The Protector - Jackie Chan (1985) - Shek Pai Wan Road, Aberdeen

Here is one that was quite fun tracking down - and its identification was in part down to my good friend Thomas Ngan.

It's a scene which shows us JC and Aiello heading to their hotel after arriving at the airport. Although the building containing the hotel has been redeveloped into Yen Shing Mansion, this almost circular building seen on film is still around and arrives here today courtesy of Streetview again. Here's the grab from the film.

And here is the location today: Shek Pai Wan Road in Aberdeen.

Enter The Dragon - Bruce Lee (1973) - Ching Chung Koon, Tuen Mun

Blink and you'll miss it, but the very opening shot of the film shows a very famous local temple called Ching Chung Koon. In the film it is used (the first of three separate locations) to represent the Shaolin Monastery where Lee's character is some sort of top kung fu disciple. In reality it's a temple and columbarium (an ash storage and worship facility) of the HK religious type (sort of a mix of Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism with elements of superstitious folk religion thrown in for good measure). The image we see on the film is of the main temple ceremonial gateway (a pai lau in local parlance) and the main temple building behind.

However, in the intervening years a few more buildings and roads have been created making this same angle almost impossible to attain. The lower front part of the roof of the main temple has also been extended and if you look carefully in the snaps below you will see what I mean (incidentally, I also heard the main roof was widened, but this could just be a misinterpretation of the bit I have just mentioned). These are my best efforts that sadly didn't make it into my Time Out Hong Kong article of various locations from the film due to a lack of space.
 

Game of Death - Bruce Lee (1978) - Murray Building, Central

This place - not to be confused with Murray House in Stanley - sits just in front of the Peak Tower lower terminus and so should really be recognisable to anyone who has been to HK (and gone on the Peak Tram). In G.O.D it houses the carpark where Billy's girlfriend is kidnapped by the mob, but before that unfortunate incident we get to see the outside of the building as her car drives down the slope.

I don't seem to have a personal photo of this place so Google's Streetview comes to the rescue with this shot taken at pretty much the same angle the film camera used. Well, near enough.

Game of Death - Bruce Lee (1978) - Po Leung Kuk, Causeway Bay

Billy fakes his own death so he can exact revenge on his mobster tormentors, but fails to tell his girlfriend he is still alive. She eventually finds out and he arranges to meet her at "the orphanage" which is, in reality...an orphanage!! It's the Po Leung Kuk in Causeway Bay.

You can see the Po Leung Kuk gateway on the first couple of frames, and on the lower one the building itself in the background complete with dome and spire. Unfortunately I can't do as well as that and only have a decent shot of the gate with the building hidden by the gate's pillars.

Game of Death - Bruce Lee (1978) - Calcada Da Igreja São Lazaro, Macau

Here's another great 1978 shot from GoD. I can't remember the plot behind the scene but I think it was just a matter of someone was following someone else and you end up with this nice shot looking from the stairway at the north/west end of Calcada Da Igreja São Lazaro.

I don't have a personal picture from the same angle, but I do have a couple of the street taken further down. All I can say is, like other parts of older Macau (this one has houses on it that date back to the early part of the 19th Century), it is looking rather spick and spam thanks to a lick of new paint and some TLC.

Actually, look carefully at the screen grab and you should be able to discern the building above - centre screen - about half way down the road on the right hand side.

Unicorn Fist - Unicorn Chan (1972) - Pak Tam Chung, Sai Kung

Okay, thanks to Simon Parry and the SCMP the bridge (and myself for that matter) has now been 'outed', but actually the bit we see Bruce Lee in was next to the bridge - not the bridge itself. So here is a shot of the area where Lee was working out with the cast of the film.

And here it is today, although I should mention that the bit of land they were on is actually to the left of my recent snaps and has the walking trail running along the edge of it - but remember, in 1972 this place was still even more of a wilderness than it is today.

The Man with the Golden Gun - Roger Moore (1974) - Dragon Garden & Villa, Castle Peak Road

This place is featured in a famous scene when Bond jumps over the wall of Hai-fat's residence and comes face to face with a naked swimmer who goes by the name of 'Chu-me'. I gather from the film plot that the location is supposed to be in Thailand (at least that's my interpretation of it) but of course the location is in HK (otherwise I wouldn't be writing about it) and still very much in-situ - thanks to the conservational efforts of the original owner's granddaughter - Cynthia Lee - and the helpful hard cold cash of one of her uncles (who managed to buy out the rest of the family).

So the location remains intact, and as long as Cynthia can keep coming up with some nice fundraising ideas it should be kept in fairly good nick (how about leasing it out the TV studios once in a while?). But one thing has changed and that is the front doors.

A while back the local District Council (I think it's Tsuen Wan District for this part of the world, but I could be wrong) needed to widen the well-used Castle Peak Road and the property lost a small part of the land that fronts the road. The original perimeter wall was moved back a few feet and these big red doors were put into storage.

The Protector - Jackie Chan (1985) - Beas River, Sheung Shui

There is quite a story behind these gates seen in a scene when JC and Aiello head to return the bribe money to the gangster boss played by Roy Chiao. They drive to the New Territories location in a small jeep and you see them go through these stone gates.

Although they now front the Beas River Riding school - it managed to gain some fame as one of the Hong Kong locations used for the equestrian events during the Beijing 2008 Olympics (the other being Penfold Park) - these gates were once located on Hong Kong Island (in the Causeway Bay are to be precise) and were on the front of the old Jardines Stables. Jardines are one of the famous so-called 'Hongs' that were responsible for establishing Hong Kong as a trade base (mainly opium in the beginning). Jardines are still around and are the ultimate owners (through various subsidiaries and complicated cross-company shareholdings) of well known local businesses such as Wellcome Supermarket, Mannings and even IKEA.

On an aside, noted HK-based Bruce Lee historian - Paul Li - has told me that the pick-up shots for Bruce's final battle with Han Ying Chieh in The Big Boss we filmed at Beas River. I may have to look into this further and see if anything is useful enough to be included on this blog.

Game of Death - Bruce Lee (1978) - Travessa da Paixão, Macau

A film that has become known only by its initials, GoD, over the years but should really be known as "GoD...Awful" because it is so astonishingly bad. It's basically a film that should never even have been made.

It was made in 1978, five years after Lee's death, in an attempt by Raymond Chow to milk his popularity for a bit more money as well as use some of the material he shot for his own version of a film of the same name. If you want to see a better use of the remaining material (including some additional footage found in the mid-90's) then I recommend John Little's A Warrior's Journey for an insight into what is believed to be the real story behind Lee's incomplete movie.

This cobbled together version uses footage from his completed films as well as real funeral clips to crowbar in a story about a star who is being pressured by the mob to sign a contract with them - ending in a one-man assault on the mobs HQ at the Red Pepper Restaurant and the use of Lee's original GoD footage shot towards the end of 1972.

Anyway, enough of that, here is a shot of Bob Wall (who should've known better) pursuing Billy Lo (Lee's character) down the road, Travessa da Paixão, next to the St Paul's ruins.

As you can see there has been a lot of tidying up going on and also it looks as though the right hand side of the street has seen some redevelopment. And there's me thinking these buildings were older than that - just goes to show the impressive job Macau's developers do at blending in the new with the old (or are they just trying to pull the wool over our eyes?).

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.