The Prosecutor 誤判 (2024) Review: Donnie Yen Blends an Engrossing Legal Thriller With Visceral Action-Movie Tropes

It’s a sort of Righting Wrongs redux in The Prosecutor with Donnie Yen playing the titular prosecutor with martial arts skills who doesn’t mind getting his hands dirty. However, unlike Yuen Biao’s similar role in the aforementioned 1986 action movie, Yen’s Fok Chi Ho used to be a police officer who carries the same cop instinct even after practising law. Yen, who also pulled double duties behind the scenes as the director and a co-producer, isn’t remaking Righting Wrongs other than sharing the similar tone and feel of action-movie tropes combined with a legal thriller.

Working from the Ip Man quadrilogy Edmond Wong’s screenplay which is loosely based on a real-life case in Hong Kong, follows Fok handling his first case involving a young man Ma Ka-Kit (a somewhat wooden Mason Fung) being accused of drug trafficking. His defence lawyers, Au Pak-Man (Julian Cheung) and Lee Sze-Man (Shirley Chan) urged him to plead guilty for a chance to reduce his sentence. Fok soon suspects something isn’t right about the case, prompting him to run his own investigation with the help of his young police protégé (MC Cheung a.k.a. Michael Cheung Tin-Fu).

This, of course, gives Yen an excuse a reason to trade verbal jabs with a flurry of fists and a jump-back kick. Yen knows this well because most fans and audiences alike wouldn’t be so interested in showing up to watch his movie without some fights involved. Imagine if Yen embraces The Prosecutor wholeheartedly as a legal thriller that will be a litmus test of whether Yen is good enough to pull off a non-action dramatic performance.

Believe it or not, this marks the first time Yen has played the role of a prosecutor in a movie. He has that stern, no-nonsense appearance who looks the part and such a role can be challenging since it relies heavily on one’s acting prowess. Well, the good news is that he doesn’t come across as stiff or awkward donning the robe and a wig during the trial, even giving an engaging performance as a fiercely determined prosecutor.

It also helps that he is backed by solid supporting turns ranging from Kent Cheng as Fok’s colleague and pupil master, Bao Ding to Francis Ng’s chief prosecutor Yeung and Michael Hui’s scene-stealing High Court judge. I was initially worried about risking Julian Cheung in a cast-against-type character as the shady legal executive Au Pak-Man — a rare antagonist turn that I’m glad he carries the role better than I thought.

The first half’s courtroom-drama tropes benefit from a few reasonably engaging and even unexpectedly amusing verbal sparring moments. The latter is especially true during a trial scene revolving around Fok’s stubbornly questionable approach that tests Michael Hui’s judge’s patience. As expected, the movie is filled with legal jargon but Wong’s screenplay is pretty much streamlined to make it easier to follow.

As an action movie, we get to see Yen beating the crap out of anybody involved in the criminal activities. Except I noticed Yen doesn’t go all out like he used to. Given the fact he’s already 61 years old, it feels like it’s asking too much of him to maintain the same physical ferocity seen in SPL, Flash Point and Ip Man era.

Besides, he even addresses his age factor on one or two occasions, which also indirectly reflects his own action-star status at the current point of his career. This resulted in Yen choosing to hold back during his fight scenes, even though we still get to see some of his trademark punches, kicks and grappling moves. Even with a sense of physical restraints, Rurouni Kenshin‘s Takahito Ôuchi’s action direction along with Yen’s stunt team still manages to impress with visceral fight set pieces and Yen himself insisted on filming in-camera with no CGI.

Highlights include the one-against-many henchmen during a nighttime rooftop brawl and the climactic MTR fight scene, making use of the confined train compartments, metal poles, seats and windows as Yen takes down a few henchmen and the top right-hand man played by his regular stunt member and actor Yu Kang.

Yen’s dynamic and fluid camerawork deserves equal mention, reminding me of his frequent collaborator Wilson Yip’s shooting style in the action scenes. Earlier, there’s the attention-grabbing opening scene as Yen stretching his creativity reminiscent of the Bad Boys: Ride or Die‘s first-person shooter game aesthetics during the police raid. The Prosecutor, which reportedly cost HK$300 million, equally excels in its immersive sound design and excellent technical achievements all around.