Sunday, December 11, 2011

Victoria is a Hollywood city

Victoria has been home to many movie productions. In fact movie website http://www.imdb.com lists some 178 titles filmed here. Typically though, Victoria is standing in for a U.S. city and in the case of the 1990 movie "Bird on a Wire" that city is Racine Wisconsin.

Now, I get my hair cut in a small barber shop in Victoria's Chinatown. There, the barber proudly displays a VHS box of Bird on a Wire on his shop's counter. Why? Because there is an exciting motorcycle chase scene in the movie where the action takes place just outside his shop in Fan Tan Alley. Rick (Mel Gibson) and Marianne (Goldie Hawn) ride their stolen motorcycle through the Chinatown district of Racine Wisconsin

Here's that scene from the movie:

That's the Hollywood enhanced version of Fan Tan Alley. Here's what the alley way actually looks like as I follow the same basic route that Mel and Goldie took in the movie - beginning with the Gate of Harmonious Interest:

Interestingly, although Victoria is standing in for the Chinatown district of Racine Wisconsin - there actually is no Chinatown in that city.

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