Black Cobra Woman - Laura Gemser (1976) - Edinburgh Place, Central

There is a quick scene filmed around Edinburgh Place when Eva and another of her girlfriends are being taken by rickshaw past the old Star Ferry terminal. In the background of the first image is the General Post Office still under a bit of scaffolding. It opened in 1976 so this ties nicely in with the filming. Actually, I believe it's about to undergo redevelopment. There's been a bit of a murmur from the built heritage activists but, in my opinion, there are far more nicer and older buildings that warrant protection before this one.

Black Cobra Woman - Laura Gemser (1976) - Lockhart Road, Wanchai

Once in her new car, Eva (that's the character's name) takes it for a spin and the next shot was taken looking along Lockhart Road at the junction with Fenwick Street. There are some familiar bar and restaurant names here including the Diamond Steakhouse, Neptune and Magpie bars, and I believe the large one on the corner of Fenwick Street must be the Back Door Club. The one in the last image with the curves above the columns was the Pussy Cat Bar. All these old buildings have been redeveloped.

We also see the same area a bit later in the film but this time from the pavement as Eva and her new found friend are walking around and hanging out.

Black Cobra Woman - Laura Gemser (1976) - Magazine Gap, Wanchai

Jack Palance's character in this film, Judas, is supposedly immensely wealthy and one of the establishing shots used to show where he lives is a pan of the area in the vicinity of Magazine Gap. We start with a view across to Central before panning left, past Katoomba (image two) before finally settling on a building that no longer exists but stands at what would have been today's 40 Peak Road.

Katoomba on the left

40 Peak Road

Black Cobra Woman - Laura Gemser (1976) - Leighton Road, Causeway Bay

As a treat for his new charge, Judas (Jack Palance) buys her a car - a brand new Mercedes convertible - and the brother, Julius, takes her out for a spin in it. When we first see the car it is parked on Sun Wui Road right where it meets Leighton Road. The angular building on the other side of the road is Bonaventure House and it's still there with its angular corner. I am guessing that the Mercedes dealership used to be in there because there looks to be a large Merc symbol stuck to the side of the building behind the lamppost. Just behind that you can just make out the original Lee Theatre building with its roof dome - the current version of the building (opened in 1991) has tried to pay homage to the original by including a roof top dome but you really have to crane your next to see it given the current building's height.

Black Cobra Woman - Laura Gemser (1976) - Yee Wo Street, Causeway Bay

The first street shot from this film is a view looking east along Yee Wo Street. It's unrecognisable compared to today but look carefully in the far left background and you can see a building with horizontal ledges along its front. This is the "V Causeway Bay" building long before it was modernised. In fact you can see the same building in this post from That Man Bolt, it's the one in the top image there.

Anyway, our tough exotic dancer friend gets out of that cab and heads into the restaurant next to Maria's Cake House.

Black Cobra Woman - Laura Gemser (1976) - Views across the harbour, Hong Kong

Coupled with the initial Kai Tak landing sequence, the opening scenes from Black Cobra Woman also show a little bit of the Hong Kong Island waterfront. Some familiar views here, even if many of the buildings no longer exist. Just in the top image you can see the Furama Hotel, Sutherland House (with the circular BAYER advert), the Hong Kong Club, the Hilton Hotel behind them all and the older HSBC building which have all gone the way of the dodo.

Black Cobra Woman - Laura Gemser (1976) - Hong Kong International Airport, Kai Tak

In my quest to discover all foreign movies that filmed in Hong Kong, I have already included the soft-porn, sorry, I mean"art house" Les Fruits de la Passion, and of course Emmanuelle: L'antivierge. So, the following few films are from that same sort of exploitation genre. This first one is Black Cobra Woman starring Black Emmanuelle herself, Laura Gemser. It also has, of all people, Jack Palance, in a co-starring role and I am still undecided if any of his scenes were actually filmed in Hong Kong.

Gemser is an exotic dancer who uses snakes in her performance and bumps into Palance's brother (played by Gemser's real life husband, Gabriele Tinti) on a flight to Hong Kong. He introduces her to Palance who is smitten and invites her to stay at his house along with his collection of poisonous snakes. What follows is a rather nasty tale of jealousy and revenge and a particularly gruesome end for Tinti.

