Line Walker 2: Invisible Spy (2019)

Director: Jazz Boon

Notable Cast: Nick Cheung, Louis Koo, Francis Ng, Huang Zhizhong, Jiang Peiyao, Zhang Yichi, Yuning Liu, Hui Siu-Hung

Who out there remembers Line Walker? Anyone? Despite being – from my understanding – based a popular TV show and an outright box office success in China, the film made relatively no impact in the US. Don’t feel bad if you don’t remember Line Walker. In the US, the film made one of those ninja quiet debuts on Netflix and essentially ceased to exist for western audiences. It’s not a huge issue because let’s be honest, Line Walker was enigmatically ‘meh.’ With the talent, it should have been a rip-roaring time. It’s not. Since it was a huge hit in China though, that only meant a sequel was coming. Naturally, it’s a “name only” sequel featuring most of the same cast and the same director, but it’s a brand-new film. If you’re like most of the US, don’t worry if you haven’t seen Line Walker because you’ll be able to jump right into Line Walker 2: Invisible Spy with no preparation. Fortunately, it’s also a film that’s an overall step up in quality. It’s still an outlandishly convoluted film, hammering down on its modern spin of heroic bloodshed themes, but it’s sprinting pace, fantastic cast, and outright astoundingly fun action make it worth the watch.

Helios (2015)

Directors: Sunny Luk and Longman Leung

Notable Cast: Nick Cheung, Jacky Cheung, Shawn Yue, Chang Chen, Wang Xueqi, Janice Man, Ji Jin-hee, Choi Siwon, Yoon Jin-yi, Josephine Koo, Fen Wenjuan, Lee Tae-ran

After the success of Cold War, directors Sunny Luk and Longman Leung needed a worthy follow up. Cold War was a decent success, most effectively by taking in 9 different awards at the Hong Kong Film Awards that year including Best Film and Best Director. Naturally, that leaves a lot of pressure on the duo to follow it up with something just as strong. A film that still felt distinctly their ‘style,’ but perhaps pushed them in some new directions. After three years, the duo came back with Helios. Now, Helios came out in 2015, but it didn’t get a US release until the end of 2018 with it ultimately debuting as a Netflix release with little fanfare and no marketing. This isn’t necessarily an indicator of quality of the film, but it does indicate that, compared to Cold War and the directing duo’s return to that world with Cold War 2 post-Helios, the film just didn’t generate the buzz. That’s because, for better or worse, Helios is too much of the same as their other films and it just can’t quite match the complex narrative flourish that allowed those to work. When it does deviate and take some chances, the film is ambitious if not flawed in trying to do so. Helios ends up being a bit too much like Icarus and instead of being a sun god, flies a bit too close instead.