MEMORIES AT THE BRUCE LEE GATE: A movie-goers guide to Macao.
After my recent Beijing adventures, I returned to Hong Kong for some weekend r-and-r in Macao. This is a former Portugese ‘enclave’ located an hour away (by hovercraft) from Hong Kong. It’s unquestionably the gambling centre of Asia, and, last year, more money changed hands in its casinos than did in Las Vegas. A company owned by Stanley Ho used to have a monopoly on the industry, but since the handover of Macao to the Mainland government, all bets are off (or, rather, on) and garish new gambling houses are erupting from Macanese soil. (Not being a gambler by nature, my only connection with the Ho family is Stanley’s lovely daughter, Josie, with whom I’ve worked on several films, including The Twins Effect.)
Outside the gaming halls, Macao has retained much of its colonial charm. The rapidly changing Hong Kong skyline makes it virtually impossible to shoot period films there. (Kill Zone, set as recently as 1997, is rife with anachronisms, most of which I managed to catch on my commentary. I forgot to mention the IFC building, visible in the opening scene, which wasn’t built until 1998). For many years, film-makers have shot ‘old Hong Kong’ scenes in Macao.
Prominent movies that make great use of the Macanese backdrop to depict Hong Kong include Jackie Chan’s 1930s set gangster comedy Miracles, AKA Mr Canton and Lady Rose, Alex Law’s sepia tinted memoir of the younger years of Jackie, Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao, Painted Faces and Wong Kar-wai’s classic romance In The Mood For Love. Speaking of Wong, I actually shot scenes in Macao, as an actor (or, at least, a talking prop), for his 2046, but ended up on the cutting room floor.
Films that feature Macao as itself include the ‘heroic bloodshed’ gangster epic Flaming Brothers, starring Chow Yun-fat, the cop actioner Tiger Cage (in which Donnie Yen’s character dies an untimely death in the enclave) and my personal favourite Macao-set flick, the Sammo Hung classic Pedicab Driver. (When will this
last get a genuine US DVD release? Your guess is as good as mine… What I wouldn’t give to have it on Dragon Dynasty!)
Every time I go to Macao, I go to the Jardin Luis De Camoes. Its not that I’m a great fan of the 15th century Portuguese warrior poet who gave this park its name but rather that I want to pay homage to a more recent icon. Unheralded by tourist guide books, Macao is the site of one of the two great remaining Bruce Lee locations. (More on the other in a future blog!)
It was through these very park gates that Bruce Lee attempted to pass in Fist Of Fury (AKA The Chinese Connection). Though the scene was set on Shanghai’s Bund, it was filmed in Macao, along with all the other exterior shots for the film. (Even in 1972, Hong Kong was too ‘modern’ for the period camera!)
I first visited the park a few years ago to shoot a documentary for a British DVD release of Fist Of Fury. I was amazed to see that the park gates remained pretty much the same, all these years on. We shot a comedic sketch for the docu, with me trying to get past the park’s guard, cutting away to the sign seen in the film, which reads ‘No Dogs Or Chinese Allowed’. But I’m not Chinese!, I protest, when the burly doorman bars my way. No, he growls, but you look like a dog to me… Some idiot on the IMDB took me to task because I, a 40-something white guy, then did a flying kick over the camera, because, presumably, only 20-something Asians are supposed to do that. (I was too impressed that I managed to avoid kicking the camera itself to notice.)
Luis de Camoes himself was quite a character. A warrior poet, he seemed to divide his energies between the pen and the sword, losing an eye battling the moors, finally ending up in Macao as part of the Portugese militia stationed in Asia.
The Macao tourism board has yet to catch on to the fact that the city is home to such a memorable movie site. Maybe in time someone will put a sign on the gate to commemorate its place in film history (though hopefully not one reading ‘No Dogs Or Chinese….!’)
Comments
- Jeff, www.hckuk.co.uk | 2007-04-17 08:45:55
- Scott, Scotland | 2007-04-21 19:37:05
- Brian Thomas, Chicago | 2007-04-19 21:16:53
- Kelly (Driftkid), Kansas | 2007-04-19 16:29:00
- Rhythm-X, New York City | 2007-04-22 22:18:52