Osprey - Project A (1983)

Not a location this time but rather a small snippet of (rather sad) history surrounding a ship that was used in Jackie Chan's Project A back in 1983. You will remember the scene when a Rear Admiral and his entourage are attacked and kidnapped from their ship by pirates. Anyway, it turns out that the ship used by JC for this scene was a familiar sight around HK in the 1970s and 80's. It was called the Osprey and was (according to various comments on FLICKR) was rebuilt in the mid-70's in Denmark (from an iron 'Baltic Trader') by a chap called Arthur Erickson. It was used for various sailings before eventually ending up in Hong Kong and was obviously of the right vintage for JC and co to use it for these sea-based scenes. Here are some more screen grabs.

A beautiful looking ship, I'm sure you will agree, and if anyone is in any doubt as to its identity, here is a sneaky grab that captures the vessel's name as it passes by the pirate junk.

Sadly, and it must have been fairly soon after it was featured in this film in 1983, the 56-metre ship sank with the loss of all but 1 crew member in the late summer of 1983. September of that year saw the arrival of Typhoon Ellen which blew the hell out of the territory. The Osprey had sailed about 12 miles south of HK in order to ride out the storm but was sunk with the loss of 8(?) crew members. The survivor, Hiraoki Ogura, was picked up later by the Wanshan Islands (about 20 miles SW of HK) after seemingly floating there from the sinking site. Very lucky considering how big the waves must have been and the fact that the waters around HK were notorious (at that time) for shark attacks.

Sunset - Paul Chin Pei (1971) - Kai Tak Amusement Park, Choi Hung

Just when I think I have done all I can with a film, up pops up a stumper that has been solved by consulting an excellent old HK Photography book called "Early Kowloon" by Cheng Po Hung. Sunset features a section when the two protagonists spend some time at an amusement park.

Now, I know of several amusement parks that HK used to have such as Lai Yuen (in Lai Chi Kok), Luna Park on HK island but none of my known sites seemed to fit the photos above. Anyway, I found an old photo of Kai Tak Amusement Park of Cheng Po Hung's book and it looks to be a match (same ferris wheel, monorail etc) and can only think it is this one that we can see on film.

If you haven't heard of this place before it's not surprising because it was only open between 1965 and 1982 after which it was demolished and the site was redeveloped into the modern day Choi Hung Park/Choi Hung Road Playground.

New Film Locations Blog

For those who enjoy this blog (as well as Gary Wong's Film Pilgrimage and Daniel Thomas' Hong Kong on Film), then you will be pleased to hear that there is a new kid on the bloke. Please check out the excellent location work done by Andi on his Hong Kong Movie Tours Blog.

Andi has been hunting down locations for a long time and was building up an impressive array on the (now defunct?) Shaw Brothers Reloaded forum, but thankfully he has decided to show a wider audience and created this new blog. The good thing about Andi's stuff is he has tried to recreate the same camera angles seen on the films he is blogging about and he's done a very good job. I look forward to seeing some interesting stuff coming out of it over the coming months.

Here's the full URL: http://hongkongmovietours.blogspot.de

Lust, Caution - Tang Wei (2007) - #30 Po Shan Road, Midlevels

The main house where the wannabe agents stay as their cover was a rather glorious looking art deco mansion block that used to stand on Po Shan Road. The picture below is from an excellent website called Urban Ghosts Media because by the time I had starting looking into the locations on this film, the building had already been demolished. Such a travesty in my opinion, but there you go.

I have no idea whether or not the plot has been redeveloped yet, but Streetview and Google seem to say otherwise. This means the land has been sitting empty for at least 5 years and I suspect the rush to demolish was motivated by the need to remove the building before anybody got the idea into their heads that it needed some sort of protection. Welcome to Hong Kong!

Po Shan Road

Sunset - Paul Chin Pei (1971) - Lung Ha Wan, Sai Kung

One of the more iconic locations from the film because its seen at the very end when Paul goes to the seaside to watch the sunset. Lung Ha Wan aka Lobster Bay has two sides to it on either side of a small headland. The northern beach is a popular shore diving spot for local scuba enthusiasts and was for a long time an area where stolen luxury cars were loaded into modified speedboats and smuggled over the border to China. A concrete ramp that aided the loading of these cars was eventually blown up by British Army engineers and the fragments of it still litter the beach.

