Shirley's World (TV Series) - Shirley MacLaine (1972) - Lower Wong Tai Sin Estate, Kowloon

There is also some footage of one of the old Govt Housing Estates. It's often difficult to discern between various estates due to the common use of the "H" block design of the earlier ones. However, this particular sequence is most definitely of Lower Wong Tai Sin Estate.

The sequence starts looking down on Ching Tak Street. The building at the end of the road, along Tung Tau Tsuen Road, is now the CCC Kei Heep Secondary School - whether it had the same name back in 1972 I don't know, but at least it is still there and allows the positive identification of this location. 

Autostitch has done a pretty good job at merging these screen grabs considering the camera was panning in a rather weird angle (up and to the left). The whole estate has since been redeveloped into high rise accommodation. The carpark seen in the lower picture has since been turned into a couple of school campuses and a community centre.

Shirley's World (TV Series) - Shirley MacLaine (1972) - Public Square Street Playground, Yau Ma Tei

The playground scene when Shirley is snapping pictures of the band's singer playing on the slide and roundabout with the local kids was filmed at a playground right next to the famous Yau Ma Tei Police Station. You can see the back wall of the station in the first screencap. The playground is still there but the childrens' rides have long gone and now it is more of your typical Hong Kong-style rest garden (i.e some planters and seats and not much else other than a view obscured by the flyover)

Also quite prominent in the background is the Ferry Point Estate which can be seen in almost its full glory in the lower picture. That waterfront ceased to exist about 20 years ago. It has since been reclaimed and redeveloped.

Shirley's World (TV Series) - Shirley MacLaine (1972) - Johnston Road, Wanchai

There's a nice big clue for this next location in the form of a street sign. You can just barely make out the words Lun Fat Street. The curvature of the road and the fact that trams are on it pretty much seals the deal as to where we are. Look carefully at the background and you will just catch a glimpse of the old shophouse block that was turned into the rather nice looking "Pawn" restaurant.

The car pulls across the street and then turns into Thomson Road where the taxi driver lives.

Shirley's World (TV Series) - Shirley MacLaine (1972) - Aberdeen Harbour, Aberdeen

Back to Aberdeen for this next post, but this time we are over at the old restaurant pontoons by the old town. Regular readers of these blog posts will know the reclamation of the waterfront filled in most of this area and it is now where the main bus terminus stands along Wu Nam Street.

Shirley's World (TV Series) - Shirley MacLaine (1972) - Magazine Gap Road, Mid-levels

There are quite afew nice shots of Magazine Gap Road in one of the driving sequences. It starts off at the junction with Peak Road with the very obvious curved podium edge of #27 Magazine Gap Road.

We then see the car moving downhill. The black and white stripes mark the hairpin bend just past the junction with May Road. The markings are still there as are a couple of the buildings in the background including Borrett Mansions (far white building) and Bowen Mansion which is the lower building directly above the car.

Moving a bit down the hill and this looks as though it might be the precursor to today's "Regence Royale" development (these stupid names really make me chuckle sometimes). Back when views were more important than plot ratios.

We then get a few shots of driving around some bends before finally ending up just a few metres from the initial junction at the driveway to #26 Magazine Gap Road.

Shirley's World (TV Series) - Shirley MacLaine (1972) - Hennessy Road, Causeway Bay

Back to Hennessy Road, but this time down in Causeway Bay in that single strip of road that has been popping up quite recently (I posted about the same area a few weeks ago for Emmanuelle 2 and Ein Sarg aus Hongkong). This time we are looking eastbound just where the road becomes Yee Wo Street. The two triangular shaped buildings are Hong Kong Mansion (on the left) and Ying Kong Mansion on the right. Yee Wo Street runs between the two of them, and the yellow truck (on the right) is pulling onto Jardine's Bazaar.

Shirley's World (TV Series) - Shirley MacLaine (1972) - Hennessy Road, Wanchai

A brief glimpse along Hennessy Road (looking westbound from around where Canal Road is. I'm not sure when the canal Road flyover was constructed but the angle of the camera suggests it may have been positioned at around that height, but I need to confirm.

Pretty much all the buildings along here (on the right) have been redeveloped with the exception of the brown building at the far end on the right which is the Foo Tak building. It's still around as far as I know but you may have realised already that the small low rise corner building at its side (on the corner of Hennessy and Marsh) is the recently demolished (to Hong Kong's shame) Tung Tak Pawnshop.

There's a white high rise covered in scaffolding on the right hand side as well and I think this is probably Henning House that was completed in 1971 - so I guess the filming for these scenes can be dated to that year.

Shirley's World (TV Series) - Shirley MacLaine (1972) - Kingston Street, Causeway Bay

Shirley gets a cab to go and see the band she wants to photograph and they are rehearsing at a club along Kingston Street in Causeway Bay. The building she goes into (with the lights on the last screen shot) is Hamilton Mansion. The residential buildings around this area were all built in the early to mid-60's.

The building with the HSBC branch in it is Causeway Bay Mansion and at the far end of the road (see first screencap) you can see Fairview Mansion (and a quick glimpse of Hyde Park Mansion if you look carefully) along Paterson Street. All of these buildings are still around, if a little tidier and with the ground floor units taken up by designer goods stores.

Shirley's World (TV Series) - Shirley MacLaine (1972) - Aberdeen Harbour, Aberdeen

Next up is a series that originally ran in 1972. It consisted of 17 episodes shot largely in London and the UK but with several episodes shot overseas - including three filmed on location in Hong Kong.

So first up is some of the locations from Follow That Rickshaw including this opening scene of Aberdeen Harbour. This footage is also re-used in Evidence in Camera (so I won't repeat a post for that episode).

As you can see there is a nice closeup on the old Aberdeen Police Station on the hill and the old Shek Pai Wan estate behind. Autostitch has done a fairly nice job on the panorama below.

The Million Eyes of Sumuru - George Nader (1967) - Kansu Street, Yau Ma Tei

Here is a nifty one identified by Arthur thanks to his tracking down of a former tea shop that was once on Reclamation Street. The shop in question was called 寶蘭生 (Bo Lan Sang) and can be seen on the screencaps below as the white-signed shop next to the corner yellow one.

Arthur found a reference to the shop being on Reclamation Street but no mention of specifics, however, the curve of the street that is obvious from the film can only be found on one particular section of the road and it is the section between Kansu Street and Public Square Street.

We've actually seen this section of Kowloon before, although it was several years later by which time the block with the yellow corner shop had been completely razed and flattened leaving open space. In case you need reminding here is the other film shot I am talking about. It's one of the opening credit scenes from Enter The Dragon.

The empty space in the front of the Enter the Dragon screen shot is where the block with the yellow shop used to stand, and the old decrepit block with the wooden poles holding it up can be seen on the very left of the first Sumuru screencap above - in fact it was even being held up by wooden struts back then! These days the old decrepit block has been replaced by the YMT Jade Hawker bazaar and the empty space now holds one of the upright supports for the West Kowloon Corridor flyover.