Spider-Man: The Dragon's Challenge - Nicholas Hammond (1979) - Yau Ma Tei Typhoon Shelter, Kowloon

There's a fair amount of aerial views in this film courtesy of a sequence that involves a helicopter. It looks like the film makers took the opportunity to film a significant amount of footage and incorporate it into various parts of the film rather than save it all for the actual helicopter chase/search.

One scene that crops up a few times is a view over Yau Ma Tei typhoon shelter. Here are the grabs where, to a trained eye, you may be able to discern the low roofs of the Yau Ma Tei fruit market (centre right in the top picture). Some of those thin white buildings are still around - unlike the shelter itself which has long since been reclaimed and redeveloped. In fact all of that water you see below has been replaced by Olympian City, Olympic MTR Station and large developments such as Park Avenue, The Hermitage and Charming Garden. 

Spider-Man: The Dragon's Challenge - Nicholas Hammond (1979) - Cameron Mansions, The Peak

Spider-Man's nemesis in this film is a corrupt businessman who wants to secure a industrial contract in China. He's obviously wealthy because he walks around in silk dressing gowns and gets his portrait painted whilst standing in his garden. It's certainly what I would do if I had lots of spare dosh. Anyway, the garden in question is actually the terrace at Cameron Mansions along Magazine Gap Road on The Peak. There are a few nice views from here that would be great if they were any near decent resolution. Actually, the terraced garden you can see below specifically belongs to the part of the development called Cameron House.

In the back of this shot (above) you can see the 'Pink House' - currently HSBC senior staff quarters.

Actually, Cameron Mansions has another link to the film world because it was supposedly designed by local architect, Kwan Wing-hong, who happens to have been the father of Nancy Kwan. I've heard this rumour before but can't seem to find a source to back it up at the moment. I'll dig deeper and update later.

Anyway, the building was completed in 1951 and constructed on the remains of a large concrete base that formerly supported the (in)famous Japanese war memorial - erected during the occupation. According the post-war news reports, the site had been constructed for the purpose of mass suicide by the Japanese forces in case the British were able to re-invade Hong Kong. I guess they had second thoughts.

The memorial was destroyed soon after the war ended but rumours persist about a valuable ceremonial sword that was embedded into the foundation base as some sort of consecration. It may or may not be true but I suspect it will remain out of reach until the time comes for redevelopment of the site.

Spider-Man: The Dragon's Challenge - Nicholas Hammond (1979) - Kai Tak Airport, Kowloon

I have two very early, although now quite vague, cinematic memories from when I was a youngest in the 1970's. The first memory is when I went to see Star Wars during its original UK cinema run in..erm...1978(?). The second memory I have is when my mum took me to a Saturday morning double bill at the Coventry Odeon. I remember the day was hot and sunny and it was at a time when you could wander into the cinema at any point and the films would play on a loop with perhaps a small break between reel changes. We're still talking about 1978 (I think so anyway, it was a long time ago) because the films on the double bill were Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger and the The Amazing Spider-Man.

The Amazing Spider-Man was actually a TV series pilot starring Nicholas Hammond as Spidey, but it did get a limited theatrical release in the UK and was actually the main reason for us going to the cinema - I was a big Spiderman fan when I was young - the Sinbad film was just an extra bonus. In hindsight, I think we all know which was the better film, but hey I was only about 6 or 7 at the time so what did I know...?

Anyway, The Amazing Spider-Man ran for a couple of seasons in the US before culminating in a double-length finale (called The Chinese Web Parts 1 & 2)  that was eventually edited down into a movie and also given a limited cinema release under the tile The Dragon's Challenge. I don't recall seeing this in the cinema myself (and only have a vague recollection of ever seeing it at all) but over my research into films for this blog was happy to discover that a large portion of it had been filmed in Hong Kong.

Sadly, the only copies currently available are fairly low VHS transfers onto YouTube. It would be great to get a higher definition version because it has plenty of HK locations that we haven't seen on the blog before.

We'll start with the easy stuff which involves (as is usual when a film plot involves the characters heading out the HK) a brief scene revolving around the former International Airport at Kai Tak.

Landing.

Inside the terminal.

The view from the roof top observation deck.

Taking a car from the front of the terminal, and finally...

...takeoff!

The Chairman - Gregory Peck (1969) - Jordan Road, Yau Ma Tei

Is it Yau Ma Tei or Kwun Chung? I think the former as this location is on the north side of Jordan Road whereas Kwun Chung seems to mainly occupy the southern side (I bet most of you are wondering where on earth Kwun Chung is - it's the proper name for the area generally referred to these days by its MTR station: Jordan.

Never mind, this is actually a great piece of detective work by Thomas, so many thanks to him for once again coming through and pulling this one, seemingly, from nowhere. The shot is just one of several scene setting short shots that establish HK as the location for the following bit of film, and as we already mentioned on previous blog posts for this film, the director had been barred from filming and was told to leave HK a.s.a.p due to the politically charged nature of the film (let's just say it shows Chinese Communism for exactly as it is/was). So, I imagine this small shot was taken sneakily, I'm just a bit confused as to why this particular piece of Kowloon made it into film as opposed to any other.

Amazingly (or not) most of the buildings in this screen grab can still be seen today (or at least they can on the current version of Streetview which, I believe, is about 5 years old now). Here's the modern view. I'm wasn't convinced as much by the building on the left hand side, but after checking on Centamap, it is indeed also the same block as seen on film - the three closest blocks all being built in 1966 and the one with the angled front (far right in the screen cap) was actually built in 1960.