The southern side of the headland has a direct view down the coast towards Trio Rock, which can be seen amongst others on the following screen grab (in fact the larger island directly above his head in the first shot).

Now, I can't say for certain whether the shot looking back towards Paul was filmed at the same location, it certainly could've been but it's not possible to say for sure without going there myself and looking for the same rocks (which I'm not going to do any time soon).

Anyway, there is a very similar angle to this found on Panoramio courtesy of kc22jordan.

Game of Death - Bruce Lee (1978) - State Theatre, North Point

This is one of those locations that I have only recently been made aware of, whereas at the time of my original GOD posts I had yet to venture to anywhere near this location.

It's a brief shot that shows the fake BL walking past a cinema showing a kung fu film (Edit: it turns out to be a poster for the 1978 film The Iron Fisted Monk - see comments below).

And here is that same theatre 40+ years later, looking slightly more decrepit but still with its identifiable curved front and square windows.

If you would like to know a bit more about the place then you can visit my other blog where I did a post.

The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires - Peter Cushing (1974) - Silverstrand Bay, Sai Kung

Proof (if ever you needed it) that Shaw Brothers were able to convey the sense of many different sorts of landscapes and locations on film from the comfort of their own backyard. This next scene was actually filmed on the hilltop behind the Movietown studio lot - an area that was taken over by the University of Science and Technology back in 1991 for their staff quarters.

Here are some film grabs looking down into Silverstrand Bay with its small rock outcrop just jutting out into the water.

Look in the far background and you can also make out the distinctive sharp profile of High Junk Peak sticking up in the ridgeline at the back. This angle could only be gained from the hillside behind the studio.

Incidentally, I believe that the small flat location seen in the top picture (where the carriage is sitting) has since been converted into a small garden with a pavilion attached to the staff quarters - however, I'm not sure of how much public access there is here - if any. Silverstrand went on to become slightly notorious  in the early 90's when a series of fatal shark attacks occurred there.

The Prodigal Son - Yuen Biao (1981) - Tai Tung Wo Liu, Sai Kung

The second of the two identifiable locations used in this classic Sammo Hung film is used in the finale when Yuen Biao fights (and inflicts a rather sickening injury) on Frankie Chan.

As you can see, there are glimpses in the back ground of a very striking mountain range which are actually the northern Sai Kung side of Ma On Shan. The finale was filmed on what seems to be a very flat piece of ground and actually this area of the NT is quite flat. Here is a modern view courtesy of streetview of the same ridgeline. Bear in mind that on film the camera lens sometimes stretches or squashes the picture along certain planes in order to fit the TV screen/monitor.

There is a small village called Tai Tung Wo Liu here and the finale would have been filmed on land very close to the village given the angle of the mountains and other features that can be seen on the film.

The Prodigal Son - Yuen Biao (1981) - Yim Tin Tsai, Sai Kung

One of only two identifiable locations in this classic Sammo Hung film featuring Yuen Biao as the young Wing Chun exponent Leung Tsan.

I think Sammo (he directed and wrote as well as starred in the film) was trying to create some sort of homage to another film I discussed a few weeks ago because this scene is almost a direct copy of the one from River of Fury - filmed at the exact same location, featuring an opera troop aboard a boat that is docking at the pier. Here are the grabs.

Yes, this is Yim Tin Tsai in Port Shelter, Sai Kung, where about 8 years before Danny Lee ran along the exact same concrete pier to greet a junk traveling opera troop. The same house at the beginning of the pier and of course the previous version of the pier that now exists. You can read my River of Fury entry here.

The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires - Peter Cushing (1974) - Fei Ngo Shan, Sai Kung

In this classic collaboration (one of two) between the UK's Hammer Studios and Shaw Bros in HK, the film makers took advantage of the unspoilt mountainous area around Fei Ngo Shan (Kowloon Peak) to film the hilly scenes as the protagonists make their way to David Chiang's lost village.

Several scenes were shot but all incorporated approximately the same area. First there is this view of everyone stumbling up the hillside.The distant peaks poking up at the back are in fact eitehr end of the saddle ridge of Ma On Shan.

Judging from the angle I am guessing the camera was fairly close to the Fei Ngo Shan Road as it goes over the hill and down the other side towards Tate's Pass. Not an exact placement but this dip is close enough to the road so that the film crew had an easy job of it.

The second part featured above was reasonably close by with a view down into Port Shelter, or at least what seems to be the Hebe Haven part of it. I think this one was shot slightly further east.