[Field Report] Wing On Plaza, 36 Years Later

Police Story (1985), starring and directed by Jackie Chan, was the first of the 7-movies series. In the story, Jackie Chan is acting as Inspector Chan Ka-Kui trying to arrest the crime lord Chu Tao and protecting Chu’s secretary, Selina Fong who will testify in court. However, the trial fails and Chu tries to revenge by framing Chan for the murder of a policeman. However, Selina acquires proof of Chu’s crime at a shopping mall and Ka-Kui fights Chu’s men while protecting Selina and the briefcase containing the proof. Ka-Kui defeats all the henchmen and the police finally arrive to take the briefcase and arrest Chu Tao. I decided to visit the Wing On Plaza, the background of the mall fighting scene at the last part of the story. I chose this place because I thought it had significance in the film as the setting for the climax fighting scene.

The Wing On Plaza as shown in the movie and 36 years later was quite similar without much of a change, which is often uncommon in Hong Kong where buildings are often renovated or replaced. Most of the structures were the same as it was presented in the film. However, there were some changes in the atmosphere and how the space was experienced. One of the most visual differences was that the mall was not as crowded as it was in the film. There were some people, but surely not as much as there were in the film. Another difference was that the kind of shops that were in the mall. In the film, the mall was full of small shops selling various things. However, the mall today had larger shops, companies, or banks rather than just small shops. These kinds of shops occupied around 2 to 3 spaces that seem to have been occupied by the small shops in the film. I believe that this contributes to there being fewer people in the mall as there is less variety, there are fewer reasons to come to the mall.

I think one of the reasons why the mall was presented as it was in the film is that it was how it was like back in the days when the film was created. There were fewer malls as large as the Wing On Plaza in the past. Hence, more people would have come to the Wing On Plaza, making it more populated than it is now. Also, in the past, there tend to be smaller shops rather than large shops. This is because there may have been less space available for usage in the past or simply because there were more merchants trying to sell at a mall. Lastly, another reason may be because more people were attracted to the filming site to watch the film shooting. People are commonly drawn to see such events and there may have been more people because of that reason.