Police Story - Jackie Chan (1985) - Sui Wo Road, Fo Tan

The bus chase ends with Jackie using a passersby's car to create a roadblock and makes the bus come to an abrupt stop and throw its occupants through the windows. If, like me, you grew up with Jonathan Ross's "Son of the Incredibly Strange Film Show" playing on a loop in the VCR, then you'll know that this was one of the film's stunts gone wrong. The guys were supposed to land on the "specially prepared car but instead landed in hospital" to quote (probably inaccurately, it's been a few years since I watched it) Jonathan Ross. Anyway, the scene was shot on Sui Wo Road in the hills above the Fotan industrial estate. Once again, a big credit to Daniel Thomas of Hong Kong on Film who was the first to locate the road way back when, and of course Andi has been up there for the great then/now comparison shots for Hong Kong Movie Tours.

Police Story - Jackie Chan (1985) - Dai Cheong Street, Tai Po Industrial Estate

The strip of road where Jackie (well, actually it was a stuntman! shock horror!) is thrown from the bus is Dai Cheong Street. He gets thrown off as the bus turns into Dai Kwai Street, but when Jackie looks up to see the bus driving away, it is driving back up Dai Cheong Street. The building on the right in image top is the Lam Soon Building. The surrounding area looked quite barren back in 1985, but these days both sides of this road are now packed with industrial and factory buildings.

Police Story - Jackie Chan (1985) - Dai Fu Street, Tai Po Industrial Estate

Despite grabbing an umbrella from a poor woman on On Cheung Street in Tai Po centre, and then popping out from the side of the Siu Lek Yuen Telephone Exchange in Shatin a few seconds before, the geography defying chase goes back to Tai Po as Jackie chases the bus down. Props again to Dan for locating this one originally as Jackie uses his filched brolly to attach himself to the side of the bus.

As we get the in-bus point of view of Jackie running behind the bus we are on Dai Fu Street in the Tai Po Industrial Estate. The bus is driving west and we are looking east.

Then in the side-on view it looks as though the bus is now driving back the way it has just come because the wall at the back belongs to a building on the north side of the road (you can see the wall on the left in the third image - it now belongs to "Pico" but I have no idea who was there in 1985)

Then as we look out of the bus again, after Jackie has successfully grabbed on (for the time being at least), we are now back to the original direction. I think it's safe to assume the crew did a fair amount of filming up and down this road.

The final shot is of the bus veering around the corner and making jackie swing out into the road with just his crappy little umbrella keeping him attached. This was the corner of Dai Fu Street where it turns south in a right angled bend. The buildings at the back are the ones now owned by Pico (just mentioned) where the side on view was filmed in image 2. Suffice to say the industrial estate has a lot more buildings here now and the green can no longer be seen. Unilever and Fairwood have two large factory centres in that green bit now.

Police Story - Jackie Chan (1985) - Siu Lek Yuen Road, Shatin

The next shot after the gangsters board the bus in Taipo is a shot of the bus travelling along Yuen Hong Street and turning into Siu Lek Yuen Road. As noted by Dan, the location identifier is the presence of the "Hang Seng University of HK" in the background (formerly known as the Hang Seng College of Commerce). The hoarding behind the truck in the image was protecting a construction site that has since been redeveloped and currently holds a hotel (the ALVA Hotel). I'm not sure it's the best place for a hotel, but Marriot did open up a Courtyard not so far away a few years ago so *shrugs*. In the second image, Jackie pops out at the side of the Siu Lek Yuen Telephone Exchange building. It's still there and you can see that small part with the exact same drainpipe all these years later - however, the gap has now been filled in by the Chiaphua Centre next door which was constructed right up the side of the exchange building. The buildings in the background, behind the yellow rubbish bin, belong to the Prince of Wales Hospital.

