Largo Winch - Tomer Sisley (2008) - Chater Road, Central

Central features a fair amount in this film, this is one of the first scenes as we see one of the execs cars as it makes its way to the Winch building. This is Chater Road at the junction where it joins with Pedder Street. We then follow the car down Chater Road to the old Supreme Court Building (formerly LegCo and now the home of the Court of Final Appeal as of 2015).

Largo Winch - Tomer Sisley (2008) - Queen's Road Central, Central

This is actually in front of the Entertainment Building that sits on the corner where Wyndham Street meets Queen's Road Central.

Largo Winch - Tomer Sisley (2008) - The Landmark Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Central

There's a couple of hotel endorsements in this film which, I guess, is one way to secure decent funding.  It reminds me of a time I actually met someone who was involved with in-film advertising - responsible for such things as large ads at the back or simply the presence of a canned drink on table somewhere. Quite fascinating in its own way and much of the time barely registering in your conscious mind. Anyway, this particular product endorsement is rather less subliminal and features the Landmark Mandarin Oriental Hotel.

This hotel (not to be confused with the original 1963-opened Mandarin Oriental a couple of blocks over) is in the Landmark building (hence the name) and we even get to see some of the famous Michelin-starred Amber restaurant and its ridiculously over-the-top chandeliers.

The entrance shown in the third picture is the one that opens onto Queen's Road Central. The Streetview is below.

Largo Winch - Tomer Sisley (2008) - Various view of Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong

Winch has a boat moored in the middle of Victoria Harbour so we get to see lots of interesting views both day and night. Perhaps someone can spot the anomaly? I think we can deduce that the filming took place either towards the end of 2007 or early 2008 given the obvious Xmas lights on show.

If you haven't spotted the odd thing out  in the above pictures then you should be ashamed of yourself.

Largo Winch - Tomer Sisley (2008) - The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, Wanchai

So we know the fictitious St John's Hospital was actually the Langham Place office tower, but when we see Largo leaving on the ground floor, it's another location entirely. So here we see the access road to the main entrance of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, or APA for short.

This place is the closest thing HK has to Fame (remember that?) and its alumni include various local show business notables including Anthony Wong Chau San (aka Anthony Perry) and...erm...a bunch of glorified Karaoke singers more commonly known as 'Cantopop' singers. The lyric theatre here is always hosting the international touring kiddy shows, so of course I've been here a lot.

In the screen grab you can see the institute's name has been covered up using what looks like a fairly convincing Tung Wah Group of Hospitals hospital name plaque. The Streetview picture is a fairly good match for the film angle for a change.

Largo Winch - Tomer Sisley (2008) - Langham Place, Mongkok

The hospital that Largo's dad has been taken to is called St John's Hospital and seems to occupy Langham Place in Mongkok - or at least the upper part of the hospital is here - we'll get to the lower bit in the next post.

The blue dome in the picture shows the top of the Langham Place office tower, but there is a rather peculiar mall occupying the first few floors and, of course, the Langham Place Hotel occupies the neighbouring block along Argyle Street in Mongkok.

Largo Winch - Tomer Sisley (2008) - Tat Tak Public School, Ping Shan

Largo finds himself banged up in a dodgy Brazilian jail run by an even dodgier corrupt policeman (played by Digger Mesch). Except that as we now know we are not in Brazil at all but in Hong Kong and the prison is actually a rather famous abandoned school - supposedly haunted, if you believe that sort of nonsense - called Tat Tak Public School.

The school had been running, in name at least, since 1931 but didn't move to this site until 1974 where it ran before being closed down in 1998. It's a very typical scenario for many schools in the NT post-handover, they didn't have enough students to stay open and just closed. Of course since the mass of Mainland children have started to come to HK to study there is all of a sudden a shortage of decent school places and at one point opening some of the older closed schools near to the border was being considered.

This place seems to be popular because I was watching a film called Full Strike (2015) - about a down and out badminton team led by Ekin Cheng - and noticed this was also used as their training base. Additionally, local urban explorers, HK Urbex, also visited this location not so long ago and took some excellent pictures inside and out.

Largo Winch - Tomer Sisley (2008) - Coloane Part 3 - Rua Dos Navegantes, Macau

Immediately after escaping the scuffle on a motorbike, the pair race down the nearby road, Rua Dos Navegantes. You can see the same crooked tree in the background of the Streetview grab as well.

At the end of this section of road is a small circular piazza next to the local temple (Sam Shing Temple). In the film a car pulls out and they narrowly avoid it. Notice the tarpaulin behind it - our Streetview images reveal what was behind there. I'm not sure if it's a new building or just being renovated when the film crew passed by.

After a rather fast chase through various roads and small lanes inside Coloane Village itself (the locations of which I can't exactly confirm due to the lack of Streetview and other photography) the pair eventually stop next to a small hut with green railings on the front. It just so happens this spot is in the same small round piazza where they just avoided crashing into the car (above). I can't get a better angle on Streetview though.

Largo Winch - Tomer Sisley (2008) - Coloane Part 2 - Largo Do Cais, Macau

A rather apt setting considering the name of the film. Largo do Cais is the small square that fronts the old Coloane pier. This is the area where Largo comes out from having his tattoo to confront the thugs.

Other than the tattoo hut, the buildings in the vicinity are all still there so I can only assume they were real and not created solely for the film. Look carefully on the right of the bottom picture and you can just make out the edge of the old pier. Perhaps the most striking thing is that since the film was shot, builders have managed to build a whole new building in the space on the left of the bottom picture - you can see it on the left of the top picture below.

On this lower picture you can see the tiled picture (of a boat) on the floor that was also captured in the film (screen grab #3). In the film the tattoo hut was in the gap between there and the blue building on the left.

Largo Winch - Tomer Sisley (2008) - Coloane Part 1 - Coloane Village Beachfront, Macau

Largo Winch is a rather entertaining 2008 French film (based on a comic, I believe) that follows the adventures of a business tycoon's son as he investigates and seeks to avenge his father's murder. When the film opens we find that Largo, the main character, is wandering around a Brazilian village seeking out a tattoo artist (played by Eddy Ko).

I'll be honest, when I first watched this film I did wonder if they had actually made the effort to go all the way to Brazil to film - but of course, this was filmed largely over here and if you look closely you can see that these initial scenes were actually filmed in Coloane - the southernmost part of the Macau territory. It's a fairly long sequence with lots of stuff to see so I will split it into several posts.

It looks nice and golden there in the film, I don't think the reality lives up to it though. It's a long time since I was in Coloane and I have no plans to return in the near future, so here is a reasonable angle courtesy of Streetview. Look carefully and you can see the same white building on the left hand side of the frame in the screen capture (next to the lamp post in the picture below). That building is, of course, actually in Mainland China.

As you can see the stilt houses are very much real and line the waterfront for a couple of hundred metres before terminating just before Coloane's old colonial pier.