Line Walker: The Movie

使徒行者

Hong Kong/China, 2016, colour, 2.35:1, 109 mins.

Director: Wen Weihong 文伟鸿 [Jazz Boon].

Rating: 7/10.

A more-than-decent slice of Hong Kong crime-action, without being outstanding in any way.

STORY

Hong Kong, Sep 2015. Undercover policewoman Ding Xiaojia (She Shiman) makes clandestine contact with her new handler, Qiao Zhengnan (Wu Zhenyu), a Criminal Intelligence Bureau inspector. During the meeting, held in a taxi, Ding Xiaojia receives a coded phone message from another undercover cop, codenamed Blackjack, who also used to work for her previous handler, the late Kang Daoxing (Ou Ruiwei). Blackjack’s data, like that of several moles, was erased from the system by Kang prior to his death in order to protect their identity. Blackjack sets a meeting in two days’ time at the Hong Kong Harbour Hotel, where a reception by Lin Dongyou (Zheng Zicheng), chairman of Dongyou Investment Banking Group, is being held. On the night, a gang led by Lan Bowen (Zhang Jiahui), a senior member of a drug-trafficking cartel run by Guo Ming (Cheng Taishen), disrupts the party and hangs Lin Dongyou out to dry. Lan Bowen escapes in a car driven by his loyal sidekick Shao Zhilang (Gu Tianle), who once saved his life in a drugs deal that turned bad. Instructed by the powerful and mysterious Dong Baihao (Li Guangjie), Guo Ming tells Lan Bowen to handle a forthcoming drugs purchase in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Meanwhile, Lan Bowen tells Shao Zhilang he suspects there’s a mole in the organisation, as the police arrived so quickly at Harbour Hotel. Blackjack sends another coded phone message to Ding Xiaojia arranging a meeting in a Macau casino. At the location, Ding Xiaojia spots Shao Zhilang and, assuming he is Blackjack, tries to make contact; but then Shao Zhilang is attacked and wounded by a mysterious female assassin (Yi Seong-min). Then, in Shenzhen, China, Lan Bowen is attacked by thugs and only saved by his secretary-cum-bodyguard, Xiaoying (Zhang Huiwen). Alarmed by events, Guo Ming makes a move that threatens to expose Ding Xiaojia’s true identity as well as that of Blackjack. And despite his supicions that Shao Zhilang may be a police mole, Lan Bowen takes him along to Rio de Janeiro. While there, Shao Zhilang secretly notifies Qiao Zhengnan of his whereabouts, using Blackjack’s telephone codes. But the drugs deal seems to go horribly wrong, and Blackjack’s true identity becomes even more swathed in mystery.

REVIEW

A cinema spin-off of TVB’s megahit 2014 drama series, Line Walker: The Movie 使徒行者 is a more-than-decent slice of Hong Kong crime-action without coming close to the exalted heights of Infernal Affairs 无间道 (2002), with which it shares an undercover-cop theme. LWTM is concerned only with the identity of a single police mole, not with several moles on both sides of the fence; and the drama stems from the audience being kept in the dark as to who he is, rather than just his attempts to evade detection by the bad guys. Carrying over from the TVD only two characters and their original actors (TVB actress She Shiman 佘诗曼 and veteran actor Xu Shaoxiong 许绍雄), the spin-off is cast in strength at the top with film stars Zhang Jiahui 张家辉 [Nick Cheung], Gu Tianle 古天乐 [Louis Koo] and Wu Zhenyu 吴镇宇 [Francis Ng] as new characters, and it’s their combined playing that goes a long way in giving the whole thing some substance.

The film carries on the story meticulously explored in the 31-episode TVD – which centred on tracking down a group of undercover cops whose names had been erased by their late handler to protect their identities – with a new story that focuses on the identity of another “erased” UC cop, codename Blackjack, in a Hong Kong drug-trafficking syndicate. When Blackjack tries to make contact with the police, his identity becomes more and more confused due to a succession of incidents and multiple double-crosses along the way.

The screenplay by Guan Haoyue 关皓月 – who began by co-writing, with Zhang Aijia 张艾嘉 [Sylvia Chang], the romantic dramas Tempting Heart 心动 (1999) and 20 30 40 (2004) but later worked on crime dramas – tries to steer the film away from just a police procedural to a more personal story focused on gangster codes of brotherly loyalty. The viewer knows from the start that the deep but wary friendship between triad high-up Lan Bowen and the guy who once saved his life, Shao Zhilang, will eventually go pear-shaped, especially as the latter could be a police mole, but Guan’s script repeatedly throws in surprises.

