The Last Grenade - Stanley Baker (1969) - Starling Inlet, Sha Tau Kok

There is a quick scene of the soldiers making their way along a rural road as they hunt down their quarry. It just so happens that this particular road is Luk Keng Road in the far north east of the territory. In fact the closed area border (a sort of restricted buffer zone between Hong Kong and the true border with China) the runs along this very same road - enter the inlet and you are officially in trouble if you don't have a Closed Area Permit. To obtain a permit you need to be an indigenous villager whose village lies within the Closed Border Area, or you need to be invited by someone who lives there.

I've tried to match the same angle using Streetview. Note that in the top picture the embankment in the background is where the road turns north along the west end of the inlet. You can't see the turn these days due to the increased amount of growth on the side of the road.

The view looking east is a bit more interesting as you can see the headland that makes up the far eastern limit of the inlet. The headland is called Ah Kung Tsui.

The Last Grenade - Stanley Baker (1969) - Tai Po, New Territories

One of the key early scenes between Honor Blackman and Stanley Baker was filmed in Tai Po around the former fishing community at Yuen Chau Tsai. This is the same scene, previously mentioned, photographed by our friend over on Gwulo.com.

As a former resident of Tai Po not far from this very spot (I lived there for 6 years) I find this fascinating because the small shanty town here was very real and not created for the purpose of filming. Also my brother-in-law attended the school that can be seen in the background at around the time the filming took place (circa 1969). Anyway, the scene is set with a rather picturesque view over to a very misty Pat Sin Leng.

Then we switch to the road bridge that crossed the rail track and marshland next to Island House on Yuen Chau Tsai. The lower photo shows the two hillocks that are still around and house the Old District Office (North) - the larger hill on the left - and the smaller hill on the right that has the Tai Po Bungalow sitting on top of it. This latter is now the Norwegian International School Kindergarten. The white building at the bottom of the hill is the school I just mentioned. It's the Wong Siu Chi Secondary School and just recently celebrated its 50th anniversary. I believe it was the first Govt Secondary School in Tai Po. It's been expanded since then but the building you see below is still there. 

The camera is then moved further along the road as the soldiers' vehicle drive by. The mat-shed you can see in the top picture may or may not have been erected for the filming. It is certainly the location of a later scene but I'm not sure of it was built specifically for the movie or if they just took advantage of its existence. Again, we get a closer view of the school.

Amazingly, much of the space occupied by the shanty town has remained undeveloped. The huts sat on a small marshland (that flooded at high tide) where the Tai Po River emptied into the harbour and it was - by all accounts - a rather stinky place to be. When the New Twon development started in the early 1980's, most of the town inhabitants were rehoused in the nearby Kwong Fuk Estate and the marshland was re-landscaped so that the river ran down a nullah and the marsh area was reclaimed. Nothing major has been built on here other than a rather pleasant park and a petrol station. I've tried to recreate the same angle as the lower picture using Streetview. You can still see the hillock but the older school building is hidden by tree growth. The high rises centre left are the ones built above Tai Po Market station.

A little later in the film, Baker returns to the same spot to try and get information from the local population and has a good old wander around.

The Last Grenade - Stanley Baker (1969) - Queen's Road Central, Hong Kong

On the way from the airport to their accommodation - wherever that might be - and the boys are given a quick whirlwind tour around some local streets. I can't quite identify them all at the moment, but this one is instantly recognisable as the junction where Queen's Road Central intersects with Wellington Street. The curved corner building is actually still there and it looks like that whole block was built in the mid-60's.

Here's the current Streetview from a slightly to-the right angle, but you can still make out the features of the building quite well.

The Last Grenade - Stanley Baker (1969) - Kai Tak Airport, Kowloon

It's time for a new film and this time from this not-so-well-known mercenary actioner filmed circa 1969 (but released in 1970) starring Stanley Baker. Baker has been hired to deal with a renegade soldier (played by Alex Cord) causing havoc around the border between Hong Kong and China.

I first heard about this film courtesy of Harryhktc over on Gwulo.com who had posted some sneakily snapped pictures of Honor Blackman and Stanley Baker whilst they were filming in Tai Po (which I will cover in a future post). So anyway, many thanks to Harry for bringing it to my attention because it's a cracker of a film.

Although kicking off supposedly somewhere in Africa, the action soon moves to Hong Kong and we get the usual visit to the airport as Baker and his crew are met by a very young Ray Brooks (Brooks will be forever in my memory as the voice of Mr Benn).

There's some real history in these screencaps including the now defunct Panam and this strange, but cool, passenger transport system. Very futuristic.

Spider-Man: The Dragon's Challenge - Nicholas Hammond (1979) - Jardine House, Central

The finale of the film takes place on what would have been the territory's highest structure at the time, the Connaught Centre, now renamed Jardine House. We get some great views from the top looking down onto the neighbouring roads, as well as a rather impressive shot or two of some intrepid (and sadly anonymous) stuntman crawling up the side of the building.

