The Million Eyes of Sumuru - George Nader (1967) - Long Ke Wan, Sai Kung

Here's one for all those of you who think that HK is nothing but high rises and congested roads (although granted, that is what most people see when they come). The following sandy bay is the location where an errant Sumuru follower is executed after making the fatal mistake of falling for a man. Three bikini clad assassins are sent to "Italy" to do the job and this is where it goes down...supposedly on a secluded Italian beach.

In reality this isn't Italy but Sai Kung. Long Ke Wan to be precise. One of the many beach bays on the east coast of Sai Kung. As you can see it was absolutely beautiful back in 1967  - it still is actually, unless you get there on the weekend to witness the drunken hordes on their junk trips littering the place up.

Anyway, please feel free to revel in a time before hideous drunken hordes descended upon the place en masse.

The Million Eyes of Sumuru - George Nader (1967) - Sharp Island, Port Shelter

In the film, the main baddie is the eponymous Sumuru who lives on an island in Hong Kong somewhere. Where that island is supposed to be is not sure but in reality all of the shots we see when various people are getting on and off boats at a concrete jetty, we are looking at the jetty that was (and looks like it still is) located at the northern end of Kiu Tsui Chau aka Sharp Island, next to Kiu Tsui beach.

The top picture is looking roughly north from Sharp Island with Pak Sha Chau behind the boat and the landscape behind is where Sai Sha Road comes into Sai Kung from the north.

The following shot shows the same place but this time looking more east as the person walks up the ramp. The hills in the background are part of the islands northern coast.

The following two shots are looking the other way from the west up to the north and the second picture clearly shows the recognisable ridgeline that sits above Sai Kung town centre at the right of the picture with Pyramid Hill on the right of the girls shoulder.

The Million Eyes of Sumuru - George Nader (1967) - Shaw's Movietown, Clearwater Bay

After having a bit of a disaster with regards to my PC recently (the hard drive failed and I lost a whole bunch of stuff I hadn't backed up including various screen grabs I had recently done for other films) I figured it would be a good time to start on a film recommended to me by Flip Jansen. Flip had been kind enough to contact me and mentioned this film, Sumuru. So many thanks to Flip and please check out his rather impressive and useful blog on film concerts here:  http://www.moviesinconcert.nl

Anyway, here we are with another 1967 picture produced by Harry Alan Towers. Harry was also responsible for Five Golden Dragons (and The Vengeance of Fu Man Chu which is one of the films I will have to do go through again after my PC crash) which also happened to start his wife Maria Rohm who also happened to be in the Fu Manchu film. So you can see a pattern forming. It looks like 1967 was Harry's year for getting films made in Hong Kong with the help of Shaws. There's another link to Five Golden Dragons that I'll point out later and according to Flip's comment it looks as though these films were filmed one after the other from the end of '66 into '67.

Anyway, speaking of Shaws as we just were, the opening scenes of Sumuru were most definitely filmed on the Chinese town lot at the Movietown studios. Shaw Bros fans will certainly recognise the small stone bridge that can be seen in the last screen grab. 

This wasn't the only scene filmed at Shaw's and a later post has some scenes filmed outside the famous and iconic Shaw House.

Cracker: White Ghost - Robbie Coltrane (1996) - Various aerial shots around Hong Kong

Finishing up Cracker: White Ghost for the time being (at least while I still grapple with some of the harder to identify locations) with this small post showing some of the location seen from the vantage point of the helicopter whilst it's trying to follow the killer.

The first shot is an aerial view of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department HQ. At least that is the building's use now, but considering that the FEHD didn't exist in 1996 - it was created when the Urban Council was disbanded (it was the first volley in the HK Govt's war on democracy) and the councils former responsibilities were split between the FEHD and the LCSD (Leisure and Cultural Services Dept) - I am not sure what it was before hand. I'm sure some of the longer-term HK residents can provide that information. It's the low-rise building on the right. The buildings next to it are (from r to l) the Victoria Centre and the Sea View Estate.

A little further along the Hong Kong Island coastline provides us with our next bird's eye view over Quarry Bay and the two shiny buildings we can see centre screen are two of the office towers of Cityplaza in Tai Koo Shing.

We move back a bit now and over to the HK-side entrance to the Eastern Harbour Tunnel as Dennis' car heads over to Kowloon side. The shot is in B&W because we are supposedly viewing it through the camera on the chopper.

We move over to Kowloon side now and can see a rather difficult to identify junction, however as the camera pans right, following one of the taxis, it becomes obvious that we are looking at the major junction where Austin Road intersects with Chatham Road South. The giveaway is a brief view of the curved staircase outside of St Mary's Canossian College along Austin Road.

And finally we finish with a quick view over Container Terminal's 8 and 7 as the helicopter hovers above the area around Stonecutters Island. Actually, the angle here is quite low as you can see from the distant hillside buildings (in the northern Lai Chi Kok/southern Kwai Chung area) and it wouldn't surprise me to find out the camera crew had simply driven over to Stonecutters (because by then it had joined the Kowloon peninsula) and plonked the camera on one of its small hillocks.
 

