SAUSALITO (2000) SF film locations pt.5

After a long ass day of hoofing it around San Francisco, Wei went back to the hotel to rest up before we had to head back out and on over to AT&T Park for the Giants/A's game. I wanted to rest up as well, as we had been out walking and sightseeing all day, but I pressed on. With blog homework on my mind, I Tiger Balmed my aching knees and calves and pounded some more pavement to find more SAUSALITO filming locales. I was a tourist for sure, fumbling with about three different maps as I trekked through the SOMA neighborhood. Showing disregard for life and limb, I paid no attention to traffic signals, rarely looking both ways as I crossed streets. I got lost a time or two and had to double back a few blocks here and there, but was able to make it to a few different locations. This locale, as seen in the accompanying pics, is in the SOMA neighborhood on Natoma Street, between 10th and 11th streets.






It's red colored garage door with yellow painted sun burst make this loft stick out like a sore thumb amongst the rest of the industrial gray colored homes on Natoma. In the film, this location makes for Leon Lai Ming's workspace. The actual interior is shown in the film and it's beautiful and spacious. These exterior shots from the movie have been taken after Maggie (shown above) spends the night at Leon's joint and does the walk of shame through the Farmer's Market, before returning with some food and sundries for her new boy toy's love shack.








Above you can see Maggie after she returns with her groceries. After an awkward encounter with Richard Ng (shown on the right), she continues past the apartment, and walks towards 11th street. Below you'll see the garage door sun damaged and worn. A darker shade of paint possibly covering rust or graffiti?






This locale was my final SAUSALITO spot to hit before I moved on to a rather bland THE WESLEY'S MYSTERIOUS FILE location. So, I was kinda excited to hit it and quit it. At this point in my warm and sunny late afternoon journey, I was roasting. Swamp ass was settling in and I had sweat all of the Tiger Balm from legs. I hurried down Natoma, approaching from 10th street. As I got closer to the building, I checked my camera for the correct setting and began to point and shoot as I walked. I noticed an Asian man getting out of his car across from the building. He made toward the front of the home and noticed me taking pics. He stopped and stood for a while, scoping me out. I stopped taking pics and went back to my map, pretending like a 10 year old that I wasn't doing anything? What? Who me? Taking pictures? Pshaw!






I walked past the house on the opposite side of the street, nose in map, heading toward 11th street. I turned around to see if this dude was still checking me out and there he stood. Giving me the stink eye! I made it to 11th street, still pretending to be lost and delirious, turning around every now and again to check on the Asian dude with the stink eye. Finally, he left the area. I made my way back down Natoma, this time on the same side of the street as Leon's workspace, walking by the same spaces once occupied by Maggie and Richard, snapping some closeups of the door, and then skedaddled my swampy butt out of there before stink eye guy came around again.

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After the Natoma street incident, like I mentioned earlier, I walked over to a crappy THE WESLEY'S MYSTERIOUS FILE locale, and then high tailed back to the hotel to shower, talcum my bottom and get ready for the Giant's game. The game was excellent. It's difficult to beat free field level seats, garlic fries, a few beers, and a Giants win. Below is the view from our seats as you can see 'The Freak',Tim Lincecum, mid-delivery of a nasty fastball. The beautiful SF twilight lights the scene.

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Back at the hotel around midnight, I whipped out the Tiger Balm and did sort of an all over thing. That menthol burn never felt so good.

Collecting movies is fun! Hooray!

No Compromise, Ghost Story of Kam Ping Mui, Seven Years Itch

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A few more VHS goodies here. Kickin' it off with the former British Colony's favorite movie cop, Danny Lee Sau-yin, in the 1988 crime actioner NO COMPROMISE. Lee has made soooooo many of these po-po pics that they are almost indiscernible from one another. NO COMPROMISE is no exception, but still a pretty decent cop flick. THE GHOST STORY OF KAM PING MUI is a CAT III variation on the A CHINESE GHOST STORY theme. It's a cheaper version of the EROTIC GHOST STORY series. But it has boobies so it's a winner! SEVEN YEARS ITCH is a comedy from the late 80's directed by Johnnie To Kei-fung. It's written by and stars Raymond Wong Pak-ming and that is usually a recipe for disaster. But the film also stars Sylvia Chang so it's worth a shot. And it's early To. Nothing great but worth a look.

Pursuit of a Killer, Oh! Pretty Woman, Live Hard

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PURSUIT OF A KILLER is a 1985 action/ thriller directed by Taylor Wong Tai-loi. You might know Wong from his triad opuses starring Chow Yun-fat, RICH AND FAMOUS, it's sequel TRAGIC HERO, and TRIADS-THE INSIDE STORY. I much prefer his CAT III classics GIRLS UNBUTTON and SENTENCED TO HANG. One of my first blog posts was the poster for GIRLS UNBUTTON, so you should check that out. SENTENCED TO HANG was reportedly the first film to receive the CAT III rating! HOORAY! OH! PRETTY WOMAN is a CAT III adult drama from Taiwan. It supposedly was released around 1991 but looks to be made way earlier. And it's a turd. Avoid it. LIVE HARD may sound like a cool porno but it's actually a 1989 actioner starring Simon Yam, Lau Ching-wan, and Elaine Lui Siu-lung. It's a fairly entertaining yarn but nothing you haven't seen before. It's star power makes it worth seeking out.

The Demon Wet Nurse, The Wild Couple, Face D'Ange

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THE DEMON WET NURSE aka MADAME FUNG SHEN'S LOVER is a 1992 CAT III period piece boobiefest written by Titus Ho Wing-lam. Mr. Ho has had his dirty little hand in such cheap titles like VIAGRA MADNESS, ROYAL SPERM, and LSD BEAUTIES. I have yet to watch the film. But i'm actually going to throw it on now. I could go for some afternoon naughtiness. Titus (such a cool name) also directed the classic gross out horror film RED SPELL, SPELLS RED. He is also the writer of an excellent adult drama/thriller FLIRTING. Do yourself a favor and seek these last two films out. Great HK cinema! THE WILD COUPLE is a rather disappointing action flick from 1996, directed by legendary action director Ridley Tsui B0-wah. The awesome cover art captures one of my favorite HK actors, Roy Cheung Yiu-yeung, and CAT III scream queen Lily Chung Suk-wai. Looks like a winning romp! It's not. It has it's fine action moments but the film is largely dull. FACE D'ANGE is a slow and unappealing HK produced CAT III boink-a-thon. If memory serves my correctly, the movie takes place somewhere in Europe? The cast is mainly naked Caucasians who appear to be allergic to clothing. An interesting variation here, FACE D'ANGE has sex scenes involving an Asian man (sometimes two) and a Caucasian woman. It's usually the other way around. The film features gobs and gobs of soft core sex and nudity but is terminally slow, dirt cheap, and just plain crap. I like soft core shenanigans just as much as you, but even I find it difficult to wade through muck like this.