‘The Prosecutor’ Review
The courtroom drama is a fickle beast that lives and dies by the care and attention put into details. The moral grey area that often has to be navigated can still be painted in black-and-white terms if the case is interesting enough and the writing strong enough to make compelling arguments one way or the other. The other option is to make the events outside the courtroom more interesting than the case at hand. Donnie Yen’s latest action vehicle, The Prosecutor, does precisely that as a former detective becomes a public prosecutor and confronts the limits of the legal system in his first trial. While its courtroom drama may lack excitement, Yen crafts some inventive action as his fists deliver what the Department of Justice cannot provide.
There is no shortage of films that wrestle with a flawed justice system. While it never quite feels like prosecutor Fok Chi-ho (Donnie Yen) gets to make a difference in the process, there is plenty of pontification on the moral responsibility of those charged with representing the guilty and innocent. As a prosecutor, Fok finds himself locked into attempting to secure a conviction no matter the level of guilt attributed to the defendant. His first case is a drug smuggling offence where a young man, Ma Ka-kit (Mason Fung), is led to plead guilty after receiving drugs in the mail for a friend, under the assumption that he’ll be given a lighter sentence. Ma and Fok soon realize that the defence misled the defendant to ensure the friend is acquitted of the same crime. The onus falls on the defence to defend their client, but Fok goes against the Department of Justice and its chief prosecutor, Yeung Dit-lap (Francis Ng), by helping the defence overturn the conviction against Ma.
The Prosecutor is a movie that often emphasizes flawed systems without delving too deep into them. Even spending almost 120 minutes with Edmond Wong’s screenplay elicits minimal scrutiny below the surface as it frequently resorts to a single man resolving issues with his fists and not his words. For all the murky waters Fok is forced to wade through, there never really feels like a confrontation of the judicial system but more the people sworn to uphold it. It’s also a frustrating experience because understanding how a process works usually results in further capacity to fight corruption from within. However, Fok is written as an altruistic and noble individual who can’t seem to follow proper procedure long enough to make waves. It leads to humorous courtroom scenes that are ultimately dramatically inert due to Fok’s inability to follow the rules for even a second.
However, by writing Fok this way, he’s forced into a corner and pushed to extremes to catch the bad guy. In this case, it’s a drug lord operating within the legal system (played by Julian Cheung). This is where the courtroom drama steps aside for something closer to a police procedural, interjected every so often with some dazzling fight scenes. It’s where Yen feels the most comfortable as a director, weaving together a web of corruption that leads from the courtroom to the streets and employs Fok’s detective background with his understanding of the justice system. There’s an easy path from The Prosecutor to a franchise based on the structure of the film, as Yen’s character creates a network of confidants to rely upon and charismatically maneuvers through the legalese of the courtroom with a willingness to push back on irresponsible and immoral verdicts. His constant verbal sparring with the chief prosecutor and the judge overseeing the case (played by Michael Hui) leads to entertaining situations outside the courtroom.
It’s the action where The Prosecutor is the most satisfying, though, and reminiscent of The Roundup series of films. Opening with a shootout that feels heavily influenced by Call of Duty and more arcade-like shooter video games with its kinetic movement and frequent perspective shifts, The Prosecutor is always at its best when bullets or fists are present. The occasional scene feels wedged in there to liven things up, but overall, it’s organically introduced to the tension of the proceedings. Saturated with creativity that utilizes verticality and Yen’s graceful ability to knock someone out without seeming to break a sweat, these moments emphasize that violence isn’t necessarily the answer, but it sure helps to get somewhere or prevent someone from getting somewhere. Unfortunately, it contrasts so wildly with the courtroom narrative that the two do not feel like the natural pairing the film would suggest.
Instead, The Prosecutor shows two sides of the same coin. While distinct in how things are handled, corruption is still present. Thematically, this is a potent suggestion, and Fok’s character runs up against a wall as a detective, only leading him to the same situation as a prosecutor. Tonally, though, these threads could not be more dissimilar in how they’re handled, with a lot of the fault going to the fact that the legal case being handled is boring. There’s no question about who’s right or wrong, and instead, we’re forced to witness obvious corruption play through until Fok is finally done dillydallying in court that he can go punch someone out in the street. It’s where the comparison to The Roundup series feels most apt because the solution is almost never a legal loophole or exploitation of the system—it’s a roundhouse kick to the face.
It’s unfortunate that the film never quite finds the balance between its disparate methods of justice. It’s also a shame that it boils down to a couple individuals being corrupt in a system that is flawed, but it’s the system we’ve got. Yen continues to further his own brand of cool, effortless grace during action and he’s a solid actor when the material is strong enough. He’s also charismatic enough to keep audiences entertained even when the stakes are minimal and the conclusion easily foretold. The Prosecutor is often surprising in how much its willing to stare into the maw of the justice system and point at it, but it ultimately rings hollow in the end. A delightful action film marred by its main premise, The Prosecutor is entertaining when it leaves Yen to do what he does best and unremarkable in almost every other facet of its screenplay.