Police Story - Jackie Chan (1985) - On Cheung Road, Tai Po

The location where Chor Yuen and his henchmen hijack the bus is On Cheung Road in Tai Po Centre. The camera films them running along On Chee Road next to Eightland Garden before they turn the corner and stop the bus. Jackie chases after them and as he stops to watch them leave you can see the pedestrian bridge over to the bus terminus in the background. Coincidentally, this is the very first place I walked along after arriving in HK for the first time in November 1995. I flew into Kai Tak and caught a cab, giving the driver my friend's address in Chinese (written for me by his mum). The driver had no clue where it was and so just dumped me at this corner. Luckily, it was Eightland Garden I was going to and a kind old lady led me to the door (this was before I could speak any Cantonese, of course).

That 7-11 is still there by the way, although it has shrunk in size somewhat.

Police Story - Jackie Chan (1985) - Anderson Road Quarry, Sau Mau Ping

Even after nearly 40 years (yes, that long!), Police Story remains one of my favourite HK movies. So now that I have started doing more local movies it's time to look at the old classic and dig up the locations. Luckily for me, Hong Kong Movie Tours and Hong Kong on Film have covered many of the locations previously, but I have a couple of my own to add as well so figured it was worthwhile. 

The film was supposedly a by-product of Chan's disappointment with his experience with The Protector, and the things he changed for the HK release of that movie are well documented elsewhere. So, Chan started work on Police Story to expel some of his "The Protector" demons and created what many regard as one of the finest pieces of HK action cinema. Even at 36 years old (and the fact that ol' JC is one of the most hated figures in HK these days), the film holds up exceptionally well, as do many of his pre-Handover films.

Anyway, the story starts off with an undercover police operation in a hillside shanty town as the cops try to capture a notorious drug lord, played by Chor Yuen. I remember the deliberations at the time between myself and Daniel Thomas (the man behind "Hong Kong on Film" blog) as we tried to figure out where it was. The only clue was the obvious presence of Anderson Quarry in the background. Luckily, a Japanese locations fan gave Dan the heads up and the location was pinned down to a slope above Po Lam Road.

The location has been completely eradicated now, with the construction of a reservoir, the On Sau Road and the nearby On Tat Estate, but some of the main roads where the cops set up the road block, can still be seen. Bill Tung, playing Chan's superior, watches on from the top of a block in the old Sau Mau Ping Estate. The estate was demolished in the early 2000's and replaced by a newer, taller, more modern version. 

Coincidentally, Brigitte Lin, who played Salina in the film, now lives at the other end of the quarry in a newly built house, Leighton Pavilion, (though fortress is probably a better description) which she shares with her husband, Michael Ying (a former garment manufacturer who went on to head up "Esprit").

The catchwater in the second image now holds a pipe, and there is a pedestrian bridge across the road here which connects the Po Tat Estate with the On Tat Estate, but much of the roads you see on film (i.e. the Po Lam Road) is still quite recognisable. Here is the same location on Hong Kong on Film.

old (now demolished) block of the Sau Mau Ping Estate

Looking up Po Lam Road

Looking down Po Lam Road

Anti-Corruption - Bill Lake (1975) - The Court of Final Appeal, Central

The final court scenes were shot at the colonial court building that is now the Court of Final Appeal but has had former identities as the Legislative Council building and original Supreme Court. At the time of filming it was still the Supreme Court before that function moved to the "new" court building at the end of Supreme Court Drive. Since the 1997 handover, Hong Kong no longer has a Supreme Court.

Anti-Corruption - Bill Lake (1975) - Happy Valley Racecourse

Inevitably some of the bent coppers are tracked down at the races where they are gambling all that ill-gotten wealth.

Anti-Corruption - Bill Lake (1975) - 16 Durham Road, Kowloon Tsai

When Taff is being given his lesson on the true nature of life in the HK Police Force, he is taken by his corrupt Sergeant to watch a surreptitious money drop off outside Kobert's house. Kobert's wife leaves the property to walk the dog and picks up a bag that has been left by the dodgy man walking in front of her. She then heads back home. This all goes on whilst Taff and co are watching from a car nearby.

