Got a lot of location shots done while on vacation (even ditched the 'F' to get some done). Our hotel was close to C-town so we hit the area up about 3 times on our stay. San Francisco's Chinatown is one of the more picturesque C-town's around and is quite large if you sprout out to the more less touristy areas. And of course we did. The pic above is of a building on the corner of California St. and Grant Ave. Grant Ave. is C-town's main drag, full of restaurants, souvenir shops, and on weekends, shoulder to shoulder tourists. This intersection gets quite busy and is a hot spot for photos, not only because of the ornate building on the corner but the cable cars that run up and down California St. stop right there.The building houses a food court on the ground level and the Cathay House Restaurant above. We did not stop off and eat here because the internet word of mouth wasn't favorable. But we did stop to snap a few pics. Below is a shot from the opening credit sequence of Chang Cheh's CHINATOWN KID. Circa 1977, when the film was shot, the above mentioned building housed the Chinatown Wax Museum. Now, in 2010, you can find the Chinatown Food Court in the same location. Though I hear the food tastes like wax. So maybe not much has changed?
Chinatown Wax Museum. Corner of Grant Ave. and California St. 1977
Chinatown Food Court. Same corner. 2010
Ahhhhhh. The beautiful Lombard St. Located in the Russian Hill section of San Francisco and post card famous the world over for it's 'zig-zagging' street design, director Chang Cheh also used a shot from about 2/3 of the way up this hill, looking out over the North Beach and Telegraph Hill districts in SF. Cheh nicely stamped his 'Director' card over this beautiful landscape shot. See the below shots for comparison. I tried to get a pic of the same location and angle that the CHINATOWN KID shot was taken. Because i'm a nerd.
Lombard St. 1977
Lombard St. 2010Stay tuned for more location shots from CHINATOWN KID. Also look out for locations pics from ALAN AND ERIC, SAUSALITO, GATES OF HELL, THE WESLEY'S MYSTERIOUS FILE, and DRAGON FIGHT.
Wow... I never knew that SF Chinatown had a wax museum. That's pretty cool!
ReplyDeleteI found some postcards on eBay that show some of the displays.
The wax museum looks pretty cool. I would much prefer that to a food court. My next post shows another establishment in the same location. It's a film from 1989. And it's kinda sad, but interesting.
ReplyDelete