Anyway, in true 70's style, the films opening establishing shots are of a plane landing at Kai Tak airport, however, it seems the director was so taken with this scene that he decide to show a whole bunch of planes landing. But here are the grabs from the main landing sequence.

There also follows an additional scene at the pick up point which has been seen on quite a few occasions on this bog previously.

 

Aorm Aok Jao Praya - Arunya Narmwong (1972) - Mong Fu Shek, Tai Wai

I think this might be another first for this blog courtesy of this Thai film. This time it is an image of A-Mah rock, known locally as Mong Fu Shek (looking for husband rock). I must admit to being a bit confused about the angle of view (I think possibly from the East but I can't tell), but it is unmistakably the famous rock that sits in the hills above what is now Tai Wai. However, in the film, the two lovebirds are viewing it from a nearby temple. I don't recognise the temple and it makes me think that it may have been one back in Thailand, just edited in later.

Anyway, it's nice to see it finally feature in an international film, albeit very briefly. That's about it for this film, only a few locations but most of them never seen here before.

Aorm Aok Jao Praya - Arunya Narmwong (1972) - Cherry Street, Tai Kok Tsui

Our rich protagonist is taken to see a bgit of local life down at the Yau Ma Tei Typhoon Shelter, however, this is not a usual view I have seen on film and is in fact the northern end of the old typhoon shelter that terminated in the area where Cherry Street ran across it towards the old Tai Kok Tsui ferry pier (you can see how that area looked just prior to redevelopment here).

The big giveaway here is the presence of the Lutheran School for the Deaf that can be seen in the background of the top image. This school was opened in 1968 but hs since moved to a new campus around 1990. However, this school building remains and instead is now the Sharon Lutheran School. It's had a bit of redecoration since 1972 but it's still recognisable.

The lower two images give a coupe of different views along Cherry Street. The second image shows the view looking towards the west and in the distance where it terminates at the bus terminus and ferry pier, whilst the lower image is the view looking roughly south west across the upper part of the typhoon shelter. Its also here where the female character persuades an old boat lady to pretend to be her mum.

Aorm Aok Jao Praya - Arunya Narmwong (1972) - Wader Studios, Kwai Chung

The best thing about getting my hands on this film is that it cleared up an old mystery that has been bugging me for a few years. This film provided the answer courtesy of this following location. This is Wader Studios on castle Peak Road just outside of Tsuen Wan. It was an independent company with three large sound stages and various post production facilities that made its money by renting out its facilities to other film companies rather than making its own movies. It's believed that more than 1000 films were made here during its 20 year operation until it closed in 1973 and was redeveloped into the Wah Tat Industrial buildings. There is a very detailed history of the place here, but I should say that the guy who wrote it is a d*&k for downloading my Wader screen grab (from Die Mädchen von Hongkong), cropping off the watermark and not even giving me a link back or reference. I had to add one myself in the comments...

Anyway, we've seen the exterior of the studio before. The building was used in Die Jungen Tiger von Hongkong , Heisser Hafen Hongkong and Die Mädchen von Hongkong. At least these are the ones I have found so far, there may be more (like this one).

However, I had no idea what was on the other side of that building until this film showed me and I suddenly realised that this was the same location that this scene was filmed in Die Jungen Tiger von Hongkong AND that Bruce Lee had been photographed at whilst completing pick-up shots for The Big Boss - you can see a large selection of those photos here, but in particular note this one (and similar) and this one. So another mystery eventually solved, completely by fluke.

On with our Thai film. Our heroine is being escorted around Hong Kong by a chaperone who takes her to see a film being made at Wader Studios. We get a nice shot of the car approaching and turning into the front of the studio along Castle Peak Road.

Once behind the front office, we come to the garden (for want of a better word) that separated the front building from the sound stages which can be seen in the background below. This is the area where Bruce lee was photographed and also where that earlier scene from Die Jungen Tiger von Hongkong was filmed.

We then catch a view looking back up towards the main building and if you clicked on the second Bruce Lee photo link I provided above, you should be able to see that this is the same building that Bruce is standing in front of as he monkeys around for the camera complete with those rather unique red light posts. I'm glad to finally have this mystery solved.