The Prosecutor – Review

Another “based on real events” story, The Prosecutor is a good action movie with plenty of courtroom drama molded in. After an intense and explosive shootout, superstar cop Fok Chi-ho (Yen) saves one of his team members from a long fall, hurting his neck and back. He is getting older, and the robbery gang he hunted down was released without a conviction, so he loses faith in policing, instead shifting his life to the prosecutorial side of the law.

Years later he has landed with the Department of Justice and gets hit with a whammy of a new case. He is to take the full extent of the law to young man Ma Ka Kit (Fung) who has been charged with smuggling and distribution of cocaine. Ma Ka Kit is a man from a poor slum district who received a parcel from Brazil. The police noted it was drugs on receipt, and arrested the young man upon delivery.

Ma originally states that it was another who asked to use his address, but quickly retracts his statement, and looks to be facing the heat of the charge. However… it appears he may not be the only person to have experienced a similar charge after receiving an international package. Perhaps there is something else going on? It likely won’t matter however, and the defendant is offered a plea deal, but even that appears to go awry.

Ex-cop and newly minted legal prosecutor Fok faces off against the appearance of the case and the reality of things, which winds up going against the nature of prosecuting. As he digs into the swirling conspiracies around him, he will have a choice: prosecute to the fullest extent of the law, or act against his job’s best interests, helping the defense by pushing dark realities into the light.

Donnie Yen gets to do a lot here as director and star. The movie has a good chunk of action scenes which allow the aging star’s feet and body to fly with his usual fury. Additionally, there is a pretty decent story, though the runtime is a bit long and a few scenes could have used with a trimming. Regardless, the movie is ever-entertaining despite its runtime, with good gunplay, physical fights and amazing stunts. The Chinese legal system is interesting to learn about through film, and the moral dilemmas included are well presented.