Line Walker 2: Invisible Spy

You could say the Line Walker feature films are to deep cover operations what the Overheard films are to surveillance details. They do not share the same characters or a continuing narrative, but they address similar themes and feature the same actors. However, in this case, it is the bad guys who have gone deep undercover in Jazz Boon’s Line Walker 2: Invisible Spy, which opens this Friday in New York.

A shadowy international criminal organization is kidnapping children in the Philippines to be groomed and programmed to act as moles in police forces around the world. Apparently, the Hong Kong police force has been compromised, making it rather difficult to solve the mystery of a rash of suicide attacks plaguing the city. However, there might be a big break in the case when Inspector Ching To saves the wary freelance journalist-hacker Yiu Ho-yee from an assassin. Yet, just as he wins her trust, Cheng Chun-yin from the Security Wing sweeps in, claiming jurisdiction over the case and his witness.

Apparently, Yiu’s partner in Burma downloaded a hard drive full of sensitive intel from the conspiratorial organization, so a team will be dispatched to retrieve it. Rather awkwardly, both Cheng and Ching will be under the operational command of Superintendent Yip Kwok-fan, Ching’s current boss and Cheng’s former mentor. Unfortunately, the mission will go down spectacularly badly, in a way that will cast suspicions on both Ching and Cheng, but in very different ways.

Nick Cheung, Louis Koo, and Francis Ng are all back from the original Line Walker film, even though not all of their characters made it through the first feature alive. Although the first feature maintained some tenuous connections to the Line Walker television series, Boon basically shakes the Etch-a-Sketch clear for the sequel. What he keeps, besides the all-star trio, is an abiding interest in the psychological ramifications of operating undercover with an assumed identity. He also continues to stage some adrenaline-charged action sequences, but this time he goes bigger—way bigger. An unforgettable case in point is the final extended smash-up sequence, involving the running of the bulls in Spain, which Boon and action director Chin Ka-lok make the absolute most of.

Yet, perhaps the biggest surprise is Louis Koo. He has certainly played his share of steely gangsters before, notably in Johnnie To films like Election and Drug War, but as Cheng, he projects existential anguish and inner turmoil truly impressive range. Of course, Cheung continues to be one of the hardest hard-nosed action leads in the business, so Inspector Ching To is totally in his wheelhouse. Ng is also perfectly cast as the upright and conscientious Yip, while Zhang Yichi makes quite a creepy (and athletic) heavy as “Demon,” the henchman who becomes the primary antagonist down the stretch.

Admittedly, some of the over-the-top action will have the audience guffawing in disbelief, but you have to give Boon and company credit for their determination to entertain. In fact, the climatic sequences in Spain even rival the noise and fury of Hobbs & Shaw. Recommended for fans of HK action and the three big name stars, Line Walker 2: Invisible Spy opens this Friday (8/16) in New York, at the AMC Empire.

HK Cinema at SFFS ’17: 77 Heartbreaks

Break-up are often measured numerically. There are fifty ways to leave your lover and ten things I hate about you. The underappreciated Eva Lui comes up with seventy-seven reasons to dump Adam Cheung’s sorry butt. He will read them for himself when he comes across her journal in Herman Yau’s 77 Heartbreaks (trailer here), which screens during the San Francisco Film Society’s annual Hong Kong Cinema series.

Lui understood Cheung had family issues, so she cut him a lot of slack. To antagonize his father, Cheung quite his job as a solicitor, becoming a kick-boxing instructor instead. Yet, one day, Lui up and leaves. This deeply depresses Cheung, but he doesn’t do any real soul searching over it. In fact, he passively falls into a relationship with Mandy, a love-struck student. As it happens, she will be the first to read Lui’s “77 Heartbreaks” journal, a volume purchased from the mysterious Heartbeat Shutter store. There almost seems to be a bit of magic to it. Regardless, it crystallizes Lui’s thoughts and gives Mandy fair warning.

Arguably, the various Chinas are becoming the world’s leading producer of rom-coms. Seriously, when was the last a Hollywood relationship comedy justified its space on a hard-drive? However, despite its rom-com elements, 77 Heartbreaks is neither very rom or com. Instead, Erica Li’s adaptation of her own novel is more of a tragedy and a withering indictment of male complacency. Although, in all honesty, there are not going to be a lot of guys willing to defend Cheung, who rather revoltingly, backs into a relationship with a woman just as attractive as Lui and even more eager to make it work, yet he treats her like dirt.

Strong and sensitive, Charlene Choi is terrific as Lui, while you could say Pakho Chow fully commits as an actor, making Cheung as self-centered and un-self-aware as could ever be humanly possible. However, Michelle Wai’s achingly vulnerable performance as Mandy will really make the audience want to line up to beat Cheung with their soap wrapped in their towels, in the manner of Full Metal Jacket. Not surprisingly, veteran Anthony Wong steals a few scenes as Lui’s boss, Solicitor Pak and Kara Hui cranks up the grace and dignity as Lui’s mother. Yet, the film’s secret trump card is Francis Ng as Shutter, the eccentric but profoundly humane photographer and silent partner in Heartbeat Shutter.

