The Ninjas who came from Signal Hill Garden (Part 2)

Signal Hill Garden, as we saw in the last entry, was an strategy point in Tsim Tsa Tsui used for shooting movies dued to its locations. I mean it is located in an exremely crowded area but hidden enough to shoot with no disturbance. Even today, if you go to Signal Hill Garden, you will not find too much people around.

IFD not only filmed there the final showdown of Ninja Dragon but also some scenes from Diamond Ninja Force, the Golden Ninja Warrior second chapter. It is a short scene where actor Pierre Tremblay is practising his skills & suddenly is attacked by Richard Harrison as we can see in the screenshots below.

The cannons aiming to Victoria Harbour & the New World Center Building

Your gun is useless, only a ninja can kill a ninja

You are gonna to die, Pierre Tremblay

I put my digital camera in the same position, trying to catch the Diamond Ninja Force's spirit!



You can see the whole shot from minute 5:18 to 6:40

More to Come!!!!

The Ninjas who came from Signal Hill Garden (Part 1)

Diamond Ninja Force, Ninja Dragon & Silver Dragon Ninja were some of the very first ninja movies from IFD & Filmark that arrived to my hands and they are also the 3 titles I re-watched more times ( altogether with Filmark's Ninja Phantom Hero Usa & Vampire Raiders Ninja Queen) along the years. As I stated before, these titles are favourite ones dued to they arrived to me when i was just a tender teenager.

Ninja Dragon's Final Showdown impressed me a lot the first time I saw it!!!!

But what do they have in common? Diamond Ninja Force & Ninja Dragon are from IFD while Silver Dragon Ninja is from Filmark. There are 2 answers/ reasons for just one question. First, Ninja Dragon & Silver Dragon Ninja were starred by the one PAULO TOCHA hidden by some surrealistic pseudonyms such as Bruce Stallion in Ninja Dragon & Harry Caine in Silver Dragon Ninja

The entrance to Signal Hill Garden shot by my camera for my Hong Kong Filming Locations Documentary (this is only a screenshot from video...it is not a raccord failure)

The second answer is related to the location were both 3 movies were shot in Signal Hill Garden in Tsim Tsa Tsui,an oft-ignored area of the district that has a hilly park with nice views of the surrounding area, and that has a lighthouse of sorts that used to signal the onset of oncoming storms and typhoons plus a chinese pagoda in a square plaza.

Signal Hill Lighthouse is seldom watchable from Tsim Tsa Tsui grounds due to the vegetation aorund the hill

These elements that mix Asian & Western style architecture were perfect in those movies who used western people as asian killers.But let's compare some screenshots from those movies & some video / photos taken by me.

NINJA DRAGON FINAL FIGHT

See those Cannons looking at Victoria Harbour surrounded by metal benches, we can notice Hong Kong Cultural Center & the museums around were being built at time this movie was shot.

The Cannons are not longer there but we still can find the benches.

At one moment of Ninja Dragon, we see SHERATON HOTEL behind Richard Harrison

The same shot was taken by my digital video camera when I visited Signal Hill Garden for very first time at the begining of 2002

Signal Hill has something special, once you are there, you can feel it. I don't know how to explain that sensation. All Hong Kong is like a huge movie plateau, but there are certain places that had some kind of magic. Signal Hill is one of those places.

Few seconds before Richard Harrison killed Paulo Tocha, we can see this gorgeous pose in Ninja Dragon.

I tried to put my camera in the same place Godfrey Ho put his.

Coming soon, more pics & screenshots of Diamond ninja Force, Silver Dragon ninja & other movies shot in Signal Hill Garden or around the place.

Locations, Locations, Locations

The main idea I had before I started this blog was to dedicate it exclusively to the filming locations used by IFD & Filmark crews. My good friend Yoshi Yasuda did a great site dedicated to the filming locations in Spain used in Spaguetti westerns. You can visit him at http://garringo.cool.ne.jp/ get amazed studying his work about the locations. Sadly, I am not so professional nor so good working with a computer, but I would like to imitate him offering pics & screenshots about the places where Joseph Lai's & Tomas Tang's shot their productions along the years.

a screenshot from IFD's Scorpion Thunderbolt shot in 1984 / 1985

It is obvious my original idea for this blog is not longer on my mind, since I also decided to search information about the western actor woh worked for both companies, the source movies used in the cut & paste ninja / war / thriller experiments...etc.
But during this July, all the entries would be dedicated to the Filming locations.
I hope you, dear visitors & friends, like & enjoy them so much as I did when I walked all around hong Kong looking those places.

Same place in 2008

I would like to add many of these locations used by IFD & Filmark that I will post during the following days /weeks, were used as well by major companies & these places can be seen & recognized in bigger productions. So, if you love travelling, next time you stop in hong Kong, you may try the "cinema tourism" visiting the locations used in dozen of films from A-grade to Z-grade.