General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Line Walker (使徒行者) (2016 film)

Line Walker (使徒行者) is a 2016 Hong Kong crime action film directed by Jazz Boon (文伟鸿) and a continuation of the 2014 TVB television series of the same name, following undercover police officers whose identities have been compromised. It stars Nick Cheung (张家辉), Louis Koo (古天乐), Francis Ng (吴镇宇), and Charmaine Sheh (佘诗曼), with Hui Shiu-hung (许绍雄), Li Guangjie (李光洁), and Zhang Huiwen (张慧雯) in supporting roles. It was released on 11 August 2016 in mainland China and Hong Kong simultaneously, runs 109 minutes, and was written by Kwan Ho-yuet (关皓月).¹

Key fact	Detail
Release	11 August 2016, mainland China and Hong Kong; 109 minutes; Cantonese and Mandarin¹
Director and writer	Jazz Boon (文伟鸿), the series' producer, in his feature directorial debut; screenplay by Kwan Ho-yuet¹^•²
Lead cast	Nick Cheung, Louis Koo, Francis Ng, Charmaine Sheh, Hui Shiu-hung¹
Mainland box office	606 million yuan, a record for a TVB series-to-film adaptation at the time³^•⁴
Hong Kong box office	HK$10,868,346 over a run from 11 August to 14 September 2016; rated Category IIB⁵
Douban score	6.9/10 from 213,351 users; rated better than 78% of drama films and 83% of action films on the site¹
Award	New Director nomination for Jazz Boon at the 36th Hong Kong Film Awards¹

Spoilers

Story

The film continues the premise of the 2014 series, in which a senior police officer deleted the secret files of five undercover agents to protect them, leaving them cut off from the force. In the film, after those agents have been recovered and reinstated, a sixth undercover operative calling himself "Blackjack" surfaces.³

The undercover officer Ding Jie (阿钉, played by Charmaine Sheh) receives a mysterious message sent in the Kang code (康氏密码) from someone claiming to be the lost mole. She reports it to her superior, Q Sir (Francis Ng), and a hunt for the undercover agent begins. Ding Jie is led to a casino, where she discovers that Fai (覃欢喜, Hui Shiu-hung), who had been shot dead, is alive again. Meanwhile Q Sir traces a business syndicate to a drug deal in Brazil; those involved include syndicate chairman Kwok Ming (郭铭), his strategist Blue (阿蓝, Nick Cheung), Blue's lieutenant Young Master (少爷, Louis Koo), and Fai, who wants a comeback. Once the players realize a mole is among them, mutual suspicion sets in.⁶

The central relationship is between Blue and Young Master, sworn brothers in the syndicate who fall into mutual testing over which of them is the traitor, ending with guns drawn. Ding Jie, meanwhile, is caught in a romantic triangle with Young Master and Q Sir.³

Sequel

The film's box office paved the way for a sequel, Line Walker 2: Spy Game (使徒行者2：谍影行动), released 7 August 2019, again directed by Jazz Boon with Cheung, Koo, and Ng, set in Myanmar and Spain.³^•¹⁶

Relationship to the television series

The film keeps the series' undercover setting but changes nearly everything else. Of the series' five undercover officers, only Charmaine Sheh's Ding Jie carries over; the male leads played in the series by Raymond Lam (林峰) and Michael Miu (苗侨伟) were replaced by Nick Cheung and Louis Koo, and the story's emphasis shifts from the series' defense of the rule of law and the hunt for corrupt officers to brotherhood.³^•⁷

Producer Le Yiling (乐易玲) brought in the series' producer Jazz Boon to direct, and the production budget exceeded 100 million yuan.⁴ The film was produced by Shaw Brothers, Media Asia, TVB, One Cool Film, and other companies, with Wong Jing (王晶) as producer and Chin Kar-lok (钱嘉乐) as action director.⁸^•⁹

Production and locations

The larger budget allowed filming in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, including gunfights staged in the city's densely packed yellow favelas. Action director Chin Kar-lok called it the first Hong Kong film shot in Brazil.⁴^•¹⁰ The Brazil shoot covered more than ten days of the film's most important scenes in heat above 39 degrees, and Nick Cheung performed in a suit throughout.¹¹ Other sequences were filmed at Studio City in Macau, including scenes on the resort's figure-eight Ferris wheel.¹²

Reception

The film earned 606 million yuan in mainland China, at the time the best box-office result for a TVB series adapted to film, ahead of adaptations such as Triumph in the Skies and Line Walker-predecessor remakes of Lives of Omission.³^•⁴ On Douban it scored 6.9, higher than those earlier TVB adaptations but well below the 8.2 of the 2014 series itself.¹^•¹³

Critical responses were mixed. NetEase Entertainment praised the plot's flow, suspense, and performances, and Tencent Entertainment highlighted the favela gun battle as the film's strongest sensory set piece.¹⁴ The Cinespot reviewer judged it one of TVB's more successful series-to-film adaptations, with unusually rich psychological writing for the two male leads, though he found Sheh and Hui largely sidelined by the brotherhood plot.⁷ English-language reviews were harsher: James Marsh of the South China Morning Post gave 2.5/5, calling it a cliched and ludicrous crime thriller, while John Lui of The Straits Times also gave 2.5/5. On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 60% Tomatometer from 5 reviews and a 47% audience score.¹⁵

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026