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Review: Line Walker (使徒行者) (2016)
This was an ok movie. It was a spin off from the Line Walker tv drama. Only a few characters overlapped so I think it could mostly be watched as an original movie. I didn’t watch the drama so I certainly watched it as original. But I think if I’d seen the drama, maybe I’d be more excited to see the returning characters, namely Charmaine Sheh’s character.
Spoiler.
Story
The story was fairly simple, just about finding an undercover agent Blackjack, which could be one of two characters, Nam Bok-man or Siu Chi-long. They prowled the underworld, dealing in drugs and arms. Ding went undercover to find this mysterious Blackjack. At first we thought that Siu Chi-long could be Blackjack and he did communicate with the police, through Q Sir, but later Nam Bok-man also identified himself as Blackjack. So it became a game of who it was. Though Nam Bok-man seemed to be the true cop, the two men seemed to be on the same wavelength and decided to go out with bang, killing a mercenary that had come for them after their hit in Brazil.
Fairly simple story and now that I think about it, it wasn’t very logical at some parts. But I think the draw of this movie was again, the fanservice with Ding, but also having big names Louis Koo and Nick Cheung playing the main characters.
Production
The acting and production of the movie was good. The story was too simple for the movie to get too crazy or intense. But at least no acting or production quality issues hindered the experience.
Characters
Now that I think about it, Nam Bok-man and Siu Chi-long don’t really have such distinct personalities. They’re both charismatic and they have quirks, with Nam Bok-man liking his Ultraman toys and Siu Chi-long having a goddaughter that he loved. But I can’t really say how they differ from each other, especially since they both went through the same narrative of wanting to do good and working with cops. And in the end, they did end up being the same. Despite not being the true mole, Chi-long helped Nam Bok-man in working against the dangerous arms and drugs dealers. They had this whole conversation where Nam Bok-man said Siu Chi-long wasn’t that bad anyway if he cared that much for his not-goddaughter.
Kew Ching-nam aka Q Sir (I don’t know how to romanize his surname) was Ding Siu-kar’s handler. Ding was the overlapping character from the original Line Walker drama. She was a bit ditzy, a bit silly. Q Sir wasn’t quite the stern manager, he was more someone who tried to guide her back on track whenever she got distracted. Ding had a story line in which she thought her godfather had died and he appeared as someone who was truly on the side of the bad folks, but was later shown to also be a mole. In the end, Q Sir died by an attack but Ding survived.
Overall
It was okay but I wouldn’t see it was particularly deep. It was a chance to see popular well-liked actors but the script was limited.
Spoiler.
Story
The story was fairly simple, just about finding an undercover agent Blackjack, which could be one of two characters, Nam Bok-man or Siu Chi-long. They prowled the underworld, dealing in drugs and arms. Ding went undercover to find this mysterious Blackjack. At first we thought that Siu Chi-long could be Blackjack and he did communicate with the police, through Q Sir, but later Nam Bok-man also identified himself as Blackjack. So it became a game of who it was. Though Nam Bok-man seemed to be the true cop, the two men seemed to be on the same wavelength and decided to go out with bang, killing a mercenary that had come for them after their hit in Brazil.
Fairly simple story and now that I think about it, it wasn’t very logical at some parts. But I think the draw of this movie was again, the fanservice with Ding, but also having big names Louis Koo and Nick Cheung playing the main characters.
Production
The acting and production of the movie was good. The story was too simple for the movie to get too crazy or intense. But at least no acting or production quality issues hindered the experience.
Characters
Now that I think about it, Nam Bok-man and Siu Chi-long don’t really have such distinct personalities. They’re both charismatic and they have quirks, with Nam Bok-man liking his Ultraman toys and Siu Chi-long having a goddaughter that he loved. But I can’t really say how they differ from each other, especially since they both went through the same narrative of wanting to do good and working with cops. And in the end, they did end up being the same. Despite not being the true mole, Chi-long helped Nam Bok-man in working against the dangerous arms and drugs dealers. They had this whole conversation where Nam Bok-man said Siu Chi-long wasn’t that bad anyway if he cared that much for his not-goddaughter.
Kew Ching-nam aka Q Sir (I don’t know how to romanize his surname) was Ding Siu-kar’s handler. Ding was the overlapping character from the original Line Walker drama. She was a bit ditzy, a bit silly. Q Sir wasn’t quite the stern manager, he was more someone who tried to guide her back on track whenever she got distracted. Ding had a story line in which she thought her godfather had died and he appeared as someone who was truly on the side of the bad folks, but was later shown to also be a mole. In the end, Q Sir died by an attack but Ding survived.
Overall
It was okay but I wouldn’t see it was particularly deep. It was a chance to see popular well-liked actors but the script was limited.