All About Ah Long - Chow Yun Fat (1989) - Hillwood Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

The street where Ah Long plays a trick on Porky and pulls his shorts down. The Tai Woo Restaurant was located on the ground floor of Wong Tat Wing Court at #14-16 Hillwood Road (Open Rice thankfully keeps a database of closed venues). In this image we are looking west back towards Nathan Road.

All About Ah Long - Chow Yun Fat (1989) - Lobster Bay Kite Flying Site, Clearwater Bay

The filming (for whatever Porky auditioned for) takes place on the open flat piece of land on top of the Lobster Bay promontory. It's been a few years since I ventured out this way, but the last time I was there it was completely deserted - certainly no one was flying kites. It's well worth a trip down here if you eventually make it out to HK because there were a tonne of overseas and local movies made in and around the area. There may or may not be lobsters in the bay, but all I can remember after diving there was an old car wreck.

All About Ah Long - Chow Yun Fat (1989) - Hong Garden, Ho Man Tin

Throughout several flashbacks, Sylvia and Ah Long recall the circumstances of their failed relationship from ten years before. In one scene, Sylvia is kicked from the family home by her mother and is picked up by Ah Long. The location of Sylvia's home is Hong Garden on Ho Man Tin Street. You can see the building name (康園) on a sign next to the main gate. It looks more or less the same today. The only thing that has changed is the metal gate.

All About Ah Long - Chow Yun Fat (1989) - Energy Plaza, Tsim Sha Tsui

Back in the 1980s Energy Plaza was quite famous in the action film world thanks to the top floor gym run by Eddie Maher (who recently passed away unfortunately) as well as Michael Wong being dangled from the top for Royal Warriors (although, when I saw it back in the 1980s it was called Police Assassins). Anyway, in All About Ah Long it's the office block where Sylvia's office is located and where Ah Long goes to sign the contract following Porky's successful audition, unaware that he is about to come face-to-face with his old girlfriend.

All About Ah Long - Chow Yun Fat (1989) - Yuen Long Industrial Estate, Yuen Long

At various points in the film we see an area where the motorbikes are practising. The first time is when Ah Long goes to see his friend, played by Ng Man Tat. In the initial scenes the area is a bit non-descript but it pops up again later in the film with a large clue to its location in the background. The first two images below are from the first time we see the area in the film but the bottom image is from later on in the movie (you can tell because Chow Yun Fat has had a hair cut). Note the building just behind Chow's head. It looks like an old house with a belvedere on the roof.

There are a few old buildings like this in Hong Kong (Jessville for example, but there used to be many more), but this one looks suspiciously like the Yu Yuen mansion in Yuen Long. Low-and-behold, in the background are some industrial buildings that (some) still stand along Wang Yip Street West in Yuen Long. This means it is Yu Yuen and the location where the bike track is located is the Yuen Long Industrial Estate - before it was constructed. It looks like the bikes were doing a circuit of Wang Lee and Wang Lok Streets because they did exist in 1989, even though the estate buildings had yet to be constructed.

Yu Yuen is still standing as far as I know, but how long it will be there is anyone's guess. Most of these old grand mansions in the New Territories have long since been redeveloped.

All About Ah Long - Chow Yun Fat (1989) - Lam Tei Quarry, Tuen Mun

Ah Long's day job is as a labourer at the local quarry, in this case at Lam Tei in the hills above Tuen Mun. When I first posted these screencaps many years ago, I hadmistakenly assumed it wasAnderson Road Quarry, but the peaked hill and mast in the background shows me it is Lam Tei. Correction made.

All About Ah Long - Chow Yun Fat (1989) - Yau Yat Chuen School, Yau Yat Chuen

Ah Long's son, Porky, is dropped off at school. The location used is the Yau Yat Chuen School in Yau Yat Chuen.

All About Ah Long - Chow Yun Fat (1989) - Water Street, Sai Ying Pun

Despite just heading east along Bonham Road, the next shot shows the pair turning down Water Street towards Queen's Road West.

All About Ah Long - Chow Yun Fat (1989) - Bonham Road, Sai Ying Pun

During the opening credits as Ah Long takes Porky to school there is a shot of the pair as they ride along Bonham Road. In the background you can see the main entrance of King's College at the top of Western Street.

All About Ah Long - Chow Yun Fat (1989) - Li Chit Street, Wanchai

Whilst I wait for a hard-to-get-hold-of movie to come back from the digital transfer guy, I thought it would be a good idea to repost my All About Ah Long locations. I had removed them (and many more) when I decided focus the blog on foreign movie productions, but now I have set up a different section for local movies I can reinstate some of the older ones that didn't fit at the time.

The movie is about a former criminal, Ah Long (Chow) and his ex-girlfriend Porpor (Sylvia Chang) and their son Porky. It was shot in both Hong Kong and Macau, and for some streange reason that I can't fathom out, also includes a very brief moment that was actually filmed in Singapore. I can only summise that perhaps there was some tax break afforded for the shoot there because the location is still supposed to be in Hong Kong. It's a weird one, but I will include it even though I generally tend to ignore anything outside of HK/Macau (there have been exceptions). Anyway, there's also some later scenes for bike fans shot at the Macau GP (I assume 1988?).

First up is Ah Long's apartment in Li Chit Street in Wanchai. The buildings along here were recognisable due to the curved shape of the balconies but they were all knocked down in the early 90s to make way for a new development (Li Chit Garden) that actually straddles where the road used to be located and essentially pedestrianised the old road space. In a sort of weird and poorly informed nod to these old Chinese tenements, the Govt constructed some weird fake building facades to remind everyone of what they just demolished.