A film buff's tour of Wanchai

There are movie buffs, and there are movie buffs. And then there's Kei Fu, whose Celluloid Tour of Wanchai winds through the main streets and back alleys in a search of scenes from iconic Hong Kong movies.

"The purpose of visiting film locations is to compare the discrepancy between life and art and to reinterpret the relationship between man and space," says Kei Fu -- a "screen name" that the city's ultimate film fan adopted for his tours.

Kei Fu has dedicated himself to seeking out significant movie locations in Hong Kong, putting some 300 into his lavishly illustrated book "Hong Kong Island: An Odyssey of Film Locations."

Wanchai contains some of the most famous cinematic landmarks in history and recent years. The neighborhood was the backdrop for films such as the 1960s landmark "The World of Suzy Wong" as well as local cult classic "All About Ah Long" and last year's hit romantic drama "Crossing Hennessy," in which Hennessy Road played a starring role.

“Wanchai is a hybrid of old and new, bygone and future. Residents and merchants have been blending harmoniously yet also competing for space," says Kei Fu. 

Kicking off the tour on Johnston Road, Kei Fu vividly recalls the Wanchai street scenes from "The World Of Suzie Wong." While reviews at the time of the film's release were lukewarm, the exotic portrayal of Wanchai with all its bright lights and debauchery made a lasting impression on audiences.

Johnston Road and Hennessy Road form a boundary dividing North and South Wanchai. Back in the 1960s, before land reclamation expanded Wanchai, this was also the line that divided the vice activities of Wanchai and the residential area.

The contrasting nature of the nieghborhood was embodied by the Suzie Wong character who worked as a bar girl on Lockhart Road but who was also a caring mother to her toddler when she was at home in south Wanchai. 

Johnston Road also acted as a boundary between western and eastern cultures, again manifested in Suzie Wong, an English-speaking bar girl who also raised her child in Chinese society. 

Five decades after "Suzie Wong", this boundary was again featured on the big screen. Hennessy Road was the location for "Crossing Hennessy" the comeback film for actress Tang Wei after her controversial turn in "Lust/Caution."

Tang's character introduces another "boundary" to Wanchai -- one that divides Hong Kong and mainland China culturally and socially. Her story is about adapting to life as an immigrant to Hong Kong from the Chinese mainland. She struggles between her relationship with her mainland Chinese boyfriend and her new flame in Hong Kong.

Struggles between characters and society continue as a leitmotif of the walking tour; on Kennedy Road three teenagers and their female friend ran into a Caucasian man in “Dangerous Encounters of the First Kind”, shot in 1980. 

At first the characters were at odds with each other but later formed a united front when they came under threat from the Caucasian character, a symbol of the British colonial masters of Hong Kong.  

At the time of filming, the Hopewell Centre was under construction and it symbolized a changing of the guard. Previously, the tallest building in Hong Kong was Jardine House built by the colonial trading firm Jardine Matheson. Hopewell Centre was built by local Chinese real estate developer Hopewell, signalling the rising power of local Chinese firms.

Another area of cinematic interest lies around Ship Street, Nam Koo Terrace and the former Tung Chi College.

Largely deserted since the early 1990s, this area has become a popular film location. It is a peaceful oasis in the middle of bustling Wanchai, and the moody Nam Koo Terrace is said to be haunted. The mansion used to be a military brothel where comfort women were kept by the Japanese during their occupation of Hong Kong. 

Ship Street was used as a backdrop in “Shogun and Little Kitchen” a film that pitted the small, ageing community versus the growing real estate and commercial interests who were preying on their land. 

The movie foreshadowed the same issues many local residents are facing today, not only in Wanchai but around Hong Kong with real estate developers buying up their land and redeveloping their homes.

Not all destinations on the tour are heavy in social symbolism. Sau Wa Fong is a little square off St. Francis Street that has been used in recent romantic comedies like "Crossing Hennessy" and "All About Love."

Kei Fu’s tour runs in association with Humanity Republic, a non-profit organization that holds a variety of historical and cultural tours in Hong Kong throughout the year, www.humanityrepublic.org.