Aces Go Places, DIR. Eric Tsang(1982)
Nam Kok Road, Kowloon City District, HK
This is where the robbers went after the robbery. Albert Au assisted “賀東施” to arrest the robbers and this is where they met for the first time.
Aces Go Places is a 1982 Hong Kong action movie directed by Eric Tsang. King Kong (acted by Samuel “Sam” Hui Koon-kit) is a skillful burglar. He stole a diamond and gave it to his friend to hide it in a place nobody knows. However, his friend died and left a hint to King Kong where the diamond is. In order to find the diamond, detective Albert Au (acted by Karl Mak Ka) teamed up with King Kong. In the process of finding the diamond, they have to fight other gangs. Finally they found the diamond.
The reason I know this is Nam Kok Road is becasue of the road sign.
In this robbery scene, the street is very crowded. It makes sense because it is in the Kowloon City. I think the reason they chose to film this scene in Nam Kok Road because there were some gold shop at the street so it makes sense to rob there. The crowded street and the time the robbery happened also shows that the robbers are kind of dumb, because they picked a time where everyone knows the robbery happened instead of night where there are less people on the street, which is true because they got arrested quickly in the movie. Also, there are so many neon signs showed in this scene, it shows that the street is very busy. And because of that, the scene where Albert Au escapes from here is a lot intense because he has to dodge other cars and people while driving extremely fast in the busy street.
The contrast of the scene and real life is huge because It is almost 40 years since the movie is filmed. Although I did not go there because of the pandemic, looking from the 360 picture on the Google Map (Nov 2020) the street looks a lot worse. Almost all neon signs are go and there are not many people on the street. Also, there are so many rubbish on the street I don’t know why.
This is where the robbery happened and as you can see the neon signs are gone, gold shops are gone. And a huge MTR station is built there. There are also a lot less people on the street.
— Wu Kit Wah 3035606645
It is a pity that you did not have the chance to visit Nam Kok Road, as this is the requirement of the assignment. As google images might sometimes be outdated, you may find undiscovered comparisons when you are actually on site. You made some explanation of the choice of site for the film. Why did the director deliberately made the burglar break into a shop during the daytime? A more in-depth analysis and careful comparison between the site represented in the film and that in real life will help to enrich your piece. You could also use concepts from the class. For instance, the idea of ‘disappearance’ may help. Also, you should avoid using phrases like ‘I don’t know’ as you should try to analyze and understand the phenomena you observe.