Bloodsport - Jean Claude Van Damme (1987) - Lung Mun Restaurant, Wanchai

One of the funny things about the tram ride sequence in this film is that it lasts just a few minutes but manages to take in a whole swathe of HK island - and even involves a change in direction at one point that is only possible in "movieland". However, it's still interesting to see some of the images passing slowly by in the background. Here's an easy one for starters.

Even without the obvious "Stone Nullah Lane" street sign stuck on the outside of the building, HK aficionados will know that this building is the now demolished Lung Mun Restaurant on Johnston Road. It was such a HK institution (though why I have no idea, when I went in the final month of its operation - you know, just so I could say I had been - the dim sum was shite and we had to eat it in an area where the mildew was black and thick on the ceiling and dropping onto the table!! - oh yeah, and the waiter tried to stiff us on the bill).

It was an impressive building all the same and a local landmark that was around since 1948. The site was sold and redeveloped in 2010 and is now serviced apartments (I think). Here is a bit more info courtesy of gwulo.com.

Bloodsport - Jean Claude Van Damme (1987) - Hennessy Road, Wanchai

Here is a shot of part of the tram line at the point where Hennessy Road is joined by Tin Lok Lane - that is the road left of camera that the intersecting tramlines are coming in and out of.

Other than the absence of overhead signage (which has disappeared from all over HK, unfortunately), this road hasn't really changed much other than looking slightly less busy on out Streetview grab below.

The screen grab shows a red sign at the top left which reads 銀行 (Ngan Hong) or in English, it is the word for 'bank'. Funnily enough the building, which as you can see is still standing, houses a branch of the Bank of Communications. It's one of China's largest banking organisations so I suspect the sign was for the same company back then.

Bloodsport - Jean Claude Van Damme (1987) - Peking Road, Kowloon

As promised, more TST, this time in the shape of Peking Road.There are a couple of shots of it in the opening sequence as well as later on when the fighters are walking to the location of the Kumite in Kowloon Walled City. People more familiar with the layout of HK streets will know that it is quite a hefty walk to make but this is movie land and the movie makers give the impression of them being just around the corner from each other.

Look closely and you'll see signs for the CTS (the China Travel Service) which still has an office there. Princeton Tailors is a well-established tailor shop that is still around even if the sign has been removed and back in 1987 the Nathan Ivory Factory company had a shop there (it's since moved down to Middle Road).

The lower shots show the guys crossing Peking Road ad in the background we can see the shops that used to occupy the ground floor of the previously mentioned Hyatt Regency Hotel, such as Zurich Jewellers. This whole road has changed extensively in the intervening years, not just here but at the far end (in the background too) where various older buildings (including some cool shophouses) were knocked down to make way for #1 Peking Road.

Here's a quick view of the area today. Remember the hotel (it was called The President before Hyatt took it over) was demolished in 2006 and replaced by iSquare.

Bloodsport - Jean Claude Van Damme (1987) - Nathan Road, Kowloon

Here we are at the southern end of Nathan Road and there are some small little clues as to the exact location including the Bus # 2, as well as some odd looking flagpoles sticking out of a building on the far left and look closely and you'll see one of the entrances to the MTR.

The flagpoles are the giveaway for me because they are the recognisable property of what was the Hyatt Regency Hotel until it was demolished in 2006 to make way for iSore (sorry, I mean iSquare). Pretty much all of the signboards have gone, as has the turn on the left hand side into Peking Road - it's now fenced off. I do vaguely remember the "Emperor Watch and Jewelry" sign on the left but pretty much everything else has been lost to time. Given the position of the camera the buildings on the right would include Mirador Mansions (see behind the signs on the right) and perhaps the Holiday Inn Golden Mile? I'm not sure but suspect that the red sign reading 中國官殿 (from top to bottom - it means "China Palace") may have been a restaurant in the hotel - however, I haven't checked my facts properly and can't find any mention of it online yet.

Anyway, for those interested, here's an approximation of the same view courtesy of Streetview - okay, maybe a teensy weensy bit further south, but not by much.

Here are some similar shots from later in the film, although I suspect they were all filmed at the same time.

Bloodsport - Jean Claude Van Damme (1987) - Central & Western District, Hong Kong

Another birds-eye view taken from our opening helicopter sequence, this time looking south east(ish) over what is Central & Western District. Nothing much of note here other than a bunch of fairly homogenous looking high rises. The only stand out building for me is the tall pyramid-like shape of the Arion Commercial Centre which sits at the point along Queen's Road where it goes from being Queen's Rd Central to Queen's Rd West down in Sheung Wan.

Bloodsport - Jean Claude Van Damme (1987) - Lung Fu Shan, Hong Kong

The opening scenes of this Van Damme classic (arguably the film that really launched his career proper) start in the usual foreign-film-in-exotic-location manner with a sweeping helicopter view of the island and harbour. There's lots to see as we swoop past Lung Fu Shan from Pinewood Battery on the aforementioned hilltop, to the Shun Tak Centre with its red stripes in the middle distance and the west flank of Victoria peak on the right.

