I found a Taipei travel guide at the Taoyuan International Airport about places I should visit in Taipei. Apparently, the filming locations of the hit Taiwanese movie, Monga, around the Longshan Temple MRT station is quite popular. And why not? The movie stars Ethan Ruan and Mark Zhao as teenage gangsters in the oldest district in Taipei, Wanhua. The place is also known as Bangka or Monga to the locals, hence the title of the movie. The film is set somewhere in the 80s, when cheesy Air Supply songs like Making Love Out of Nothing At All ruled.
The lead stars of Monga.
Mark Zhao and Ethan Ruan are second from the left and second from the right, respectively.
I re-watched Monga before coming to Taiwan because I wanted to familiarize myself with the must-see places. If I remember correctly, Bopilao, whose architecture dates back to the Qing Dynasty, was restored, and a lot of memorable scenes from Monga were shot there, including the scene at the restaurant. It's sort of a museum right now. And it was thanks to Perladipace's blog that I found about the filming locations of Monga.
So, with enthusiasm, I made my journey to Longshan Temple in search of Monga's filming locatioon.
I first went to Bopilao. If you're facing the main entrance of the Longshan Temple, it is just on the right side past the shops that litter the streets. Up ahead you'll find a red brick building with arched passageways at the corner of an intersection. It's going to be at the left side of the road. Walk along the building straight ahead until you reach the entrance. It's free admission, but I was not able to go inside because I went there on a Monday. And on Mondays, Bopilao is closed. Dang it.
It may seem familiar to you because it's the Longshan Temple!
Movie screen cap of the huge gang fight scene.
The restored Bopilao area.
At least I saw some people filming on site; the second one I've witnessed in Taipei. I guess it's an era-piece because the actors were wearing costumes popular some decades back. And I have a short video here:
Photos from Bopilao:
It is a good thing that some of the Monga film locations were shot outside Bopilao. I found a poster on Bopilao, a map of Monga's filming locations. I took a photo of it and I used it as map to find the places mentioned there. Also, before going to Wanhua, I asked the hostel staff to write down the names, in Chinese, of the temples featured in the movie and gave me directions going there. Yes, they know the names of the temple as they all have seen Monga. It's that popular in Taiwan. After all, Monga was submitted as a nominee for the Oscar's Best Foreign Picture.
The poster I found at Bopilao which I used as my map for
location hunting. Click on the photo for full resolution.
So, I tracked down on foot the two other temples, aside from the Longshan Temple, in Monga. The first one was quite easy to find because Eric from the Hostel gave me directions. However, if what I found was not the same temple, well, then, I am very unfortunate. Moreover, I could not remember how I got there; every now and then I'd ask someone to tell me if I'm headed the right direction. Eric from the Hostel told me that I should only ask directions from store clerks, like in 7-11, the police...you get the drift, but not from passersby because they might be tourists like me who also do not know where to go. Tee hee.
This is the first temple. I think it's called Qingshui Temple, or something. It was about 15 to 20 minutes on foot from Bopilao. I was walking really slow because I was afraid I might miss my landmarks. If I remember correctly, my landmarks were a grade school, a pedestrian overpass, and a gas station. And yes, the temple was almost deserted, and I felt really weird taking the temple's pictures; like a voyeur. Hehe.
Compare the photos above with these screen caps from Monga. It's the same temple, so yay!
Anyway, the first temple was the one more prominently used throughout the film. It was present from start to finish. After all, this is the home turf of the gang.
The second temple was quite a challenge. I had to return to Longshan Temple because my directions start from there but I could not find the second temple. I think I was walking farther and farther away from the second temple my first time trying to find it. I was able to reach a place where there are flyovers on a really big road. But hey, after 30 minutes or so, I found the second temple. And guess what? It was really near the Longshan Temple! I was just stupid. I was like, OMG! I wasted energy, walked under the sun and looked like a complete mess.
I got lost here. Good thing there's a sign pointing to Qingshan Temple.
Good grief! But here it is, the second temple and it's called Mengjia Qingshan Temple. I think this is the more popular temple of the two because, first, they were more people in the Qingshan Temple. Second, there are a lot of signs pointing to the temple (but I couldn't follow them properly that is why I got a little lost). Third, it was more grandiose from the outside.
While looking for the Qingshan Temple, I was able to find the Herb Alley. Lucky me! It was just behind the Longshan Temple if I am not mistaken.
Drying the herbs on the sidewalk.
Screenshot of the Herb Alley from the movie.
And of course, I have photos of the Huaxi Night Market where the huge gang fight culminated in the movie.
Yup, this is the gang fight. These people passed by the Longshan Temple in the screen cap above.
Huaxi Night Market, without the gang fight.
I was not able to find the Snake Alley and the narrow alley where some of the smaller fights in the movie occurred. I was too exasperated by the time I got back to Longshan Temple, and it was midday already, so I wrapped-up my Monga movie location hunting.
If you want a primer or brochure for the Monga filming locations, use this one I just found over the internet. I think this is the brochure I was looking for but did not find at the Longshan Temple MRT Station. It's in PDF but here's the link: http://www.taipeitravel.net/UserFiles/File/MONGA_ENG.pdf
Probably, I would not have gotten lost if I had that brochure when I went to Monga.
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