Ain't we a funny bunch? Can you imagine if the three of us were sharing seating space at a retro screening of some eighties classics? We'd be the three guys pointing out the skyline in the background, noting how much Kowloon has changed, looking for landmarks and waxing rhapsodic about all the cultural intricacies evident in the background...
I suspect you guys know more about the lay of the land over there than I do, as I've never been there but still hope to visit one day. Still, while I can't always date the skyline to within one or two years, I'd probably be able to nail it to within four or five, which means there might still be some use for me!
Peter Nepstad started a "location database" over at The Illuminated Lantern, but it appears to more of a casual project, hardly surprising in light of the vast bounty of actual locations filmed over the years throughout the city.
http://illuminatedlantern.com/cinema/travel/
I've always said - only partially joking - that every one of Hong Kong's citizens has probably appeared in a Hong Kong movie at some point in their lives, usually without knowing it. Just skimming the background during almost any scene shot outside of a studio environment reveals thousands of "free" extras, many of whom unwittingly lend a wild sense of reality to the scenes they're captured in, particularly action scenes, staged gang fights and even the occasional car chase. America's unionized filmmakers just couldn't buy that kind of naturally-occurring production value.