You have to give Yau and Li credit for never taking the easy way out. This isn’t like a slightly disappointing day for Bridget Jones. It is about coming to terms with the disappointments of life and the mortality of loved ones. Wisely, they also refrain from counting down every last heartbreak, concentrating on the general trajectory of the relationship instead. Considerably deeper than it looks, 77 Heartbreaks is recommended for fans youth dramas and break-up films like Singles, when it screens this Saturday (9/30) as part of the SFFS’s Hong Kong Cinema.

Line Walker: The Movie

They are not just moles. They are also orphans. Six ultra-deep-cover police officers are now decidedly out in the cold, after their handler, Chief Inspector Hong To Hang of the Hong Kong CIB took a suspicious header off a tall building. Apparently, he saw it coming, because he managed to delete their files first, for their protection. Ting Siu-ka (a.k.a. Ding Jie) was one of them. Now she helps her boss Inspector Q search for the other five. They might have made contact with the mysterious source known only as “Blackjack,” or they might be getting played. You never can be certain of anyone’s loyalties in Jazz Boon’s Line Walker: The Movie (trailer here), the feature film spin-off based on the hit HK limited TV series, which is now playing in New York.

Somewhat embarrassingly, it is not the CIB who find Blackjack. Instead, he rather coyly reaches out to them. He will make them jump through hoops, but since they involve a stay in a luxury Macao casino, Ding is okay with it, at least initially. It turns out Blackjack is Siu Ye, the right-hand man of Ah Lam, a high-ranking Triad—or perhaps not. Siu Ye and Ah Lam have a long and complicated history together. Their mutual bro-affection is genuine, but their trust is a different matter. Even if they suspect one another of varying sorts of betrayals, they will still have to work together to survive when a drug deal in Rio goes spectacularly bad.

For fans of the show, the big news is Benz Hui is back as fan favorite Triad leader Foon Hei Gor (you’ll know him when you see him). Those unfamiliar with its previous television incarnation should also take heart, the third act is just as baffling even if you are hip to all that backstory. Frankly, this is not a film for the pedantically inclined, but if you want to see a superstar cast engulfed in some spectacular action sequences, then Line Walker is your huckleberry. Seriously, Boon has some shout out loud mayhem going on here. For old school HK action, Walker can hold its own with White Storm and Firestorm, which is saying something.

Nick Cheung is as steely as ever as Ah Lam, while Louis Koo elevates his shark-like charm to new levels of lethalness as Siu Ye. Of course, Hui steals every scene he appears in, like the wily old pro he is. Korean supermodel Clara Lee also makes quite an impression as an assassin sent to kill Siu Ye (again, there is just no way you can miss her). Although it is not exactly a star turn, former Shaolin monk Xing Yu (a.k.a. Shi Yanneng) generously lends his considerable skills to several throw-downs as the “Brazilian.” However, when it comes to action chops, Zhang Huiwen out-classes everyone serving as Ah Lam’s loyal bodyguard. 

All thing considered, it is rather remarkable how effectively Charmaine Sheh anchors the film, reprising the role of Ding. She also has surprisingly endearing chemistry with the eternally reliable Francis Ng as the likably inappropriate Inspector Q-sir.

Line Walker will always have a place in trivia books, thanks to the large scale action sequence shot in the half-finished Rio Olympic stadium. Clearly, Boon was much more successful keeping on schedule and within budget than the Brazilian Olympic Authorities. Indeed, it is pretty impressive feature debut for the veteran TV producer and director. All kinds of ruckus fun, Line Walker: The Movie is highly recommended for HK action fans. It is now playing in New York at the AMC Empire, via Magnum Films.

Old School Kung Fu ’16: Big Bullet

Evidently, Hong Kong was a city almost entirely without cell phones in 1996. That would change in a hurry, but their aptitude for action films remains undiminished. In 1996, Benny Chan was also relatively new to the action genre, but his reputation was quickly transformed with Golden Harvest’s release of Big Bullet (trailer here), which screens this weekend as part of Subway’s Cinema’s Old School Kung Fu 2016, with the support of Warner Archive, who have included the HK policier in their series of Golden Harvest classics on MOD (manufactured on demand) DVD (to order, fans must visit The Warner Archive Collection: warnerarchive.com).

After the wildly incompetent and possibly slightly bent Inspector Guan leads his major crimes team on a nearly disastrous raid, soon-to-be Sgt. Bill Chu subsequently explains his disappointment with his fists. Unfortunately, it will be Chu who is busted down in rank and transferred to an emergency response team. However, his reputation proceeds him. Most of his new team members are in awe of the in/famous cop, but not the strictly-by-the-book Jeff Chiu.

