Flaking and crumbling on a windy hill above the eastern shore of Hong Kong, a monument to the city’s “Golden Era” of film is slowing turning to decay.
Built by the Shaw Brothers in 1961, the mega complex of 23 buildings across 46 acres became known as Hong Kong’s “MovieTown”.
Despite churning out some of the city’s best-known films – including “The Magnificent Concubine” (楊貴妃 1962) and “36th Chamber of Shaolin” (少林三十六房 1978) – under the guidance of the late Sir Run Run Shaw, the site has been sitting vacant since 2007 when the dwindling operations moved to another nearby facility.
In the 1980s the Golden Era of Hong Kong film began to decline, and MovieTown became know for its forgettable films, many of which were produced without audio and later dubbed with the applicable language. The films, which also often pinched plots directly from Western movies, were widely seen to be solely produced for commercial gain as opposed to artistic merit.
But despite the less than heroic ending, the complex – listed as a Grade I Historic Site in 2014 right before levelling plans were realised – is still bursting at the seams with intrigue, history and spooky abandoned stuff.
Who you gonna call? The HK URBEX guys, obvs.
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