Foxbat - Henry Silva (1977) - Shanghai Industrial Investment Building, Wanchai

A Cheung - the bumbling character who causes most of the film's action (after accidentally swallowing Henry Silva's microfilm of "Foxbat" photos) runs a cooking class in the Shanghai Industrial Investment Building. The place is fairly unmistakable with its exterior window design and is still standing at 48-62 Hennessy Road.

It also pops up later in the film as the finale plays out. In the grabs below you can see the building that became the Metropark Wanchai Hotel - made famous a few years back during the Swine Flu outbreak of 2009 when the poor guests were quarantined inside for a whole week. The Metropark Hotel chain hasn't had a great run of luck with communicable diseases because the Metropark Kowloon (formerly the Metropole) was the hotel at the centre of the SARS epidemic in 2003, followed by the Swine Flu incident in 2009, it's no wonder they have changed the Wanchai hotel name to the "Kew Green Hotel".

Foxbat - Henry Silva (1977) - Cameron Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

I'm sure there is someone who knows the exact spot this was filmed on given the appearance of the "Cameron Photo Supplies" sign in the background, however, it looks like this was towards the Chatham Road South-end of Cameron Road given the fact that in the second screen grab you can clearly see the Park Hotel on the opposite side of the street.

This scene was actually cut from the Bluray version, so I have no better screencaps to update it with and will just leave it as it is.

Foxbat - Henry Silva (1977) - Kai Tak Airport, Kowloon City

Another establishing shot just in case you failed to recognise Hong Kong's famous harbour from the first one. This one is of a plane coming into land from the vantage point of the carpark next to Prince Edward Road East.

Ein Sarg aus Hong Kong - Heinz Drache (1964) - Woosung Street, Kowloon

A big thanks to Arthur for getting this seemingly obscure street scene from Ein Sarg aus Hongkong. A bit of nifty searching by him has located an address thanks to matching up some of the shop signs that can be seen on the left hand side of the lower picture.

The white columns with red writing along the left side of the street tie up with a picture Arthur found at the following thread on the Uwants forum (it's a great resource for old Hong Kong pictures as long as you have a decent grasp of Chinese literacy (sadly, I don't).

So we now know that this particular stretch of road, where the (most likely) fictitious "Celestial Empire Hotel" is situated. This whole stretch - between Jordan Road and Nanking Street - has been redeveloped, however, the curved corner building in the mid distance is still around and it's on the corner on Nanking Street and now houses the Goodrich Hotel. It was built in 1964 so must have been brand new when this film was shot (probably why it looks so clean!).

Anyway, once again a massive thanks to Arthur for finding the proverbial needle in the haystack.

Foxbat - Henry Silva (1977) - View from The Peak, Hong Kong

Foxbat is an English language Hong Kong film made in 1977. I've known about this film for a while because Jon Benn plays a small role as some sort of head honcho at the CIA but have had a hard time tracking down a copy until I found a company that had a DVD release. This was great for a first look at the film but some of the locations needed a higher resolution to pinpoint, so I have returned to the film a few years later with a Bluray version and managed to squeeze some extra locations out of it. However, the increase in picture quality has come at the cost of a more restricted aspect ratio so some of the height available on the DVD has been lost from both the top and bottom of the Bluray. I'll show an example in a later post.

The film starts off with a Russian jet fighter (the "Foxbat") being flown into Hokkaido in northern Japan and all the countries around the world are scrambling over themselves to get hold of its technology. The action soon moves over to Hong Kong as the various interests all meet up to strike a deal. So here is our first look at Hong Kong as the camera focuses on a bird flying around i the thermals above Hk Island.

(Edit 2020: I'm still trying to figure out which house is in the foreground. I initially thought it may be Katoomba but that building shows up in a later post and isn't a match. I'll update once I have figured it out.)

Flatfoot in Hong Kong - Bud Spencer (1975) - Middle Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

Another one from Flatfoot in Hong Kong that I have just found. It was seen during the chase sequence between Rizzo (Bud Spencer) and Barella (Al Lettieri). It's a quick shot of the stone steps next to the Mariner's Club at the end of Middle Road. I had originally posted a Streevtiew shot of the same place, but this whole block has been redeveloped in the past few years due to the demolition of the old Mariner's Club. The original 60's era club building has been replaced by a modern day skyscraper of which the club now occupies a few floors (no doubt this was part of the redevelopment deal). So I shall give you this link to the historical Streetview for comparison. I believe the steps are still there but they won't be looking quite how they used to since the rebuild.

Flatfoot in Hong Kong - Bud Spencer (1975) - Lung Yu Restaurant, Jordan Road

One of the benefits of going back every so often to look at films I covered when I first starting blogging here is that sometimes I see places that I now recognise. Case in point is this brief shot of the Lung Yu Restaurant from Flatfoot in Hong Kong starring Bud Spencer. We don't get to see much other than the dragon effigy above the main doors but it's still fairly recognisable. You can compare it to the shots I posted when it appeared in I Spy and Heisser Hafen Hongkong and Ein Sarg aus Hongkong.

Shirley's World (TV Series) - Shirley MacLaine (1972) - The Peninsula Hotel, Tsim Sha Tsui

Having previously cropped up in the episode Figuratively Speaking, The Peninsula Hotel also makes an appearance in Evidence in Camera.

Hong Kong film fans might recognise the chap in the bottom screen shot. It's Ho Li-yan who was a prolific local actor throughout the 50s/60s/70s and is perhaps most recognisable from playing Angela Mao's chaperone in Enter the Dragon when they are attacked by Han's henchmen. In this episode, he plays the fisherman father of the thief who stole Shirley's camera.

Shirley's World (TV Series) - Shirley MacLaine (1972) - Former Marine Police HQ, Tsim Sha Tsui

When Shirley has her camera stolen, she goes to report the theft at the Marine Police HQ in TST.

Shirley's World (TV Series) - Shirley MacLaine (1972) - Connaught Road, Central

This is the section of Connaught Road in front of where the old Star Ferry pier used to be. You may remember it from The World of Suzie Wong, but by the time Shirley's World was being filmed the old Queen's Building had already been replaced by the Mandarin Oriental (seen in the background on the left).