongkok pier had already been removed by 1972 when it was replaced by the pier at Tai Kok Tsui. Both pier locations succumbed to the 1990's reclamation.

Luckily for us we get some good views from this film and it appears a couple of times as the protagonists head to and return from the fictitious island of Sey Chang. The shots below show part of the return journey.

The building under construction at the back is the previously mentioned Yuen Fat Building which opened properly in 1965. Other than the Yuen Fat Building and a building at 9-11 Shantung Street, every building seen in these screen shots has since been demolished and replaced. I'll leave you with a fairly good comparison with Streetview so you can see how much has really changed. You can just see the Yuen Fat Building poking out in the Streetview picture, it's the blue building at the end of the yellow line.

Incidentally, this same area around Shantung Street can be seen in this shot from Ferry to Hong Kong.

Les Tribulations d'un Chinois en Chine - Jean-Paul Belmondo (1965) - Yau Ma Tei Typhoon Shelter, Yau Ma Tei

Belmondo's private yacht (in the film the boat is called the "Mimi" but it looks suspiciously like the Hilton Hotel's Wan Fu to me) docks in the Yau Ma Tei Typhoon shelter while all the shenanigans take place and it's a location that the film makers repeatedly return to. We can see a few buildings that are still standing and they seem to place the location in the northern part of the shelter.

At the back right of the above picture we can see a white building with an angled upper section. This is Cherry Mansion that still sits along Cherry Street on what was the northern shoreline of the typhoon shelter. The building was built the year this was filmed and still stands. To the left of the boat (above) and in the background of the picture below is where the modern day Olympic MTR Station now stands.

You can still see Cherry Mansion in the above picture top left. But on the far right is another building under construction. You can see it again in the background of the next picture. It's the Yuen Fat Building on the corner of Ferry Street and Nelson Street. Again, it was constructed in 1965 and is still standing. We'll see a bit more of the Yuen Fat Building in a later post although we have seen it before.

Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold - Tamara Dobson (1975) - Ferry Street, Mongkok

There's a car chase in the film that takes place along the former waterfront in Yau Ma Tei. Of course these days the waterfront has been extended significantly west (nearly 1km in places) courtesy of the West Kowloon Reclamation - the change is quite astonishing. Ferry Street marks the former waterfront and the location where some of the chase takes place and we know this because despite all the changes there are still some reasonably old buildings around. The first picture below was the most helpful in pinning down the actual location because just to the right of the kid's head is a building with some characters written vertically at the edge.

This is the Yuen Fat Building on the northern corner of Ferry Street and Nelson Street and can be seen on the following Streetview with the same writing down the side. It's had a change in colour since the film though.

Looking south we can see another building that is still with us, although I can't explain what has happened to some of it - it looks as though some remodeling has occurred. It's the yellow building below and it's called the Kwong Wing Building.

This northern end of it is barely recognisable today because the lower storey windows have all been remodeled and it looks like some of the exterior wall has been removed. However, I can assure you it is the same building.

This is the junction with Shantung Street and the building extends the whole block down to Soy Street.

The car chase moves into Yau Ma Tei territory as the vehicles speed down the road and we get a quick glimpse back up the road where both the Yuen Fat Building and Kwong Wing Building can still be seen.

I'm not sure quite how far down the road this later screen grab was made but I will say that all the buildings on the right hand side have well and truly long gone. Just looking at the Streetview below you will see that the road itself now has the West Kowloon Corridor running over the top of it.

To illustrate how much this place has changed, the following shot from the same road shows the former unfettered view down to the Ferry Point Estate - a familiar set of buildings on this blog - but this view is impossible from ground level these days and the Streetview show that follows had to be grabbed from a spot high up on the flyover and you can only just make out the buildings in the middle - now completely surrounded by all kinds of mess.