The Medallion - Jackie Chan (2003) - Soy Street, Mongkok

Quickly moving on to the proper location stuff and the main scene with JC trying to eat some fried squid was shot at the junction of Soy Street and Fa Yuen Street in Mongkok. One of the reasons I recognise this corner is because of the TCBY sign in the background - it was still there when I arrived full time in HK back in 2006. It disappeared soon after, mind you, along with all the other outlets - much to everyone's disappointment.

The small eatery where JC is feeding the dog was on the NW corner of the junction but has since been replaced by a 7-11 - or at least it was when the Streetview car passed by.

 Now a 7-11

JC then runs across Soy Street between passing cars. The shop in the lower picture was on the SW side of the junction. Also no longer there.

The Medallion - Jackie Chan (2003) - Nathan Road Neon, Kowloon

Let's start off The Medallion with some opening shots of neon signs. These are all part of the opening sequence that leads up to the raid (by Interpol) on a temple in Hong Kong. It's a jumble of establishing shots but most are a bit too blurry to work out.

I have mixed feelings about this film because on the one hand it really is crap. But on the other hand there are lots of familiar faces (including Jude Poyer, Scott Adkins, Brad Allen, and even a personal friend of mine who was in Ireland when they were filming and can be seen in the chase scene from the hotel) and we also get to see Christy Chung blowing bad guys away. 'Nuff said.

This first post is a bit lame because it's just a couple of the opening shots featuring some neon snapped at various points along Nathan Road. I'm all for sharing a bit of neon on this page - especially considering it is now a dying art form. The first image is from a business that was located in the Sun Hing Building in Mongkok (you can just see the building name in the blue characters). Pity I couldn't get a clearer snap.

This next strip of neon was taken a bit further south, down in the Yau Ma Tei area of Kowloon. The Windsor Palace Hotel sign tells us is was snapped outside the Buckingham Building between Ningpo and Nanking Streets.

I Spy (TV Series) - Robert Culp (1965) - Stone Bridge, Tai Po

Here's a long lost one that, I think at the time, I wasn't sure of the location and so didn't post it. Anyway, here we are four years later and the rough position of the bridge (if not the exact one) has been narrowed down fairly well courtesy of a bunch of other pictures that show some more of the background. If you're interested you can see them over on Gwulo.

Rush Hour - Jackie Chan (1998) - Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter, Hong Kong

The initial part of Rush Hour is set in the immediate run up to the Hong Kong handover in 1997, so it's not surprising that one of the shots from the opening sequence shows us the newly completed extension to the Convention Centre, which was the venue for the Handover proceedings. That's it, centre-screen of the top picture.

The rest of the Hong Kong sequence involves the raid on a ship berthed in the typhoon shelter in Causeway Bay. It's the same location that Ratner would return to to film to yacht scene in Rush Hour 2.

There's also another angle of this area in this main opening. It's the area between the Convention Centre and the typhoon shelter but for some reason shot from further away. You can see the SIEMENS and HITACHI signs attached to the Great Eagle and Harbour Centres.

Rush Hour - Jackie Chan (1998) - The Peak, Hong Kong

Just clearing out a few films with some limited Hong Kong scenes in them, the first of which is Rush Hour. 

I remember seeing an interview with Brett Ratner where he made a big thing about being a huge Enter the Dragon fan and filming this opening scene from the exact same place as the opening scene in that film. Sorry to break it to you, Brett, but you were way off. This sequence looks like it was shot from the top of the Peak Tower. Whereas those who read this blog will know that the Enter the Dragon opening sequence (reused for Golden Needles) was filmed way over on Peak Road near to the junction with Stubbs Road - around 2 km away to the east, as the crow flies.

Kill a Dragon - Jack Palance (1967) - Hanoi Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

A  brief shot of Jack Palance riding in a rickshaw along Hanoi Road. The familiar sight of the Kam Lung Company in the background.

Kill a Dragon - Jack Palance (1967) - Aberdeen Dockyard, Aberdeen

If you want to see what the old Aberdeen Dockyard looked like then Gwulo is a good place to start. It looks as though it survived until the early 70's - so not long after this film was made - before falling victim to the usual rounds of reclamation. The Aberdeen Centre now sits on the same site. The dockyard had two dry docks and you can see them both (albeit partially) in the screen grabs.

Kill a Dragon - Jack Palance (1967) - Queen's Road West, Sai Ying Pun

The sequence when Aldo Ray and Jack Palance are sitting in the back of the truck and chatting was filmed along Queen's Road West just at the part before it meets Centre Street. In fact, the whole sequence also involves the truck turning down Centre Street before we hit and edit point and see the truck go past from an external angle.

Look carefully and you may spot some similar shop frontages that were also seen in The Last Grenade (and identified by Thomas at the time).

 Queen's Road West

Turning into Centre Street

Centre Street

And the final picture showing us looking up Centre Street.

Kill a Dragon - Jack Palance (1967) - Magazine Island, Aberdeen

It's been a few years since I last looked at Kill a Dragon, but I find it useful to go back over stuff every once in a while to pick up the things I missed or forgot about first time round. In this film I just noticed there is a scene at the very start of the film whereby a couple of the bad guys are spying on a junk floating into the west entrance to Aberdeen Harbour. You can see Magazine Island in the background (and Lamma in the far distance) as well as some of the reclamation work that was being done for the construction of the power station that opened the following year in 1968.

Foxbat - Henry Silva (1977) - Hollywood Road, Central

Another location identified by Thomas. Again, this was part of the bus chase scene which took in a fair chunk of HK Island. This particular shot was filmed along Hollywood Road at the junction with Elgin Street. I can't remember the sequence in my mind, but if this shot occurred after the one where the bus drives down Aberdeen Street then it would be in keeping with the real geography.