The action’s hot but the dramatic temperature varies in “The Prosecutor,” a flashy combination of Hong Kong crime story and legal drama starring and directed by Donnie Yen (“Ip Man” series, “John Wick: Chapter 4”). The veteran action star is convincing and charismatic as a cop who quits the force to become a crusading Department of Justice prosecutor but is let down by a screenplay that’s prone to bouts of melodrama in and out of the courtroom. Entertaining enough despite its flaws, “The Prosecutor” has topped the Hong Kong box office for two weeks (thus far) since opening on Dec. 21 and ought to perform well in limited U.S. theatrical release from Jan. 10.
Containing less action than a regular Donnie Yen film, and with his character delivering lines such as “I’m getting old, I can’t catch thieves anymore” and “I just got old” as a reason for his career change, “The Prosecutor” sparked speculation that Yen’s days in action roles might be drawing to a close. The star has scotched all such conjecture with an upcoming slate including “Ip Man 5,” an untitled “John Wick” spinoff, video game adaptation “Sleeping Dogs” and “Flash Point: Resurgence,” a sequel to his 2007 action hit “Flashpoint.”
Still delivering top-notch fighting and action scenes at the age of 61 (while looking 10 years younger), Yen is in fine form as Fok Chi-ho, a cop who quits the force in 2017 after watching one too many crooks use legal loopholes to avoid conviction. A quick montage shows Fok studying for seven years and joining the Department of Justice after obtaining a law degree. His first assignment is prosecuting Ma Ka-kit (Mason Fung), a naive young man pressured by his legal team into pleading guilty to drug charges despite his innocence. With his cop’s instincts aroused, Fok smells a rat and decides to dig deeper into Ma’s case. After talking to Ma’s devoted and desperately poor grandfather, Uncle Ma (Lau Kong), who rescued his grandson from a shocking life as the child of drug-addicted parents, Fok becomes convinced that Ma, who now faces 27 years in the clink, is the patsy in a major drug trafficking operation.
The first half of the screenplay by regular “Ip Man” collaborator Edmond Wong effectively balances Fok’s detective work with court proceedings that bring him into conflict with aloof DOJ chief prosecutor Yeung Dit-lap (Francis Ng) and trial judge George Hui (Michael Hui), who tells Fok he’s shooting himself in the foot by calling Ma’s lawyers incompetent and insisting on a retrial of the defendant he has just successfully prosecuted. Though it’s hard to imagine such flamboyant and colorful exchanges taking place in a real courtroom, it’s still good to watch Yen sparring with 82-year-old legend Hui, whose late-career purple patch continues with a sizable part here and his starring role in Hong Kong’s newly crowned, all-time box-office champion “The Last Dance.”
Sure enough, Fok finds evidence of Ma’s slick lawyer Lee Sze-man (Shirley Chan) and her oily assistant Au Pak-man (Julian Chen) providing legal representation for businesses run by Lau Siu-keung (Adam Pak), a restaurateur closely connected to Tung (Mark Cheng) and Sang (Ray Lui), drug lords in the classic tradition of garishly dressed, blinged-up, luxury yacht-owning Hong Kong crime movie villains. At this point, courtroom proceedings take a backseat to action sequences including a terrific rooftop encounter between Fok and dozens of goons, and a scintillating smackdown on an MTR subway train in which Fok disposes of hordes of henchmen before squaring off with hulking, heavily tattooed killer Kim Hung (Yu Kang).
With the swing toward action, the film loses its sharpness as a legal and human drama. The unfortunate plight of Ma and his grandfather tips into melodrama and the film doesn’t offer the kind of gripping and detailed look at Hong Kong’s British-developed legal structure as recent features such as “The Sparring Partner” and Jack Ng’s 2023 smash hit “A Guilty Conscience.” The view is more simplistic here, and sometimes contradictory, though that could also be seen as being balanced and treading carefully so as to not ruffle censors. At times, Fok appears like a crusader who wants to question the system that leaves victims like poor innocent Man in its wake. At others, he makes clunky “inspirational” speeches such as when he tells veteran DOJ colleague Bao Ding (Kent Cheng) that “our work is like an eternal brilliant light, it shines the glory and fairness of justice into the hearts of the people.”
As a Donnie Yen vehicle that showcases the star’s still-amazing physical skills and moves at a pacy clip for almost two hours, “The Prosecutor” has the storytelling energy and visual panache to smooth over the rough spots. A lush orchestral score by first-time feature composer Choi Chul-ho and Chan Ka-yee Joyce’s outstanding costume design are further highlights of this entertaining enterprise. A lovely cameo appearance by Yen’s father Klyster Chen as Fok’s father adds a nice personal touch.
