The Killer - Chow Yun Fat (1989) - Aberdeen Harbour

The dragon boat races that feature in the film provide the backdrop to one of Ah Jong's assassinations and despite some clever editing it's possible the see that the races and the assassination were filmed in two separate locations. Much of the establishing footage for the races was actually filmed at a real event in Aberdeen Harbour. Pre-pandemic this was a yearly occurance for Aberdeen (and elsewhere around the territory such as Stanley, Shatin, Taipo etc) and so it would have been very easy to go along and film or track down enough library footage to put together the sequence.

The Killer - Chow Yun Fat (1989) - High Street, Sai Ying Pun

The (former) location of Ah Jong's apartment is revealed in a couple of shots that feature, at least bits of, Kau Yan Church in Sai Ying Pun. On the south side of High Street, directly opposite the church, was a row of four old tenements occupying #80 thru #86 High Street. One of these (I don't know which) contained Ah Jong's apartment. Sadly - and this seems to be a common theme in John Woo films, so perhaps explains why he tends to destroy them with exploding squibs - all four of the buildings were demolished just shortly afterwards and Lai Yin Court was constructed in the same space.

In the first images below we are looking from behind the stone steps in front of the church up at where we assume Ah Jong's apartment is. I've included a couple of interior views which I have no doubt were filmed on site. And finally the view from Ah Jong's window shows the front of the church roof. 

View looking up from Kau Yan Church

Kau Yan Church again from the apartment

The Killer - Chow Yun Fat (1989) - Hennessy Road, Causeway Bay

Back to Causeway Bay and this time we're the oposite end of Yee Wo Street as Detective Lee chases the bad guy onto a tram.

The Killer - Chow Yun Fat (1989) - Lung King Street, Wanchai

This is the small side road where the police try to pull off their firearms sale sting before an unwitting traffic cop shows upon his bike and ruins it all, causing a shootout.

The Killer - Chow Yun Fat (1989) - Yee Wo Street, Causeway Bay

The establishing shot for the police sting sequence is looking west along Yee Wo Street with SOGO in the distance and the junction with Paterson Street on the lower right. This shot was most likely captured from the circular walkway that connects Pennington Street with Sugar Street.

The Killer - Chow Yun Fat (1989) - D'Aguilar Street, Central

After rescuing Jennie from some attackers, Ah Jong walks with her up D'Aguilar Street. These days this street has lost much, in fact all, of its previous character following the removal of the large stone retaining wall on the right (replaced with high rise buildings) and the stone cobbles (replaced by asphalt).

The Killer - Chow Yun Fat (1989) - Lan Kwai Fong, Central

As Jennie (Sally Yip) makes her way home from the club, she can be seen walking up Lan Kwai Fong. Genre fans may recall that City on Fire used a similar shot, taken in almost the same place, a few years prior. The wall at the back is on D'Aguilar Street but was demolished quite sometime ago.LKF Tower currently sits there.

The Killer - Chow Yun Fat (1989) - View from the Peak

Next up The Killer, the John Woo classic. To kick off my deep dive into the locations we start with the opening scenes taken from the Peak and looking down into the harbour. It's a night shot so it's difficult to make out much detail other than the fact that the Bank of China Tower still looks to be under construction. You can compare its condition to this recent post for Police Story 2 which was filmed not that long before (6 months?).

If you are here to finally find out where the famous church from the finale was located, I'm afraid you will be disappointed because I don't believe it was a real place. However, some other locations for several of the set pieces were real and I have managed to track a few of them down.

Peninsula - Gang Dong-won (2020) - Canton Road, Mongkok

The gang take Jung-seok to see their boss (Geoffrey Giuliano) and the establishing shot for this part is of Canton Road. The big red sign in the top image, as well as the "Harbour Hotel" (aka the Harbour Inn as it is now known on the interwebs) sign, are still around. This is the stretch of Canton Road between Shantung Street and Soy Street.
 

Peninsula - Gang Dong-won (2020) - Sai Yeung Choi Street South, Mongkok

I can't quite remember what the context of the next shot is but I'll leave it here anyway. I think it was just one of those incidental shots that joins two scenes together - in this case the change from the bosses apartment to the noodle shop where Jung-seok and his brother-in-law have a bit of a heart to heart. Anyway, it's Sai Yeung Choi Street South just north of Mongkok Road.

