Hong Kong Confidential - Gene Barry (1958) - Centre Street, Sai Ying Pun

Next up for Hong Kong Confidential is a shot looking up Centre Street in Sai Ying Pun. It took a while to be sure but to the eagle-eyed there are several common features between this screencap and a 1920s/30s era image that can be found on Gwulo.com including the buildings at the very top of the road- which are quite blurry in the image from the film. I can't be sure when those buildings were redeveloped but pretty certain they had gone by the late 1950s when the film was made.

Hong Kong Confidential - Gene Barry (1958) - Connaught Road, Sheung Wan

Next up is another one of those 50s era movies that had a story set in Hong Kong, but the low budget nature of the movie meant the close ups were shot in unconvincing (to a modern eye at least) studio sets and authentic footage of the place, for establishing shots, was just taken from stock footage. I still find these films interesting because aside from the movie plot, they still offer a bit of a glimpse to past times, even if it was only library footage. It's possible that, like with Target Hong Kong, the only stock footage available at the time was pre-war because I'm not convinced these are 1950s era images - but perhaps more knowledgable readers can comment below. 

Gene Barry stars as a secret US agent who has been tasked with tracking down and rescuing an Arab prince (i.e. Californian white kid in brown face) from the nefarious clutches of the Chinese commies who are using him as leverage over the prince's father to get him to sign some sort of economic treaty.
This is about the most authentic bit of the film because everyone knows that the current version of the Govt still partakes in a bit of coersive "retention", shall we say, when it feels the need.

Anyway, first up is a view of Connaught Road West. The taller building in the image was actually a hotel called the Tung Shan Hotel which means we are looking at the bit of road between Morrison Street and Des Voeux Road West. Talon Tower now stands in that location.

The second image below shows a much wider view from further out in the harbour. The two buildings sticking above the others coincide with what I believe to be the aforementioned Tung Shan Hotel on the right, and the taller, more prominent Sun Kwong Hotel on the left. The Sun Kwong Hotel was located on the other side of Morrison Street to Western Market. I could be completely off with the second image, so please feel free to correct if you know anything.

Police Story 2 - Jackie Chan (1988) - Kar Wo Lei, So Kwun Wat

The gang's ramshackle factory building where they are holding May was most likely constructed just for the movie. I say this for three reasons: the first is that it gets completely destroyed at the end of the film, secondly, it looks temporary anyway (I expect most of the interiors were filmed elsewhere), and finally, aerial imagery of the area it was located in 1988, and just prior to, shows an empty space where you would expect to see a factory. However, if you know differently please feel free to comment.

Anyway, I managed to pin down the factory to an area near Tuen Mun called Kar Wo Lei. These days there is a small village development called Nim Wan Tsuen there, but back in the 1980s it was a sandy open bit of ground. The chimneys in the background belonged to the Lok On Pai Desalination Plant, which is still used to this day (minus the chimneys) as a large studio space (for example, I believe that Jet Li's scenes in Expendables 2 was filmed inside as well as Dead or Alive: Final and many more films I haven't covered).

Look carefully in the last images and you can see the flat reclaimed area that was shortly to become the Gold Coast Hotel and Resort area in the lower left.

Police Story 2 - Jackie Chan (1988) - Cheung Shun Street, Lai Chi Kok

This is the street where Ka Kui follows the bombers and then has to jump on top of a truck and a bus in order to gain access to the building where they are holding his girlfriend. If the area looks familiar it's because just down the road is the Police Station from Righting Wrongs.

The Elite Industrial Building that Ka Kui leaps into (through the Lee Kum Kee sign) as well as the Great Wall Factory Building from where he starts his assault, are still around.

Cheung Sha Wan Plaza under construction in the background

Police Story 2 - Jackie Chan (1988) - Kai Tak Tunnel, Ma Tau Kok

Ka Kui tricks the baddies so that he can enter the tunnel and cut off the radio communication that would otherwise allow the bombers to set off his vest bomb. The tunnel in question is the Kai Tak Tunnel, still going strong after all these years even though the airport it once ducked under has long since gone. So, Ka Kui drives in through the west entrance (image 1), stops the car mid-tunnel to deal with the vest (image 2), and then runs out of the east entrance (image 3) before the bad guys can cotton on to what is unfolding.

Police Story 2 - Jackie Chan (1988) - East Kowloon Corridor, To Kwa Wan

As the cars make their way north along the Kowloon City Road section of the East Kowloon Corridor, we can see the circular apertures of the To Kwa Wan Market building on the right side of the screen. This means the cars are just passing over Lok Shan Road.

Police Story 2 - Jackie Chan (1988) - Chatham Road North, Hung Hom

After tricking the gang into driving on ahead of him so he can deal with the bomb strapped to his chest, Ka Kui drives up Chatham Road North. In the image below is the Fat Kwong Flyover bridge that is still around. In fact, I covered the same location (albeit on theother side of the bridge) a few months ago for Asia-Pol Secret Service, which shows just how long this bridge has been around. Speaking of which, a thought just popped into my head in that there is only 22 years difference between those two films (1966 - 1988), and yet it's already 34 years since Police Story 2 was made! I'm just getting old and wondering where all the years have gone...

Police Story 2 - Jackie Chan (1988) - Bowen Road, Mid-levels

The small tree lined road where the bombers meet up with Ka Kui's after he has grabbed the suitcase of money is Bowen Road. The first image shows the car driving under the elevated section of Borrett Road that leads to Borrett Mansions above. The second image is at the junction with Borrett Road not that far along.

Earlier in this sequence, we get a view past Ka Kui's car looking towards the - under construction - Bank of China Tower. This was captured a little further along either Borrett Road or Bowen Road (hard to tell which one) near to the bend below the old military hospital building. The view is now obscured by #6 Borrett Road development.

Police Story 2 - Jackie Chan (1988) - Ping Ting Road, Hammer Hill

After also kidnapping Ka Kui, the bombers make another extortion demand, this time from a payphone on Ping Ting Road - it's actually just a stone's throw from the old Golden Harvest studio complex, in fact just the next road down the hill.

In the top image, the East Kowloon Psychiatric Centre can be seen in the background right of the frame. This is still around. In the second image, the twin blocks of what was once the Hong Kong School for the Deaf can be seen on the other side of Hammer Hill Road. This is no longer there and has been replaced by Chun Tok School.

Police Story 2 - Jackie Chan (1988) - Chi Lok Villa, Tuen Mun

This is the home of Chor Yuen's invalided bad guy, Chu Tou, from the first movie. Ka Kui heads there as soon as May is abducted because he believes the old man is responsible, when in reality it's the bombing gang.

Built in 1955, this was actually quite a beautiful house and was featured in many home grown local Cantonese movies throughout the 60s. This may just be the last glmipse of it looking half decent because not long afterwards it was bought by the Chinachem group (run by Nina and Teddy Wang) and left to rot in a typical HK way of destroying stuff so there can be no arguments about its demolition.

In a weird, further Jackie Chan link, Teddy Wang went missing not long afterwards and it was rumoured his body was buried here. Wang's disappearance was the inspiration behind Chan's Crime Story movie a few years later.

Following several years of dereliction and use by local kids for BB gun battles, the house was demolished in the mid 00's and replaced by a new development called "South Crest". You can google the old place (use 志樂別墅) and find lots of old images of it, including the golden dragon water feature in the front garden that can be seen in the film grabs below.

Castle Peak Road

Pine Villas (still around) can be seen at the left

Golden dragon water feature