Karate from Shaolin Temple - Kazuma Kenji (1976) - Lei Yuen, Lam Tei

Musashi finally arrives at the boss's house. We don't really get to see much of it but I know from looking at two specific screenshots that we are in a property that was called Lei Yuen and was located in the Lam Tei area of Tuen Mun. This property caused quite a bit of frustration on Gwulo several years ago due to the presence of a water tower in the garden that was built in the shape of a pagoda.

A reader had posted some old video (from the late 1940s) that showed a pagoda like structure and...well, you can read the whole thread here. Anyway, we later traced the 'pagoda' to the aforementioned property, and I created a place for it on the Gwulo website detailing its footprint from old maps.

Sadly the property appears to have been demolished circa 2005 and was replaced by a huge development called "The Sherwood", so it was nice to finally find a film that actually shot on its grounds. The property's ornamental entrance gate, seen in a few images below, is still around and marked the start of the driveway to the house. Although now it has been relegated to a historical feature in the local park next to the new development.

I believe this is the front door. Note the bat(?) motifs.
The ornamental pagoda in the background was a water tower.
More shots of the main gate

Karate from Shaolin Temple - Kazuma Kenji (1976) - St Mary's Church, Tung Lo Wan Road

Still on their way to the boss's house and the car then drives up Tung Lo Wan Road past St Mary's Church onto Ka Ning Path/Eastern Hospital Road. We last saw this a while ago for Tokyo Gang Vs Hong Kong Gang.

Karate from Shaolin Temple - Kazuma Kenji (1976) - Causeway Road, Wanchai

Another shot of the car on its way to the boss's house, except this time we are heading back in towards Wanchai. This is the view looking east along Causeway Road. The building in the background left (with the sign) should be the Hung On Building located on the corner of King's Road and Tin Hau Temple Road.

Karate from Shaolin Temple - Kazuma Kenji (1976) - Hennessy Road, Wanchai

Part of Musashi's car ride to the boss's house is done along Hennessy Road in Wanchai. The Canal Road flyover can be seen in the images below when it was still two separate flyovers, one for each lane/direction. Since then the two parts have been joined together to widen the road to allow more traffic.

Karate from Shaolin Temple - Kazuma Kenji (1976) - Murray Road, Central

Musashi is followed to a restaurant where the gangster catches up with him and asks him to go and see his boss. The gang boss is a big martial arts fan and has extended an invite to visit and chat with him. 

This screencap shows the view up Murray Road in Central. In the far background is the Murray Barrack Building which was famously "reconstructed" in Stanley. The government insists it was rebuilt brick by brick, but this is a lie. A new concrete core was poured and the building's external structures (pillars, balconies etc) were then hung onto the new structure. When it comes to heritage preservation in Hong Kong, take what the Govt says with a large pinch of salt.

I believe the structure on the right might be the old Furama Hotel which would put the car on the east section of Edinburgh Place rather than Murray Road. The old Murray Road carpark can be seen at the back left. This was demolished a few years ago and replaced by an enormous carbuncle called "The Henderson".

Karate from Shaolin Temple - Kazuma Kenji (1976) - Tsim Sha Tsui Bus Terminus

Following his fight, Musashi is followed around by one of the gangsters and approaches a girl who he thinks might be his long lost sister as she walks towards Ocean Terminal.

Karate from Shaolin Temple - Kazuma Kenji (1976) - City Hall

The bloke harassing Musashi at the airport continues his haranguing of the man even after he has left and is strolling through the local streets. For a man who has come to Hong Kong looking for a fight, Musashi doesn't seem very keen to take this bloke up on his offer. He finally caves and the pair square up in front of City Hall. This is the fight where Musashi is observed by some local gangsters who later approach him to see their boss.

Karate from Shaolin Temple - Kazuma Kenji (1976) - Kai Tak Airport

Next up is a product of me investigating more of the films that Bill Lake was in during the 1970s. I was having a chat with Bill not so long ago and he swears blind that he was in a film that shot a fight scene at Eucliffe in Repulse Bay. He thought it was Bruce Lee: True Story but I had already identified his scene in that movie as being shot at Palm Villa - the same location used for Enter the Dragon that that scene is based on. Anyway, so the mission is to find the film he is talking about. Unfortunately, not all of Bill's filmography is freely available so it's a matter of exploring what I have access to.

Suffice to say this film turned out to not be the one I was after, but it does have some interesting locations, including one that caused problems for us over on Gwulo a few years ago. But I'll get to that later.

This particular movie is another Hong Kong/Japanese co-production and so gets to be on the main list for "International/Foreign movies" that is/was the main focus of the blog. Bill has a small part as a rather inept bad guy who gets killed by the main protagonist.

The story revolves around a Japanese fighter, Yamanaka Musashi (Kazuma Kenji - who film aficionados may remember as the main henchman in That Man Bolt - you can see him in this scene wearing the red shirt), who arrives in Hong Kong looking for some worthy fighting opponents and is immediately harassed at the airport by a guy who wants some of the action. His pugilistic prowess in Shorinji Kempo (this is the Japanese pronunciation of 少林寺拳法 the Chinese name of the film) is noted by some gangsters and he is misled into being recruited as a fighter for a local gangster.

The film opens with a shot of a plane landing at Kai Tak as Musashi arrives in Hong Kong on his fight journey.

The Governor's Walk, The Peak - Now and Then

Last week, during a visit to the Peak, I took the liberty of going to the top section where the old Governor's mansion used to be. The mansion, called "Mountain Lodge" has long gone, the second and last version of it was demolished after the Second World War, but the podium it sat on and its nearby lower level garden are still around. The terrace/podium now has a rather nice, large concrete pavilion built on top of it.

Anyway, all around this area is a small circular trail known as "The Governor's Walk" and it was seen in a post I did for Yellow Emmanuelle (1977) a couple of years ago. I've recreated some of the filming angles below to illustrate just how much tree growth has occurred. It's nice to have trees, but it's also nice to have views, so I'm in two minds about which version I prefer. What do you think - trees or views?

The view looking towards Mt Kellet (now obscured)

Looking towards Lamma (again, now obscured)

The same railing remains today

Looking towards the viewing point.

The Lady Hermit - Cheng Pei-pei (1971) - Ho Sheung Heung

Lady Hermit and Cui Ping don't have to travel far to find exile as they come across some abandoned huts located just around the corner in Ho Sheung Heung. I have a love/hate relationship with this place because it has caused me so much trouble over the years. However, on finishing that little journey of discovery, it turns out that many more films were shot there including The Lady Hermit. It looks as though the huts in the film were built on the east slope of the "middle hill". This will make sense if your read my linked article. In other news, the local village, Ho Sheung Heung, is spending some money to renovate the local road and surroundings and I believe they have recently constructed an access path and  pavilion on top of the third hill on this site. This should give you a reasonable view of the site of this filming to the south. I will report further when it has been completed, so keep your eyes open. In the meantime here are the screencaps.