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Movies and TV Shows Filmed in Penang — Locations and What to See
Penang's George Town has appeared in Hollywood productions, Asian cinema, and international TV — including multiple award-winning films. Here's where each scene was shot.
Penang's UNESCO-listed George Town has become a recurring location for film productions that need the look of colonial-era Asia without having to recreate it. The intact shophouse streetscapes, the E&O Hotel, the clan houses, and the narrow lanes of the heritage zone are all still standing exactly as they were built — which is precisely what location scouts are looking for.
Here's what's been filmed here and where.
Anna and the King (1999)
The most prominent Hollywood production to film extensively in Penang. Jodie Foster and Chow Yun-fat shot significant portions of this retelling of the Anna Leonowens story in George Town, using the UNESCO heritage zone to stand in for 1860s Bangkok (which declined to allow filming). The Khoo Kongsi clan house, the seafront esplanade area, and several heritage shophouses along Armenian Street and Lebuh Chulia were used as set locations.
The film was banned in Thailand for its portrayal of King Mongkut (Rama IV) and is still not screened there, which added to its international profile.
Film location: Walk through the Khoo Kongsi complex (open to visitors, admission applies) on Cannon Square and the adjacent clan association lanes. The streetscape along Lebuh Armenian (Armenian Street) appears substantially unchanged from the production.
Entrapment (1999)
Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones filmed chase sequences here in the same year, using the Petronas Towers and KL for the heist climax but using Penang's streets for earlier scenes. The waterfront area and the ferry terminal area appear in establishing shots.
Crayon Shin-chan: Serious Battle! Robot Dad Strikes Back (2014)
A departure from the live-action films — the Japanese animated Crayon Shin-chan franchise used Penang as a story setting and location reference for this film, which is set partly in Malaysia. The Penang tourism board collaborated on the production, and Shin-chan's family visits recognisable Penang landmarks.
The film was a significant moment for Penang's profile in Japan and contributed to a notable increase in Japanese tourist arrivals.
Paradise City (Amazon, 2021)
The Bruce Willis action thriller filmed scenes in Penang, using the urban landscape of George Town for its Southeast Asian sequences. The production used the heritage zone's textured streetscapes and the port area.
The Blue Mansion — George Town's Most Photographed Film Location
The Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion — universally called the Blue Mansion — is a private boutique hotel that also operates as a film location. Its interior courtyards, stained glass windows, and Qing-dynasty Chinese architecture have appeared in numerous productions, including several Malaysian Malay-language films.
The mansion runs guided heritage tours daily at 11am and 2pm (approximately RM 35 for adults). This is the best way to see the interior, which includes the main hall, the interior courtyard with its functional drainage system, and the stained-glass-lit upper corridors.
The Blue Mansion is also cited in connection with the Indian film Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998) (unconfirmed — some sources reference this location but it has not been officially verified), along with several Malaysian Malay-language films.
Address: 14 Lebuh Leith, George Town.
For the Anna and the King locations specifically
The Khoo Kongsi is open daily except public holidays, 9am–5pm. Entry: RM 10 adults. The clan association hall, courtyard temple, and row of terraced clan houses are all accessible. The annual Hokkien opera performances in the courtyard (usually January/February around Chinese New Year) are among the most atmospheric events in George Town.
Local and Malaysian Productions
Beyond international productions, George Town has been a frequent setting for Malaysian films:
Ola Bola (2016) — A beloved Malaysian football drama with significant scenes in Penang's Chinese community environments, drawing on the multicultural story of Malaysia's 1980 Olympic qualifying campaign.
Dukun (2018) — A Malaysian supernatural thriller set partly in Penang, using the island's reputation for blended spiritual traditions.
The Journey (2014) — A Malaysian Chinese New Year film that captures the texture of Penang's festival atmosphere and family dynamics in the heritage community.
The E&O Hotel — Literary as Much as Cinematic
While not a film location in the strict sense, the E&O Hotel's guest history reads like a partial index of 20th-century English literature. Rudyard Kipling, W. Somerset Maugham (who set several of his Malayan stories partly in Penang), and Noël Coward all stayed here. Maugham's fictional treatments of colonial Malaya drew heavily on what he observed at the E&O's long seafront verandah.
Address: 10 Lebuh Farquhar, George Town. The lobby and bar are open to non-guests; afternoon tea requires reservations.
George Town as a Film-Ready City
The reason productions keep coming back is straightforward: the heritage zone is intact. Other Asian cities that once had similar colonial streetscapes — Rangoon, Manila, Saigon — lost most of them to demolition, development, or conflict. George Town survived, protected partly by the economic decline that paradoxically prevented the redevelopment that destroyed other cities' heritage fabric, and more recently by the UNESCO listing that created a legal framework for its conservation.
For a visitor who wants to walk through a location they've seen on screen, the core of George Town offers that experience in a way that few other places in Asia can match.