If you had watched the 7th of the Fast&Furious, you must Remember the scene that Don drove a sportcar flew though three skyscrapers. Maybe you have forgot where those buildings were, but you can tell that is an Arabian county. Why?
In a particular area, like Europe. If you leave out of all the landmark but only focus on the street, you could recognize one or two cities. As Sue mentioned “The topographical distinctiveness” of the city, every city has it unique culture and history. However,in the conspiracy thriller, landmark building was an unmissable element. Every landmark was the outcome of the system. As the lone hero versus the government is the key of this genre. When we saw Tom Cruise climbed up the Burj Khalifa in Missions Impossible, he was also beaten the system in a symbolic way.
–3035807653 Zhang Zheng, Smoky
Interestingly, you point out how the city’s character (or identity, in this case) differ in different scales/angles. We can immediately recognise buildings, but not streetscapes. Yet the streets are where the people are. It would be productive to elaborate on this point in your writing. For example, you could describe more on what are the elements of the streets that make them looks the same anywhere? But first, do they really look the same anywhere? Or it seems so because we were no looking at it through an appropriate lens? Would you say streets in Hong Kong to be similar to those of NYC or Frankfurt, for example?