In an amazing bit of good fortune, I was able to stumble across the house that was used in the film because, against all odds, it is still around. The address is 16 Durham Road in the Kowloon Tsai part of Kowloon Tong - that's the esatet to the east of Waterloo Road that was developed from the late forties and early fifties. The house in question was completed in 1955 and although it has had a bit of external repainting done, the owners don't appear to have bothered with the garden wall. At last not in the past 46 year since the film was made.

Anti-Corruption - Bill Lake (1975) - Shatin Heights Hotel, Shatin

Here's a location we haven't seen on the blog before, so it's a shame the picture quality isn't particualrly good because it would have been nice to see some good shots of this formerly famous hotel located on the Tai Po Road. Anyway, this appears in a scene where Taff is enjoying a morning coffee on the hotel's famous terrace when he bumps into Kobert and his wife and invites them to join him for a drink.

The hotel was demolished in the early 1980s and has since been replaced by a...can you guess?...residential development! Yes, such is life in Hong Kong. The development is still called Shatin Heights (in English at least) and is at the Tai Wai section of the Tai Po Road. This place is often confused with the equally popular Yucca de Lac restaurant that was located a couple of miles further north along the old Tai Po Road, but the view from each one is quite different.

Anti-Corruption - Bill Lake (1975) - Kai Tak Airport, Kowloon

In the initial stages of Taff's (Bill Lake) flashback reminiscence we see a plane landing at Kai Tak from the east. This is supposedly the plane that brought Taff and his fellow colleague, Kobert (this is the film character's name for Godber - remember, any similarity between the characters in this film and real life and purely coincidental!!!) to HK for their new careers in the HK Police Force. The pair have a chat waiting for a taxi before Taff decides he might just walk.

The airport also appears later in the film as Kobert makes a dash for freedom after realising the game is up. In real life, Godber was able to board a plane to the UK and ended up having to be extradited back to HK. Of course, recent events in HK's political landscape mean that most countries have now suspended their extradition agreements with HK. The last two images below are from the later scene.

Anti-Corruption - Bill Lake (1975) - Old Wanchai Police Station, Jaffe Road

The old Wanchai Police Station has ceased to be a functioning station for quite some time now (and it remains the only one I have ever been inside - unlike a lot of other HKers of late who have not had much choice in the matter). Anyway, if it looks a bit different to my usual images of the building, it's because this is the rear of the building on Jaffe Road. This is still part of the film's rather lengthy preamble.

Anti-Corruption - Bill Lake (1975) - Southorn Playground, Wanchai

The tour of Wanchai continues with this panning shot of Southorn Playground between Johnston and Hennessy Roads. The building at the edge of the ground is the former War Memorial Welfare and Recreational Centre so this means we are looking east again and the last image shows Hennessy Road on the left. The building has since been replaced by the Southorn Stadium building on the right and the Southorn Centre on the left (which houses the popular Wanchai Computer Centre).

Anti-Corruption - Bill Lake (1975) - Hennessy Road, Wanchai

Another street level shot with a bar/cub sign that helps us place the location at the southern end of Fenwick Street where it joins Hennessy Road. The camera is on the south side of Hennessy Road and pans left to right. There's not much still around here other than the white building directly behind the buses on the right hand side in the second image. This building is still standing on the NE corner of the junction. At the time it was the "Hotel Singapore" but now it is the "Kew Green Hotel". This is the same building that was quarantined for a week in 2009 due to a Swine Flu outbreak with images of trapped guests waving out of the windows. It was the Wanchai Metropark at the time. The HK Govt sure seems to enjoy locking people up in hotel rooms (I'm speaking from experience after spending 3 weeks in one following my return from the UK).

Anti-Corruption - Bill Lake (197) - Lockhart Road, Wanchai

Some more street shots whilst the opening credit's preamble describes the state of corruption in the Hong kong police force at the time. The following is the view (looking east) along Lockhart Road between Arsenal and Fenwick Streets. The Pussycat Bar was located on the SW corner of Lockhart and Fenwick Streets where the Empire Hotel now stands.