The Thieves - Kim Yoon-seok (2012) - Aberdeen Marina Club, Shum Wan

The arrival of the diamond-carrying mark (wife of Triad boss) occurs via private yacht at the local marina. We are supposed to believe this is still in Macau but actually we're back in Hong Kong and the marina in question is the one attached to the Aberdeen Marina Club. We saw something similar in Strangers afew years back where Aberdeen harbour stands in for a non-existent Macau marina location. You can see the aforementioned club in the background (lowest image) as well as the club's "tropical" pool on the left of middle image.

The Thieves - Kim Yoon-seok (2012) - Ching Ping Theatre, Macau

The gang use an old, deserted theatre as their base whilst they plan the finer details of the diamond heist. This particular theatre is a rather famous one in Macau and is called the Ching (or Tsing...or Qing) Ping Theatre (清平戲院). According to wiki it was built in the 1870s as a Cantonese opera venue before being turned into a dual use (opera + film) venue in the 1920s. If the build date is correct then it is probably one of the oldest cinemas in China.

My memory is getting quite poor these days but I'm sure I have seen this venue in another film before, I just can't remember which one. 

The Thieves - Kim Yoon-seok (2012) - Rua da Felicidade, Macau

The enlarged gang arrives in Macau and is already being monitered by the police, who have set up a surveillance point on the balcony of the "San Va Hospedaria" aka the SANVA Hotel on Rua da Felicidade (previously seen on this blog in Isabella)

The Thieves - Kim Yoon-seok (2012) - Ponte Governador Nobre de Carvalho, Macau

The establishing shot for the action moving to Macau is a road level view from the Ponte Governador Nobre de Carvalho looking north towards the peninsula. The closest comparison I have is from Flatfoot in Hong Kong from the mid-70s.

The Thieves - Kim Yoon-seok (2012) - 124 Nga Tsin Wai Road, Kowloon City

The rooftop where the Korean gang are intrduced to the friend of their target was located on top of a rather cool looking building that used to stand on the corner of Lion Rock Road and Nga Tsin Wai Road in Kowloon City. It was quite a stylish building with its art-deco style balconies and Communist Star emblem (which you can see the rear of in some of the screen grabs). Sadly, it fell into - deliberate - disrepair and was demolished sometime before 2016. No doubt there is a high rise on the spot right now, but I haven't been down here for a while to check.

The Thieves - Kim Yoon-seok (2012) - Tai Pak Floating Restaurant, Aberdeen Harbour

Despite the Jumbo being towed away and sunk in the middle of the pandemic, the Tai Pak is still in Aberdeen harbour and supposedly undergoing some sort of renovation and rebirth. We shall see, time will tell. It would be a shame if Aberdeen was to lose its sole remaining floating restaurant. In the meantime here it is functioning as the location where our two heist gangs, Korean and Chinese, meet up to plan their big heist of all heists. 

The first images show the Jumbo and its old kitchen unit that was attached to the back. Coincidentally, a few weeks before the Jumbo sunk, this kitchen structure also capsized and sunk in Aberdeen Harbour.

The Thieves - Kim Yoon-seok (2012) - Central Pier 9, Central

The Chinese gang, led by Chen (Simon Yam), recruit a new safe cracker and meet up with her at Pier 9 on the Central harbourfront. This is the same pier that saw some filming for Something Good the following year.

The Thieves - Kim Yoon-seok (2012) - Nathan Road, Mongkok

We are introduced to the Chinese gang, led by Chen (Simon Yam), as they are in the middle of a jewellery shop robbery. The location featured in the film is a "3D Gold" jewellery shop that used to be at #611 Nathan Road. The same location is currently (2024) a chemist/pharmacy shop and the 3D Gold has moved up a few doors, but given the way Hong Kong is this will probably have changed again in a year or so. In the background behind the security guards is the London Restaurant (倫敦大酒樓). 

The Thieves - Kim Yoon-seok (2012) - Hard Rock Casino, Macau

The next film to fall under the spotlight is a 2012 Korean heist caper called The Thieves (or 도둑들Dodookdeul for the phonetic Korean). It stars Kim Yoon-seok as, Macao Park, a master criminal and seeming double-crosser who recruits his old gang, along with a local Chinese one, to engineer the heist of a valuable diamond from a ruthless Chinese Triad gang boss. The film co-stars Lee Jung-jae (most famous recently for his lead role in Squid Games), Jun Ji-hyun (star of Blood: The Last Vampire) and Simon Yam as the leader of the Chinese gang, Chen.

It's a great film and well worth getting hold of if you can. It was shot in Korea, Hong Kong and Macau in 2011 and released the following year and has been on my to-get list for quite sometime. I just so happened across it at a favourite 2nd hand DVD store in Mongkok a few weeks ago.

The film starts in Korea as the gang carry out an audacious and complicated heist of a piece of artwork from the vaults of a rich but dumb collector. As the police move in they decide to up sticks and move to Hong Kong to link up with their old cohort, Macao Park, who has an offer for them.

The Hong Kong and Macau part of the film/story starts with an introduction to Macao Park as he is ejected from the tables at the Hard Rock Hotel casino in Macau.

A Small Roadside Shrine - Tai Au Mun Road

If you take the bus to the Clearwater Bay bus terminus along Tai Au Mun Road, you may or may not notice a small granite slab on the opposite side of the road with some writing on it.

These stone tablets are actually more common than you'd think and are placed along roads in Hong Kong to - sadly - mark the location of fatal traffic accidents. I know of at least two others but I am sure there are many more given the poor standard of driving and general lack of road safety awarness here from drivers and pedestrians alike.