The Prosecutor

A jaded cop-turned-lawyer finds the legal system difficult to navigate in Donnie Yen’s sophomore directorial effort.

Fok (Donnie Yen) is a cop who has lost faith in the judicial system after a criminal goes free. He goes to law school and quickly becomes a prosecutor for the Department of Justice, but things take an immediate turn with his first case. A poor young man named Ma (Fung Ho yeung) is tricked into using his address in a drug smuggling operation and is promptly arrested. He is advised by his lawyer, Li (Shirley Chan) and legal counsel Au (Julian Cheung) to plead guilty for a reduced sentence, but it becomes evident that this was a ploy to get their real client – actual drug smuggler Chan (Locker Lam) off. Fok, seeing this, can’t let injustice slide and decides to fight for Ma.

Based loosely on a real-life case, Yen’s film isn’t a half bad legal thriller. It’s not my favourite genre, but the premise that Ma is falsely convinced to plead guilty is a strong one, and Fok’s immeasurably uphill battle to get back at these people who seem untouchable is a riveting one. Where it seems to deviate from real life events is in the scenes when Yen suddenly decides to remake New Police Story. It’s like if every chapter of a Phoenix Wright game ended with a Streets of Rage level.

As Yen’s second directorial feature, The Prosecutor is a pretty strong movie. With him behind the camera, it’s no wonder that the film takes these wild detours into martial arts craziness, and it’s in these scenes that Yen definitely seems more comfortable. The action flows nicely, is excellently choreographed, and generally does have a point. The final battle, with Fok trying to get his key witness safely to court as assassins chase after them, is brutal and really engaging and is as strong a climax as any action-oriented police thriller.

It’s a decent legal drama that wants to say a lot about the treatment of the underprivileged in court, and it lets Donnie moralise a fair amount, which seems right up his alley. It’s funny that his character is maybe the weakest link. Fok is fine, but there’s not a lot of depth to him: he has a moral compass he won’t waver from, even if he has to help the defence in the process. It’s a fine character, sure, but lacks anything that really makes him stand out. Yen’s performance does a lot of heavy lifting, turning a character who could be too boring to watch into an idealistic, driven hero.

The other characters are all largely more interesting to watch and have a little bit more going on, in terms of personality. Lee and Au are excellent foils to Fok, and wildly more interesting. It’s a great cast, generally, and is punctuated by this very particular performance by Francis Ng, who shows up just to throw some more wrenches here and there. This is all to say that The Prosecutor has a lot going on, and a lot of the time, you get the impression that

Ultimately The Prosecutor doesn’t really know what it wants to be: a legal thriller, an action film, a statement about Hong Kong’s judicial system and the DOJ. It’s all a bit of a mess. But it’s a pretty entertaining mess, one that could have been great if it had just stuck to one genre and kept it at that. But if that’s the worst thing it’s done, then that’s certainly no crime.

Verdict: With some strong writing and performances, some tonal shifts won’t do much to harm this movie’s case.

Overall entertainment: 7/10
Violence: More than you’d expect/10
Sex: 0/10
Legal drama: 6/10
Action film: 7/10
CGI: Some awkward shots at the start that turns the movie briefly into a first person shooter, for some reason

The Prosecutor (2024)
Also known as: 誤判
Cantonese

Director: Donnie Yen
Writer: Edmond Wong

CAST

Donnie Yen – Fok Chi-ho
Julian Cheung – Au Pak-man
Michael Hui – Judge Hui
Francis Ng – Yeung Dit-lap
Shirley Chan – Li Sze-man
Mason Fung – Ma Ka-kit
MC Cheung Tin-fu – Lee King-wai
Kent Cheng – Bao Ding
Lau Kong – Uncle Ma
Yu Kang – Kim Hung
Adam Pak – Lau Siu-keung
Locker Lam – Chan Kwok-wing
Chu Pak Hong – Cheng Ho-yin