City on Fire - Chow Yun Fat (1987) - Chung Pak Commercial Building, Yau Tong Industrial City

The venue for the jewelry factory heist is the Chung Pak Commercial Building on Cho Yuen Street. The place looks pretty much the same even today although it appears to have been recently repurposed into the "Chung Pak Health Care Services Complex" and given a bit of a face lift.

Here's the thing though. Although the heist scenes were filmed here in Yau Tong, the police approach and subsequent violent shootout and explosions were filmed in a completely different location (and one that I have yet to identify) although Ringo Lam shot the scenes and had them edited seemlessly together so it's difficult to see the join.

City on Fire - Chow Yun Fat (1987) - East Ocean Centre, East Tsim Sha Tsui

When we first me Ko Chow (Chow Yun Fat), he is in a nightclub where his girlfriend (played by Carrie Ng) works as a hostess. He gets thrown out for causing trouble and is immediately arrested by the police, who are in fact just using the arrest as cover so that he can talk to his boss. We can qite clearly see that the club exterior is the East Ocean Centre. Chow is loaded straight into a car so this must be the Granville Road entrance.

City on Fire - Chow Yun Fat (1987) - Shantung Street, Mongkok

Another of the brief street shots in the opening of the film. This one looks to have been snapped along Shantung Street from the junction with Tung Choi Street. If you look carefully you can see a sign for the Ko Wah Restaurant (高華茶餐廳) and the Hollywood Shopping Centre (荷李活購物中心 - located in the Wing Wah Building on the corner with Sai Yeung Choi Street).

City on Fire - Chow Yun Fat (1987) - Tung Choi Street, Mongkok

Next up is another local movie, City on Fire, and one that launched the career of Quentin Tarantino, who borrowed liberally from the film for his breakout Reservoir Dogs. In the story, Chow (Chow Yun Fat) is an undercover cop who wants out but is pressured to remain undercover by his uncle boss (Sun Yueh). The film starts with another undercover cop being caught out and getting stabbed to death in amongst the market stalls of Tung Choi Street. I believe this is the section between Shantung Street and Nelson Street because one of the signs says 上海一品香菜館 (The Shanghai Yat Pang Heung Restaurant) which was a restaurant located at #48 Tung Choi Street, though now closed.

Forced Vengeance - Chuck Norris (1982) - No.8 Police Station, Sai Ying Pun

Continuing with Forced Vengeance, Josh is arrested by a corrupt cop (played by long time HK film stalwart, Jimmy Shaw) and taken to a police station. From here he is bailed out by a friend and as they leave the entrance a guy lines up a rifle to shoot. This was all filmed at what used to be a real police station on High Street in the Sheung Wan/Sai Ying Pun area. These days it is better known as the "David Trench Rehabilitation Centre". Sadly, some of the exterior features , including the bridge you can see below, has gone. Instead of the bridge there is now a large glass structure which serves as the new entrance/stairwell to the upper floor.

Forced Vengeance - Chuck Norris (1982) - Braemar Hill Mansions, North Point

Some more revisitation of earlier films as I ponder which movie to cover next, and this time we go back to 1982 for Forced Vengeance.

One of the locations Josh (Chuck Norris) goes to to get some information about Ramandi is Braemar Hill Mansions. The place has two gated entrances, east and west. This is the east gate because the driveway goes uphill- the west entrance goes downhill. Just a few years before this was made this whole area (now Choi Sai WooPark) was part of Braemar Reservoir.

Chinese Box - Jeremy Irons (1997) - Romantic Hotel, Kowloon Tong

The second recently recognised location to add to the Chinese Box collection is the "love hotel" that Vivian and John go to after getting together at Club BBoss. As they wander into the building you can see the name of the "Romantic Hotel" on the entrance. This was a real love hotel venue on Kent Road in Kowloon Tong that has since closed down.

When I moved to Kowloon in 2012 the hotel was still in business, but over several months in 2013 (see photos below) it was closed and remodelled into a tacky wedding venue called "My Palace". The finished structure (see bottom image courtesy of Google Streetview) reminds me of one of those old churches in the spaghetti westerns.

Chinese Box - Jeremy Irons (1997) - Jumbo Palace Floating Restaurant, Aberdeen

I recently went back and watched Chinese Box in preparation for an interview (which, in the end, didn't happen) in the run up to the Handover celebrations in July. If you have watched the movie you will know the story takes place in the lead up and following the Handover in 1997.

Anyway, as a result I was able to identify a couple more filming locations and have decided to post them before I commence the next film.

The location is the "Jumbo Palace" restaurant. Recognisable by the gold coloured dragon that can be seen behind Michael Hui in the screen shots below. It used to sit above the main entrance. This is the scene where Vivian tries to get Chang to agree to marry her but realises he has no intention to.

If you have read my other posts on the Jumbo Palace you will know it started off life as the "Sea Palace" before being replaced by a newer version that was intergrated into the "Jumbo Kingdom" and renamed Jumbo Palace. This is the last version you can see below before it was moved to the Philippines and then Mainland China. I'm not sure if it is still there but GoogleEarth suggests otherwise.

Blade in Hong Kong - Terry Lester (1985) - Aberdeen Marina Club, Aberdeen

When the ransom exchange is going down on the Jumbo's top deck, Blade is keeping an eye on things at a distance from one of the balconies of the nearby Aberdeen Marina Club.

Blade in Hong Kong - Terry Lester (1985) - Wong Tai Sin Temple, Kowloon

Blade's father (played by Keye Luke) has waited decades to be selected to lead a special religious ceremony involving a priceless religious text. In reality, the bad guys want him to be killed or injured so they can get their own man to take his place in the ceremony and steal the book.

The room where the book is held is a very obvious studio set, but the temple setting where much of the action and dialog takes place was Wong Tai Sin Temple in Kowloon.

The subsequent foot chase takes place along the pavement next to Lung Cheung Road and the area between the temple and the road which, as you can see, was much busier back in the 80s. The area was cleared out when much of the temple area was remodelled and the estate was rebuilt in the late 1990s.
The chase ends when the book is bundled into a van at the bottom of Shatin Pass Road.

Shatin Pass Road

The buildings in the background are still standng on Fung Tak Road