Peninsula - Gang Dong-won (2020) - Reclamation Street, Mongkok

This is the street location used to show where Jung-seok lives. It's shown as several gang members make their way to his apartment to take him to see their boss.

This is the section of Reclamation Street just north of Argyle Street in Mongkok. The shot starts looking up at some of the buildings on the west side of the street (we're looking south in this brief sequence) before panning down to street level. As a great example of how things often look very different on film, I often catch the bus home from the bus stop at the bottom of those buildings and am here quite often. However, I still had to search for where the "H1 Hotel" is (you can see it in the background) in order to find the location.

Peninsula - Gang Dong-won (2020) - Victoria Harbour

Next up is this 2020 Korean semi-sequel (i.e. same universe, different characters) to Train to Busan starring Gang Dong-won. Gang plays a former soldier whose family is affected by the zombie virus as they are making their escape from South Korea to Hong Kong via a refugee ship. Fast forward to now as he and his brother-in-law are living in squalor as refugees in Hong Kong and are given the chance to return to the Korean peninsula to retrieve a shipment of gold, abandoned in-situ as the zombies took hold.

The initial Hong Kong sequences are establishing shots only and I don't think any on-location filming of the actors took place, but feel free to let me know if this is not the case. First up is the initial establishing shot to show where the protagonists are currently located. It's a nice colourful shot of the harbour looking towards Hong Kong Island.

Bamboo Gods and Iron Men - James Iglehart (1974) - Morrison Hill Road, Wanchai

The last post for this film and the pair are staying at what sounds like the "Shangri-la Hotel" when they give the delivery instructions to the antiques shop owner. But actually this film precedes any official Shangri-La Hotel being set up in Hong Kong and the hotel we see for the establishing shot was the 帆船酒店 - Caravelle Hotel - on Morrison Hill Road. After it closed, the building was, for a long time, used by a large hotpot restaurant before being restored back to a hotel circa 2011 as the Vela Hotel. I'm not completely sure what its current status is following the pandemic but I understand it has closed again. If you saw my Election posts then this is the building that Big D and associates are arrested in front of.

The taller building at the back right is the Yue King Building (still around) and the pinkish low-rise building on the far right was once part of the Hong Kong Volunteers (aka Royal HK Regiment) HQ. You may or may not remember that place being used as the main Police Station in Police Story. That, sadly, has gone.

Bamboo Gods and Iron Men - James Iglehart (1974) - Ferry Point Estate, Yau Ma Tei

As mentioned in the last post, as the Jeffersons get into a cab on Aberdeen Praya Road following the rescue of Charley, there is a brief shot of a soaking wet Charley supposedly running towards their cab which was filmed elsewhere. As you can see from the image below, this was filmed at Yau Ma Tei Typhoon Shelter with the Ferry Point Estate in the background. Maybe the film crew just ran out of time and Aberdeen was too far away to return to for a brief pick-up shot like this?

The location shows the additional reclamation of the typhoon shelter that was going on in the early 1970s and the kink in the sea wall behind tells me that Charley (Chiquito) was standing roughly on the opposite side of the road to where the Public Square Street Playground is located (next to the old YMT Police Station). It's a busy road junction here now.

Bamboo Gods and Iron Men - James Iglehart (1974) - Aberdeen, Hong Kong

Next up is a trip to Aberdeen. The main character, Cal Jefferson (Iglehart), jumps into the rather gross water of 1970s Aberdeen Harbour to rescue a mute, Charley (played by Chiquito), who then attaches himself to the pair in some sort of life-debt scenario. We get to see some scenes around the old waterfront (now Wu Nam Street bus terminus) as well as some shots of the floating restaurants and waterfront pontoons.

After saving Charley'slife, the pair jump in a cab and decide to go back to their hotel. The cab is parked on the corner of the old Praya Road. The small cluster of shrines on the left (see below) are still there in some form or another.Weirdly though, as Charley runs towards them it's quite obvious that short scene was filmed elsewhere - I'm not sure why though.