japanese dentist 1931

The photo shows Wyndham Street from Queen's Road Central. The building on the right is the Hong Kong Club building (1st generation) / Yee Sang Fat Building - IL 16 [1846-1930]. 

The movie advert is for the silent movie The Phantom of the Opera from 1925. This movie was shown on 13-14 September 1926 at the World Theatre. That should be about the date of the photo.

According to our page (https://gwulo.com/node/36218), the Coronet Theatre closed in 1925, before the film was released in Hong Kong - so perhaps this is an advert for another theatre nearby, or an early advert for the film at the Coronet that never got to be shown because the theatre closed. Or perhaps this is shows a rescreening after 1931 when the King's Theatre had already opened?  Was the building (dentist) it was attached to part of the theatre or a neighbouring one? It has quite a distinctive doorway. 

I'm quite sure about 1926. As Phil said, the Coronet Theatre closed in 1925. The Yee Sang Fat building was demolished in April 1930 and the King's Theatre opened in 1931. The China Mail, 1926-09-13 refers that the movie was shown at the World Theatre [1921-1981] on 13 and 14 September 1926. The next newspaper entry regarding this movie is from 1931, at that date the Yee Sang Fat building was demolished already. (The movie was shown at the Central Theatre / 中央戲院 [1930-1971] in 1931).

We see the eastern side entrance to the Yee Sang Fat building which was used in former times for e.g. the Chinese YMCA or the Baltimore Hotel (see photos here and here). 

Addendum: The flower sellers on Wyndham Street were relocated to On Lan Street with the demolition of the Yee Sang Fat Building in 1930. (source)

Being situated in a prominent location, the billboard on Yee Sang Fat Building would normally advertise and indicate films that were screened at the Queen's Theatre. There are a couple of photos of the same billboard on Gwulo that show advertisements of other films shown at the Queen's.

Difficult to see but above the signage of "The Phantom of the Opera", I think the billboard reads "TO-DAY AT THE QUEEN'S".

Looking at the photograph with children out and about, it looks to be around Chinese New Year time. CNY fell on 13 February 1926. Upon checking, the film "The Phantom of the Opera" was screened at the Queen's Theatre between 25 and 30 January 1926. As Klaus suspected, the year 1926 should be correct.

Looking at photos and postcards from the 1920s, the name on the dentist sign was T. Yamasaki. His address was 34 Queen's Road Central, which was the Yee Sang Fat Building at the time.

A Tashio Yamasaki is seen on the 1920 Dental Register, which is likely his name.

Hi moddsey. I was also expecting that the billboard would announce movies shown in the Queen's Theatre. However, when searching for "The Phantom of the Opera" in old newspapers, I only found the entry for the World Theatre. As you said that the movie was screened 25-30 January 1926, I looked in the China Mail from 25 January 1926. And there is! How did you find this entry?

Hi Klaus, Yes, HKPL and the Internet Archive did not fully capture the key words or title of the film, "The Phantom of the Opera".

The linked China Mail reference to the World Theatre advertisement on 13 September 1926 mentioned the film had been shown at the Queen's Theatre previously. But the month given was incorrect.

As the film was released in November 1925 and first impressions were the photo was taken around CNY, I did a quick manual trawl of the China Mail of the following months (Jan/Feb1926) and thus located the dates of the film screened at the Queen's Theatre. Cheers.