Cracker: White Ghost - Robbie Coltrane (1996) - Fat Kwong Street Flyover, Hung Hom

Although they let Dennis out so they can follow him, they lose him when he crosses over to Kowloon. The cop car stops along the Fat Kwong St flyover where it crosses the eastern Kowloon Corridor whilst they wait for the helicopter crew to pick up the scent again.

As you can see from Streetview below the area hasn't changed much at all but in the lowest picture above, it looks like there may have once been a structure in Fat Kwong Street Garden (top left of the picture), either that or the camera angle is making the buildings on the other side of the garden seem much closer than they are (it's certainly possible).

Cracker: White Ghost - Robbie Coltrane (1996) - Gloucester Road Footbridge, Wanchai

Anyone who has spent a long enough time in HK (i.e. had to apply for a visa and/or ID card) will probably have made the walk across this next location. It's the pedestrian footbridge that connects Wanchai MTR/O'Brien Road with Immigration Tower on Gloucester Road. Our friend Dennis Philby heads over there to try and convince the Immigration officer that he has legitimately married his girlfriend and wants a passport for her.

Cracker: White Ghost - Robbie Coltrane (1996) - Tsing Yi Container Processing Terminal, Tsing Yi

The container terminal where Dennis imprisons his girlfriend is one we have seen before a couple of times on this blog, first in The Protector where it was used for the finale and secondly in Double Impact where one version of JCVD gets his butt kicked.

Actually, there are a few container yards here and the sign at the front gate (on Tsing Keung Street - see top picture below) shows that the space is shared by several companies. The place was looking a bit empty in Double Impact but it seems as though business was booming once again when the Cracker team turned up.

These days the place is just marked as "dockyard" and "open storage" on maps but I think it is still very much in use. The Exxon Mobil Oil Terminal seen in the lower two pictures is also still around and operational. Tsing Yi Road can be seen on the left of the lower picture as it curves around the southern part of the island.

Cracker: White Ghost - Robbie Coltrane (1996) - Broadwood Park, Happy Valley

This part of Happy Valley/Caroline Hill seems to be cropping up a fair amount. Not only is it the area where the police station and the young girl's school is located, it also happens to be the area where the killer's flat is. To be precise, his flat is located in a development known as Broadwood Park at 38 Broadwood Road. Here is what the building looks like in the show (seen from the east).

There is also a little bit of the show shot inside the flat and I am inclined to believe that the flat used was indeed one inside Broadwood Park due to the various views and angles we can see from the windows as the cops search the place. For example, the first shot below shows Ricky Tomlinson looking out across the very recognisable arch of the awning at Hong Kong Stadium down towards the South China Athletic Stadium just behind it. Broadwood Park actually lines up perfectly for this view.

The second shot shows Coltrane looking at a similar aspect but a little further to the left so you can see the white building (with the red emblem) of the SCAA and if you look closely at the bottom you can see four cylindrical structures that are attached to the aside of the SCAA sports centre.

Cracker: White Ghost - Robbie Coltrane (1996) - French International School, Price Road

The school at which the young female witness from the abortion clinic attends is called St Hilda's in the film, and unlike the previously mentioned site of the CAS and EMSD that was used for the police station, this location was in fact a real school. It's the French International School on Price Road above Happy Valley. It's just a brief glimpse but enough for an identification.

The building seems to be the same one, but it's the white wall that is the most identifiable courtesy of Streetview.

Cracker: White Ghost - Robbie Coltrane (1996) - ex-Civil Aid Services Headquarters, Caroline Hill

The police station featured in Cracker has really had me scratching my head because I just could not find anything that matched it amongst the current stock of official stations in HK. The reason for this is that the sneaky TV people didn't use a real police station but instead plumped for the old CAS HQ building over on Caroline Hill Road right next to the South China Athletic Association complex (which we will also see from afar in a later post).

The location is still visible on Streetview but it appears that CAS moved out of there a while back (along with the Electrical and Mechanical Service Dept who had workshops next door) over to West Kowloon/Yau Ma Tei area to free up the site for redevelopment. Anyway, back in 1996 it was still their HQ location and I guess the film makers convinced them to let some filming take place for a few days as it stood in for the police HQ. The picture below shows the main building at the site that fronts onto Caroline Hill Road near the junction with Leighton Road. As you can see, the location has a rather large courtyard/car park area (though not as big as the EMSD next door) making it ideal as a stand-in for a Police Station.

Sadly, I couldn't recognise the place from the above picture and it took a brief glimpse in a very quick scene when the killer is driving away in his BMW to finally locate it. Look in the distance and you can see some writing on the building at the back. It's the old Po Leung Kuk Pershing Tsang Primary School on Link Road. 

The school has since merged with another one and become the PLK Gold and Silver Exchange Society Pershing Tsang Primary School and moved up Link Road (i.e. to the left) to another building we have encountered before (we saw it in Double Impact all those years ago). The old school building has become the PLK Kwok Law Chun Children Services Building (lots of PLK related stuff here because the HQ (see here in Game of Death) is just off screen to the right.

Again, no Streetview access inside the complex (not helpful Google pictures from anyone), but this shot shows the same buildings (the one behind is another PLK related one) from Caroline Hill Road.