GOD OF GAMBLERS, DIR. Wong Jing (1989)
Lucky Plaza, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong
God of gamblers is a Hong Kong traditional film directed by Wong Jing and led by Chow Yun-fat, Andy Lau, and Joey Wong. Ko Chun (Chow Yun-fat) is a famous gambler. The main story begins with Chun escaping from a train. After fighting on the train, Chun accidentally stumbles into Little knife (Andy Lau)’s trap, which is intended to play tricks with an Indian. Ko Chun falls under the hill and hits his head. He loses his memory partially. Little knife does not know who is and takes him home. The most important period, which is the turning point of the film, is the gunfight in Luck Plaza. Chun and his friends fight with enemies in the parking lot. Finally, he hits a taxi’s window and recovers his memory.
The first place I want to mention is where Little knife hits the glass of the door outside lucky Plaza. The environment looks old and outdated, especially the wall. In reality, the overall layout and environment are very similar. The wall in the upper left corner is almost the same as the celling in Figure 2. However, the disappearance is that the shop in the film becomes a restaurant, which looks very modern and clean. Moreover, the wall is refreshed and became much cleaner than 30 years ago.
The second place I want to mention is where they fight in the parking lot of lucky plaza. The detail attracting me is the pipes in the ceiling. After 30 years, the pipes seem to be unchanged, and the layout is the same. However, there are some extra pipes in the ceiling which are black pipes and while pipes. These extra pipes are the electric or air conditions pipes, which shows that although Hong Kong does not have dramatic changes over lots of years, some minor changes still signal that Hong Kong has some developments in technology.
The last place I want to mention is where Ko Chun hits the window of the car. In the film, the trees are not that tall. We can see the tall buildings behind the trees. In reality, the trees have been preserved. However, the trees are much taller than before. We use almost the same angle but can not find the buildings behind the trees.
The director chose Lucky Plaza because it is a shopping mall near the residence, which means it is crowded and has lots of places for fighting. For example, in the gunfight, the director chose the parking lot in the shopping mall, where it has lots of cars and walls for hiding. By using these hidden places, the gunfight became much more exciting since we do not know where the enemies are hidden.
-Chi CHEN, UID 3035835650
References
Tasha, Tasha. “[香港]周潤發、劉德華經典香港電影《賭神》槍戰拍攝場景~好運中心、沙田娛樂城~《God of Gamblers》 Shooting Locations Review.” Tasha.im, July 9, 2020. https://tasha.im/2015-01-03-463/.
I appreciate your attempts to match each scene from the film with an image of the space in reality with a similar angle, and the consistent effort to compare between them. You can try to apply some concepts of visual techniques to analyse the scenes you have selected, such as framing and camera angles. Moreover, you can further explore the implications of your observations, whether in relation to the story or the city in general. You can also expand the kind of sources (reports, news etc.) and collect more information about the mall as your description of it remains rather generic. You are also reminded to account for the images you included, by stating their source(s).