Review: Jazz Boon’s Line Walker: The Movie (2016)
A semi sequel to the TVB television programme Line Walker (2014), the movie foregoes the majority of the television series’ cast, with only two of the shows main actor’s returning for the movie. The original series focused on the lives of undercover police officers, and the toll of leading a double life can have on them. During this they also have to deal with the fact that there is a mole within the ranks of the police force working with the criminals, who could disclose their secret identities at any time.
Running for 31 episodes, the series gained some of the highest ratings of the year, going on to be the most watched TVB drama of the year. As well as viewer ratings the show was also well received by television critics, it’s no surprise that the show would spawn a big screen spin off. More surprising is the lack of the majority of the main cast, although from a business stand point it makes sense that they would want to have big time film stars in the film version, even if it does make fans of the series unhappy.
The main cast of the show was led by Michael Miu as Cheuk Hoi, the Head of the CIB (Hong Kong’s Criminal Intelligence Bureau). He was supported by Charmaine Sheh, Sharon Chan, Raymond Lam, Hui Siu-Hung and a host of others. The majority of the leading cast were all nominated for acting awards, with female lead Charmaine Sheh walking away with best actress, and Hui Shiu-Hung being voted favourite character. Unsurprisingly they are the only two original cast members to return for the film version, although they are only supporting players this time round.
The main plot focuses now on a hacker deleting all the records pertaining to undercover agents and their identities, with it now being unclear who is an undercover and who is just a criminal. Ding Siu-Ka (Charmaine Sheh) and her supervising officer/boyfriend Q Sir (Francis Ng) receive a text message from “Blackjack”, stating that he is one of the lost undercover agents. Q Sir and Ding decide they need to bring him in, with the mole being drawn down to be either Lam (Nick Cheung) or Shiu (Louis Koo).
Lam and Shiu are both in the employ of the the Tak Mou group. Throughout the film, there are clues and red herrings regarding who is the mole, with even the revelation of who it is being possibly a rue. The part of the film with Louis Koo and Nick Cheung focuses on their exploits to gain power from their boss, with you wondering which one of them is actually “Blackjack”. During this, we have Francis Ng and Charmaine Sheh trying their best to root out who the mole is, although the way Sheh acts it’s a miracle anything gets done.
This is the first feature film to be directed by Jazz Boon, with him working as a television producer and director before this. He has worked on television shows such as Friendly Fire (2012) and Bounty Lady (2013) before going on to work on the television version of Line Walker as a producer and director. As a first film, Boon equips himself well, although the film isn’t without some faults. Like many other Hong Kong films, the tone of the film can be inconsistent, with serious violent scenes being followed up by silly pratfalls, mainly from Charmaine Sheh. This could be down to the Wong Jing factor, although this was also one of the issue’s of the television series as well.
Boon also handles the dramatic scenes well, considering that the script is one of the poorer aspects of the film, although the majority of the cast make more of the script than lesser actors would. Certain scenes he does manage to ramp up the tension extremely well, with only the films sometime comic interludes being a real issue.
Visually the film looks great, with high production values, and exciting set pieces, although the parts of the film that takes place in Rio looks as if it was worked on by a different film crew, with the cinematography standing out as a major difference from the Hong Kong set scenes. This is not to say that these scenes look bad, just different. The films’ best action scene happens to take pace during this section of the film, involving a car chase and a shootout through the narrow streets of Rio.
Nick Cheung gets top billing and does his usual excellent work. His character is similar to what he played in Benny Chan’s earlier The White Storm (2013), with his relationship with Louis Koo also playing into this. The majority of his scenes are with Koo, with their relationship being reminiscent of the heroic bloodshed films to come out of Hong Kong in the1980’s. Line Walker: The Movie is also the second film in 2016 that Cheung has made with producer Wong Jing, with him also co-starring in From Vegas to Macau 3 (2016) earlier in the year.
Louis Koo is also good in his role of Shiu, with his true motives being unclear for a large part of the film. Not as an accomplished actor as Nick Cheung, he still manages well enough and also equips himself well in the films main action scene. It has been a busy year for Koo, with him also starring in Johnnie To’s crime thriller Three (2016), the poor attempt at a fantasy League of Gods (2016), Benny Chan’s Call of Heroes (2016) and the upcoming S Storm (2016), a sequel to the earlier hit Z Storm (2014). Of these probably his role in Line Walker: The Movie and Three are his best performances, although for sheer entertainment value, Call of Heroes is the most enjoyable film of these releases, with Koo’s over the top performance being a major highlight.