The first, at the 40-minute mark, completely reshuffles the pack with a shock sequence, as does a second big twist some 60 minutes in, set in Rio de Janeiro’s half-finished Olympic stadium. From thereon, the final 40 minutes is largely concerned with sorting out the issues raised by the second twist, as well as catching up on some backstory, prior to a finale that has echoes of the “heroic bloodshed” films of Wu Yusen 吴宇森 [John Woo]. The rhythm of the whole film is uneven, with no sense of claustrophobia or of a single dramatic arc held up by the “brotherly” ties between Lan Bowen and Shao Zhilang. But Guan does her best to keep Hong Kong crime formulae fresh.

The best that can be said about the performance of Gu – with some seven movies a year, now Hong Kong’s busiest actor – is that he’s very good at looking blank-faced and leading the audience up the garden path and around the roses. But the real acting, as expected, is all done by Zhang, as a smart, modern-day triad who doesn’t trust anyone but can still profess deep feelings of friendship with a straight face. The two actors have a filmy familiarity that stops their relationship from becoming too bromancey.

As the CIB inspector trying to solve the mystery of the police mole’s identity, Wu brings a light touch that prevents the whole unlikely plot from taking itself too seriously. He’s echoed by the two fugitives from the TVD, She (repeatedly over-acting as an unbelievably ditzy undercover cop) and Xu (sinisterly over-acting as a mystery gangster). Given the film has China co-finance, several Mainland actors pepper the supporting roles, including Li Guangjie 李光洁 as a triad power-broker (in an electric dinner scene with Xu near the end) and Cheng Taishen 成泰燊 as the drug syndicate’s sleazy boss.

Direction by Hong Kong’s Wen Weihong 文伟鸿 [Jazz Boon], who handled the original TVD and makes his big-screen debut here, is smooth and has a cinematic feel thanks to the seasoned tech crew. Action staged by Hong Kong veteran Qian Jiale 钱嘉乐 [Chin Ka-lok] is good without being special in any way, but the saturated widescreen photography by Xie Zhongdao 谢忠道 [Kenny Tse] and clipped editing by Zhong Weizhao 钟炜钊 [Azrael Chung] give a lift to the entire proceedings, with the 17-minute Brazil sequence going to visual pains to show it was actually shot in Rio de Janeiro’s crime-riddled favelas. Alas, the score by Japan’s Hatano Yusuke 波多野裕介 fails to register on any emotional level. In China the film grossed a very nice RMB600 million.

CREDITS

Presented by JQ Pictures (CN), Shaw Brothers Pictures International (HK), Media Asia Film Production (HK), Television Broadcasts (HK), One Cool Film Production (HK), Spring Net Media Huoer Guosi (CN), Beijing Oriental Joy Dragon Film & TV Culture Media (CN), Flame Pictures (CN), Croton Cultural Media (CN). Produced by Shaw Brothers Pictures (HK).

Script: Guan Haoyue. Photography: Xie Zhongdao [Kenny Tse]. Editing: Zhong Weizhao [Azrael Chung]. Music: Hatano Yusuke. Production design: Xi Zhongwen [Yee Chung-man]. Art direction: Cai Huiyan. Styling: Ouyang Xia [Connie Auyeung]. Action: Qian Jiale [Chin Ka-lok]. Car stunts: Wu Haitang.

Cast: Zhang Jiahui [Nick Cheung] (Lan Bowen), Gu Tianle [Louis Koo] (Shao Zhilang/Shaoye), Wu Zhenyu [Francis Ng] (Qiao Zhengnan/Q, police inspector), She Shiman (Ding Xiaojia), Xu Shaoxiong (Tan Huanxi/Brother Joy), Li Guangjie (Dong Baihao), Zhang Huiwen (Xiaoying), Shi Yanneng (Wu Bai, killer), Cheng Taishen (Guo Ming), Chen Hao (Huang, police inspector), Zhang Jicong (drug trafficker), Yi Seong-min [Clara Lee] (female assassin), Lu Haipeng (Feng, drug trafficker), Lin Shengbin (parking attendant), Zheng Zicheng (Lin Dongyou), Liang Cheng (Karina, Tan Huanxi’s late wife), Ou Ruiwei (Kang Daoxing), Zhu Chenli (Samantha, CID officer), Chen Guofeng, Wang Junxin, Zhang Xiuwen (CID officers), Wei Zhihao (party MC).

Release: Hong Kong, 11 Aug 2016; China, 11 Aug 2016.