But first some establishing shots showing the area around the building including the various piers we saw in earlier posts.

Vehicular ferry pier bottom left

Blake Pier

Blake Pier and the later version of the General Post Office. Star Ferry at the back

The GPO and Jardine House next door.

Can you see the small dot on the side of the building? It's our intrepid stuntman, attached by wires to a cradle at the top of the building. We get a close up as well which reveals the concrete finish on the building before it was clad with aluminium tiles.

Definitely not Nichloas Hammond!

Once at the top, Spidey uses his radio transceiver to try and locate his buddy. Cue some rather spectacular views from the top of Jardine House.

Spider-Man: The Dragon's Challenge - Nicholas Hammond (1979) - Cross Harbour Tunnel Entrance, Hong Kong

Journeying back to HK from the far reaches of the New Territories, and the kidnappers naturally use the cross harbour tunnel to make their way back to Aberdeen.

Spider-Man: The Dragon's Challenge - Nicholas Hammond (1979) - Fanling, New Territories

The baddies have taken their kidnapping victim to a hiding place in the New Territories and we are treated to some nice aerial scenery of various parts of the NT as Peter Parker uses his spidey-gadgetry to search for clues from the air. It turns out that a large chunk of this sequence was filmed in and around the Fanling area - on the ground as well as the air. Take for example this brief glimpse of a rural village - it's actually Fanling Wai - stronghold of the Pang clan - although you wouldn't believe it given the amount of development that has overtaken these green paddy fields in front of the village.

The fung shui pond in front of the village is still the same shape, but as you can see the area at the top left of the screen cap has been developed into new village houses. The older single and two storey traditional houses on film have also largely been replaced by the 'Spanish' villa style three storey buildings that now dominate village development.

Another quick aerial photo shows Peter Parker (in a cunning disguise of some satin pyjamas and a pointy hat...) running into the village from the main road. The truck is on San Wan Road. The yellow building is actually a building that was the original Fanling village school (粉嶺學校) but is now known as the 思德書室 (si dak sue sat) and is part of the local area's built heritage. You can see the building in the lower Streetview grab below.

Notice the cross-lattice work in the wall of the school above? We now know where the crew put their camera because it is also briefly featured when the kidnapper's van drives out of the village. As the van leaves the village you can make out a strange roof structure in the background on the other side of San Wan Road. It's the roof over the viewing terrace of the public swimming pool across the road.

Spider-Man: The Dragon's Challenge - Nicholas Hammond (1979) - Victoria Park, Causeway Bay

There are a couple of views concerning Victoria Park, one from on high that is really focusing on the typhoon shelter but captures the edge of the park in frame, and a close up view as the film's protagonists go for a morning wander to watch all the oldies doing their tai chi.

The top picture below shows the aforementioned aerial view of the Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter with a very grassy looking Victoria Park at the top of the screen.

Just to prove that the park was once a nice grass covered bit of open space, here are some pictures of the actual grass...now a rarer thing in Hong Kong than Spiderman himself - most of the Park has subsequently been replaced by astro-turfed pitches and painted concrete. The same goes for most other parks all over the territory - finding real grass is difficult indeed.

Spider-Man: The Dragon's Challenge - Nicholas Hammond (1979) - Ocean Park, Nam Long Shan

An interesting view of the newly opened (in 1977) Ocean Park - or at least the headland section on the other side of Brick Hill (Nam Long Shan). I tend to give OP a wide berth these days - if I want to be pushed and shoved around by hordes of people, then I can do it for free in Mongkok and save on the travel time.

 

Anyway, it looks as though the 1978 version of Ocean Park hadn't had any fun rides installed just yet, but it is possible to make out the upper cable car station (centre left). The circular building on the far left used to house the famous former Atoll Reef aquarium with its big wide viewing windows. These days the main aquarium has been moved down to a funky-looking-but-less-practical-with-tiny-viewing-portals tank on the lower section.

Spider-Man: The Dragon's Challenge - Nicholas Hammond (1979) - Mei Foo Sun Tsuen, Lai Chi Kok

Part of our helicopter tour takes us quickly back into the reaches of north west Kowloon and Lai Chi Kok - we catch a quick glimpse of a newly completed (well, at least the last phase was completed in 1978) Mei Foo Sun Tsuen. I've got a friend who lives here and these apartments are quite well spaced compared to the modern day stuff that you can hardly swing a mouse in, let alone a cat.

Anyway, the large bit of sea in front has since been reclaimed as well (the estate was already on largely reclaimed land taken over from the oil company that used to be based here) and is now the rather nice Lai Chi Kok park. Well worth a visit if you have a spare hour or two. Oh, and then there is the subsequent several hundred meters further out to sea which have now all been turned into container processing land and also joined Stonecutter Island onto the Kowloon mainland.