Francis Ng is always excellent, even when in poor films. His role as Q Sir is one of his more understated roles, being somewhat similar to his earlier award winning role in Gordon Chan’s 2000 AD (2000). Although his role isn’t as good as 2000 AD, the overall film is more enjoyable. 2016 has been a decent year for Ng. Although nowhere as busy as back in the late 1990’s when he was appearing in around 10 films a year, Ng has starred in three films this year, the silly comedy House of Wolves (2016), Line Walker: The Movie and the Luc Besson produced The Warriors Gate (2016), which is still to be released.
The main drawback of Ng’s role is that he shares a good deal of his scenes with Charmaine Sheh. She may well have won best actress for her performance in the television series, but her character comes across as overly annoying, with her comedy hi-jinks not gelling well with the overall serious manner of the rest of the film. There were points in the film I found myself almost shouting at the screen because she would do something stupid, and considering the otherwise serious tone it made it even harder to believe that her character was meant to be a police officer. Sheh had worked with both Francis Ng and Louis Koo the year previously on the movie of Triumph in the Skies (2015), where she fared slightly better than she does in Line Walker.
Also returning from the television series, Hui Shiu-Hung (A.K.A. Benz Hui) portrays Hei Foon Gor, an undercover agent who has been posing as a retired gangster. Although his screen time is limited, with him only showing up around the half way mark, his scenes are great and it is understandable how he became the favourite character of the television series.
Also worthy of mention is Zhang Huiwen who plays Nick Cheung’s loyal bodyguard, who gets involved in quite a number of the action scenes. Lastly the brilliant Xing Yu of Flash Point (2007) makes a small but action packed appearance as a deadly mercenary. Yu actually already worked with both Louis Koo and Nick Cheung in The White Storm, and more recently appeared in Cheung’s directorial effort, the supernatural thriller Keeper of Darkness (2015).
Produced by Wong Jing, Line Walker: The Movie is more highbrow than what is normally expected from Jing. The usual Wong Jing type antics are kept to a minimum, although the Charmaine Sheh scenes are straight from the Wong Jing playbook, and if it wasn’t for the fact that she already appeared as the character in the show I would have sworn that Wong Jing created her just for the film. Normally I don’t have a problem with Wong Jing like others do, and have enjoyed a good deal of his films, but his usual style of film making doesn’t fit a film like Line Walker: The Movie.
As usual Wong Jing has had a busy year. As well as producing Line Walker: The Movie, he has also directed the unfairly derided From Vegas to Macau 3 (2016) along with Andrew Lau and also Mission Milano (2016), an action film starring Huang Xiaoming and Andy Lau.
As producer, Wong Jing is accompanied by both Virginia Lok and Tommy Leung, both TVB stalwarts, so perhaps it is them to thank for keeping Wong Jing on the straight and narrow for a change.
The script as mentioned before is one of the poorer aspects of the film. Although it gets the job done, there are too many inconsistencies in regards to certain characters and tone to be totally successful. Although script writer Cat Kwan worked on the films Tempting Heart (1999), 20:30:40 (2004) and BJ $300 (2009), Line Walker: The Movie is the only film they are the sole writer on.
Other than the lead performances, the other contributing factor to the overall success of the movie is the quality of the films action scenes. Although it takes a while to get to the larger action scenes, with the largest being the mentioned Rio set piece. Chin Kar Lok does his usual excellent work, being one of the best action directors currently working in Hong Kong cinema today. When Lok’s name is attached you can at least rely on their to be at least some good action, such as the work he has carried out recently on Cold War (2012) and its sequel, Cold War 2 (2016). There isn’t enough written about Chin Kar Lok and I would like to get more into his career, but I’ll leave that to another time.
All in all Line Walker: The Movie proves to be an exciting worthwhile action picture that is only slightly let down by its script, but is saved by the lead actors and good direction. Hopefully the film will prove to be a success and give director Jazz Boon another chance at the big screen. It is also not entirely unlikely that a sequel could be on the cards, and would be welcome. Perhaps they could bring back some more of the original cast members, making both fans of the series and the movie happy.