Jaguar Lives - Joe Lewis (1978) - Penha Church, Macau

Our last post for Jaguar Lives for the time being as we see Joe (or at least a stuntman) busting some moves on the square in front of Penha Church.

The last picture gives us a nice view looking towards Taipa and the Ponte Governador Nobre de Carvalho connecting Taipa to the Macau peninsula.

Jaguar Lives - Joe Lewis (1978) - Inner Harbour, Macau

Over to Macau now for a quick visit and some sights around the inner harbour area including the floating casino, the Kwong Hing Tai Firecracker company building (or at least the back of it facing the water) and a few more places worth mentioning.

In the above screencap we can see Joe surveying the shoreline. The low art deco style building in the centre screen is still around. I don't know anything about it but like its style and can see from Streetview that it is currently housing a company called "Tak Wah". Obviously we don't have "Waterview" yet, so I've had to settle for this land-side image from Streetview. It seems to be a working warehouse still. Incidentally, the building directly under Joe's chin is the former Grande Hotel. We looked at this place a few posts ago in Robert Mitchum's Macao.

The next shot is not a great one for scenery courtesy of the fact that ol' Joe is blocking most of it, but look on the right and you can see Penha Church up on the hill.

The next shot shows the back of the Kwong Hing Tai Firecracker building on the water. This is a great art deco style building and was once the feature of a post on my old blog. I shall resurrect it at some point but until then you can see the waterside rear of the building where firecrackers were loaded off onto boats for distribution. We also have a view of the stylish front courtesy of Streetview again.

Finally, here is the famous floating Casino looking less than splendid thanks to the fact that it was covered in bamboo scaffolding when they filmed this. It was called the Casino Macau Palace and has been seen here a couple of times in the past. It's gone now, but not sure when.

Jaguar Lives - Joe Lewis (1978) - Aberdeen Harbour, Aberdeen

Aberdeen featuring extensively in the following scene as Lewis follows a local hood back to his hiding place and discovers how they are transporting drugs (hidden in buckets of fish). We get a thorough tour of the whole area starting with the waterfront right in front of the town, but there are some interesting sights.

Starting at the top of Brick Hill - I believe the film was made in the year that Ocean Park opened but I don't know if the cable car was a feature of the park at the time - we zoom down into the harbour area. In the second picture you can see the uprights of what was to become the Ap Lei Chau road bridge. This started construction in January 1977. The space at the back on Brick Hill is now occupied by the Canadian International School that was hitting the headlines last year with its various troubles. The bottom picture in this series shows the wide angle view with the former Police Station up on the hillside. We've seen this building in many a movie on this blog.

We catch a closer look at the former Police Station in the following screencap as the action moves down onto the water.

But following that we also see some other buildings that are still very much around. The buildings you see below are the ones that now front Wu Nam St. Of course in 1978 they were along the waterfront but that has since been reclaimed and become the main bus terminal as well as having the widened Aberdeen Praya Road running across the front (it's actually a highway for through traffic now).

You can see the same block on this Streetview grab, although from the side because trees along the road prevent me from getting a similar view. It's also useful to see how much has been reclaimed in front. So, to put some context there, the camera would probably have been somewhere around where the left hand carriageway of the highway now stands (bottom left of the picture).

Our next shot shows us looking over towards the Tai Pak. I'm not sure on the position of the Tai Pak in 1978 but I do know that the Jumbo had also been opened a couple of years before. Tai Pak is now part of Jumbo Kingdom and sits right next to the Jumbo over at the Shum Wan end of the harbour, but it's possible it was still at the Aberdeen end when this was filmed.

Speaking of the Jumbo, as we just were, it makes a surprise appearance but not at this part of the film. The following screencap is actually taken during a sequence when the action moves over to Macau and the film makers either intentionally or unwittingly stuck in the Jumbo footage as part of the montage. It's quite possible they mistook it for the Macau floating casino, which we will see in a later post.

Jaguar Lives - Joe Lewis (1978) - Pottinger Street, Central

It wasn't too difficult to place this particular scene due to Pottinger Street's floor slabs, but also courtesy of the building in the background with the vertical fins which sits at 76 Wellington St - on the north corner where it intersects with the higher portion of Pottinger St.

Jaguar Lives - Joe Lewis (1978) - Aberdeen Chinese Permanent Cemetery, Aberdeen

Despite being in the background of most Aberdeen scenes featured on this blog, the Aberdeen Chinese Permanent Cemetery has only been properly used once before on these pages - by Robert Clouse for 1974's Golden Needles.

Anyway, here is where Joe clandestinely meets up with a local contact providing some information. The top (and second) photo show the old Shek Pai Wan Estate which was found to have stability issues and redeveloped in the 1990's.

Jaguar Lives - Joe Lewis (1978) - Peking Road, Kowloon

Time for a new film and back to colour for the time being as we follow Joe Lewis as the 'Jaguar' pursuing a criminal mastermind. Joe was in fact a famous tournament fighter back in the 1960's and is often credited with the development of kickboxing and full-contact karate. Not many people know that he was also a friend of Bruce Lee's during the 60's and was even trained by him for a time before a much publicised falling out. Anyway, first off the bat is a visit to somewhere that should be familiar to regular readers of this blog, it's Peking Road in Tsim Sha Tsui with the famous Club Tasogare sign.

And for a Bruce bonus, here is Joe walking up the side alley on Peking Road which used to be the access path for the Red Lips bar. The bar has gone but the alleyway still exists between the blocks that front Lock Road and Hankow Road. These days it's used by vendors for small stalls selling trinkets and bags etc.