The Prosecutor – Great Action Film And Passable Legal Drama

Action superstar Donnie Yen kicks off the year with The Prosecutor, a film featuring a strong directorial voice from the action star and all the trappings of a solid melodrama. Functioning as a legal drama which just so happens to have blistering action sequences, it somehow pulls this balancing act off quite well due to Yen’s assured direction. The action sequences are approached with a variety of different techniques and styles at times, changing from a fixed perspective to a first-person perspective. Those action sequences are also dynamic, delivering much of what audiences have come to expect and love about Yen. However, despite the film’s politics coming across as a bit disingenuous, he makes no qualms about his age, handing off some sequences to a younger star and acknowledging that fact in the film. The result is a great action film hidden within a pretty good legal drama; and although Yen finds the balance, that balance could have been just a bit stronger and less disjointed come the second act.

Yen stars as Fok Chi-Ho, a former cop who, following an injury and feeling helpless in the legal proceeds for his case, transitions to the department of justice to become a prosecutor. While on his first case, he uncovers a drug conspiracy going beyond what can be initially solved in court, forcing the former cop to go back to his old ways to save a wrongfully charged teen from life in prison. The Prosecutor is very much a legal drama first, and an action film second, and that’s largely ok. The drama at hand is moderately compelling and features a fun cast of characters around Yen’s Fok Chi-Ho, featuring Hong Kong legend Francis Ng playing the Department of Justice’s lead prosecutor, Joeng Tit Lap.

The story takes its time expressing just how hard Fok is trying to solve the case through the system, only to be drawn back into action here and there, until the third act where it becomes a little comical. That being said, when this film pivots towards action, the action is stylish and incredibly impactful with each one of Fok’s kicks sounding like a gunshot. You feel the impact of each punch, kick, or weapon impact and it is sold even further due to some impeccable stunt work and direction. As mentioned, the way Yen utilizes the camera is impressive, as he constantly changes perspective or angle throughout the fight but never loses track of the action. A great example of this is a one vs thirty fight on a rooftop club where even through the mayhem and camera work, audiences never loses sight of what’s going on as the scene transitions to a top-down perspective to capture the action and reset. All in all, fantastic stuff on display by Yen and his stunt team throughout.

Unfortunately, less can be said about the dramatic aspects. While it is not necessarily bad, the ways which Fok navigates his age is quite interesting, the film doesn’t stray too far away from merely being a vanity project narratively to a fault. Following a perfect cop as he transitions to become a perfect prosecutor standing in the way of any obstruction of Justice, this prevents the character from being particularly interesting beyond the screen presence of Yen himself. Though this would work in an action film, when the film is largely a drama, it is likely to keep audiences at a distance from the kind of narrative that has been used countless times before and one that fails to be as an engaging as the action, even despite a solid supporting cast and good direction. As Fok talks about how he wants to guard the final door for justice, as opposed to fighting on the front line, The Prosecutor serves as the cinematic equivalent of this. As Donnie Yen starts to move from in front of the camera to behind it, if The Prosecutor is of any indication, audiences are in for a good time whenever his name is attached to a project.

still courtesy of Well Go USA Entertainment

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Brad Simon

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