Review | Line Walker 2 film review: Nick Cheung, Louis Koo in engrossing thriller, one of 2019’s best Hong Kong films
- A militant group kidnaps kids to train as moles in police forces. Nick Cheung and Louis Koo are cops and boyhood friends who suspect each other of being one
- Action fans will love this fast-paced tale about terrorism in Hong Kong and its tour de force finale. It’s also a nod to the ‘blood brothers’ themes of John Woo
4/5 stars
The first film was a diverting, yet uneven and often ludicrous, spin-off from a drama series of the same name broadcast by Hong Kong television station TVB and also produced by Boon. The television veteran struggled to fully express himself on his big-screen debut with a story handcuffed to the original series.
However, Boon’s follow-up effort, Line Walker 2 – with a stand-alone story and a new set of original characters – is a revelation.
The film begins with a prologue, set in 1987, about childhood best friends in an orphanage in the Philippines, in which one of them is abducted by terrorists to be trained as a field agent and the other narrowly escapes. We’re left to wonder who is who in the main story, set in present-day Hong Kong.
After a terrorist attack in the city’s Central business district leaves several pedestrians dead, police inspector Ching To (Nick Cheung Ka-fai) and superintendent Yip Kwok-fan (Francis Ng Chun-yu) track down an expert computer hacker, Yiu Ho-yee (Jiang Peiyao), who appears to know more than she should about the terrorists’ plans.