Lung Fu Shan is the smaller hilltop in the lower middle of the screen grabs and the excavated bit on the top is what remains of Pinewood Battery. It's well worth a visit if you haven't been there already and is one of many similar ex-artillery emplacements that still survive in the territory.

In the shots above we are looking NW across to Kowloon and of course in the mid-80's when the film was made, there was no sign of the west Kowloon reclamation that now dominates that part of the harbour. What does surprise me though from this view is there seems to be a fair amount of haze limiting the view - not something I would have expected in the 1980's. It seems as though HK's pollution problem goes much further back than I realised!

Love is a Many-Splendored Thing - William Holden (1955) - Queen's Road Central, Hong Kong

Anyone who has seen this film will be familiar with the famous opening scenes involving an ambulance driving along Queen's Road with its siren blaring. It's quite easy to recognise the (relatively) narrow and shop house-lined confines of the road, but what has proven a bit harder is to find which bits we can actually see on film. However, here is a part that is identifiable courtesy of the Central Market looming up on the right.

What we have here is the section of Queen's Road between Queen Victoria Street and Jubilee Street. The small single storey building on then right is actually the back end annexe of the market which houses the public toilets ('single storey' is actually incorrect because the building is on a slope and so the annexe actually has two stories on its Jubilee Street frontage).

Here is a rough approximation of this view taken from Streetview. You can see the toilet block on the right - it's now covered partially by the Mid-levels escalator system.

The Sand Pebbles - Steve McQueen (1966) - Tai Tau Chau, Sai Kung

I haven't really covered much of The Sand Pebbles despite the fact that it is a great film. The reason is that the HK-filmed scenes were, in general, shot in some rather out of the way places in the northern part of Port Shelter that is called Rocky Harbour. We've already found out where the junk barrier was shot and so I thought this post might help to add a bit more context because it was taken around the same area but looking back towards the direction of Sai Kung town with the famous ridge line behind it

The ridge line in the background includes Pyramid hill on the left and Ma On Shan on the right and has been seen quite a few times in this blog already. In the screen grab there is also an island on the left side on the frame and this is Tai Tau Chau. If you ever get the chance to go here you'll find out that Tai Tau Chau these days seems to be largely used for burying the dead because it is now strewn with hillside graves. Anyway, following my recent trip to the reservoir area, I managed to grab the following snap from the top of the west dam wall which gives an overview of the same area albeit from a height at the top of the wall (which didn't exist until 10 or so years after the film was made).

The junk barrier was somewhere around the edge of the lake at the bottom of the screen and the San Pablo boat in the film grab is seen smoking (fake smoke by the way) its way in the body of water in front of that lower cofferdam wall. You can see Tai Tau Chau on the left in my photo too.

The Private Eyes - Hui Brothers (1976) - Perkins Road, Happy Valley

Sometimes, not often, locations are quick to find courtesy of some very obvious clues. In this scene from The Private Eyes, the road sign behind our heroes' VW Beetle tells us they are sitting on Perkins Road in Happy Valley.

Thankfully for us, Happy Valley remains one of those areas of HK where much of the older buildings still remains and looking at the current Streetview images we can see the house they are spying on (or at least its front gate) hasn't changed.

The gate is exactly the same! It's either a matching replacement or just very well maintained.

The view up the road (as in the top film grabs) shows that the road's aspect hasn't changed much either, I suspect they are the same trees seen on the film lining the pavement.

This is the current view up the side road where the Hui's had their car parked. The old road sign has gone and there looks to have been some redevelopment at the far end but the walls on both sides haven't changed much.

And finally the view from our intrepid Private I's vantage point looking down the road to the house they are keeping an eye on.

Noble House (Mini series) - Pierce Brosnan (1988) - HK Academy for Performing Arts, Hong Kong

The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (APA for short) is a veritable HK higher education institute dealing with degrees and diplomas in performing arts: music, acting, opera, dance, film production etc. In Noble House the main campus building along Gloucester Road doubles as the HQ for the suffering Ho Pak bank which undergoes a run thanks to some malicious rumours spread by a certain Quillan Gornt.

The Academy was founded in 1984 and not so long ago (2003) also managed to obtain a second - extremely attractive - campus in Pokfulam in the form of the Bethanie building.

If you have kids in HK then without doubt at some point you will come to the Academy to visit the various Childrens' shows that play at the Lyric Theatre (so far we've watched things such as Barney, Thomas the Tank Engine, Room on a Broom, The Gruffalo, Mr Ben and many more).

Anyway here it is as it appears on film as the Ho Pak Bank.

And here it is looking exactly the same (minus the fake bank emblem) courtesy of Streetview.