Naturally, their contrasting temperaments will lead to conflict when Chu starts pursing Bird and the Professor, two hardcore gangsters who killed his best friend during their freshly launched crime spree. Technically, they are Guan’s case, but he refuses to heed any of Chu’s warnings. That forces Zhu and his team to go rogue, which is fine with most of them.

Big Bullet is a perfect example of how super-slick, uber-stylish execution can make a workaday narrative shine like a diamond. Although there is plenty of fighting, it isn’t what you usually consider a Kung Fu movie, but whatever. The important thing is the action sequences are big-picture in scope but clearly and tightly staged. They all look great on-screen.

It is pretty crazy to watch a relatively young Sean Lau Ching-wan kicking butt as Chu. In a nod to reality, the soon-to-be-late Inspector Yang (played by ever reliable Francis Ng) tells him he is getting a little “stocky” for a cowboy-copper. Maybe so, but he is still all kinds of steely. It is also pretty nuts taking in the now stately Anthony Wong as Bird, the psycho-sleaze, but he is as intense as usual. However, it is Theresa Lee who steals a bunch of scenes as Apple, the girl-next-door patrol officer with mad martial arts skills. She adds the right amount of comic relief, whereas Spencer Lam slightly overdoes it as their Dan, the old veteran of their emergency response van.

Chan really earned his spurs with some massively-charged but totally street level and almost realistic action sequences. He keeps raising the stakes and boosting the adrenaline quite deftly. Of course he had the advantage of what now looks like an incredible all-star cast, who will not disappoint their more recently converted fans. Totally recommended for action connoisseurs, Big Bullet screens this Friday (4/8) and Sunday (4/10) as part of Old School Kung Fu at the Metrograph and is available for sale online at Warner Archive.

Triumph in the Skies: Hong Kong’s Favorite Way to Fly

Where American networks failed with shows like Pan Am and LAX, Hong Kong found tremendous success with a prime time airliner drama. While it had the benefit of some star power from Francis Ng and Michelle Ye, it was really the multi-character romances that were powering the show. How big was it? Big enough to snag a New Year’s theatrical release for the big screen edition. Hearts will be broken on multiple continents in Wilson Yip & Matt Chow’s Triumph in the Skies (trailer here), which is now playing in New York and select markets.

By-the-book Captain “Sam” Tong and his not-so-by-the-book co-pilot Jayden Koo used to be a regular flight crew, but they have split up. Tong is still the senior officer with Skylette, but the new boss’s son and heir apparent, Branson Cheung, has assigned him to serve as the technical advisor for their new commercial starring rock-star diva TM Tam. Nobody on-set wants to hear his quibbles, except maybe Tam. There are such polar opposites, they naturally start to attract.

Cheung, who also serves as a Skylette flight captain, is rather surprised to find his old flame Cassie Poon Ka-sze is part of the crew on his newly assigned plane. She is still disappointed he put their relationship on hold to please his father, but the sparks are still there. Meanwhile, Koo or “Captain Cool,” has landed a cushy job as the private pilot of a party plane, where he meets the seemingly ambitionless Kika Sit. However, he realizes almost too late there is far more to her story.

If you have seen a few Chinese romantic comedies you will basically know what to expect here, but Yip & Chow’s execution is wildly slick and lethally effective. You are not likely to see a sparklier movie anytime soon. Triumph has so much jet-setting, it makes Sex in the City look like EastEnders.

Sure, it is tons of manipulative, yet each of the three primary story arcs works surprising well, with the best being Tong’s halting flirtation with Tam. It is also the best written braided-storyline, featuring some wry, understated dialogue and terrific chemistry between series veteran Francis Ng and Sammi Cheng. You can almost think of it as an HK version of a James L. Brooks late middle-age relationship film. She also performs a catchy punk version of “Over the Rainbow” that will make you think that was what Harold Arlen & Yip Harburg really had in mind the whole time.

In contrast, Triumph totally goes for the tears with Captain Cool’s possibly tragic romance, but Amber Kuo just lights up the screen as Kika Sit. Of course, Julian Cheung is not exactly is not exactly a jowly sourpuss either—and they both know how to crank up the cute in their big feature spots.

The third romance starring Louis Koo is a lot like an HK rom-com starring Louis Koo, but it is still one of the better ones. Again, he and Charmaine Sheh have surprisingly strong chemistry. However, the notion of an attractive working woman sitting around waiting for the man who walked out of her life to saunter back might not sit too well with American audiences.

Despite the vaguely Leni Riefenstahl-ish title, Triumph in the Skies is a pleasingly upbeat and colorful film. These days, it is just no fun whatsoever to fly on a commercial airliner or schlep through an airport, but it would be worth taking off your belt and shoes to fly with the ridiculously good looking crews of Skylette. Maybe it is a guilty pleasure, but it is fun. Recommended for those looking for an entertaining movie romance that pretty much covers all the bases, Triumph is now playing in New York at the AMC Empire.