Sunday, January 5, 2025

The Prosecutor - A Very Entertaining Action Thriller Movie from Donnie Yen


I was quite surprised to see glimpses of trailer to this movie on the TV behind the cinema's cashier while buying tickets for another film last week, cause it starred one of my favorite Hong Kong actor Donnie Yen which I was not aware of. Obviously my wife and I would not want to miss it, so we readied ourselves yesterday for a movie marathon. Without further ado, here's more on the movie.

Brief Story Line

Fok Chi-ho (Donnie Yen - John Wick: Chapter 4Come Back Home etc) was a former police who decided to become a prosecutor in Department of Justice. In his first assignment, Fok was working together with his senior Bao Ding (Kent Cheng - I Did it My WayChasing the Dragon etc) to prosecute a young man named Ma Jia Jie (Mason Fung - Zero to Hero etc) involved in drug trafficking case. Ma was assisted by experienced lawyer Au Bo Wen (Julian Cheung - Final Score, L Storm movies etc) and his associate Lee Si Min (Shirley Chan - My Indian Boyfriend etc).

As the trial progressed, Fok suspected that Ma was not the real culprit and despite the disapproval from his boss Yang Tie Li (Francis Ng - The Warriors Gate, Shed Skin Papa etc) decided to investigate further. With the help from his former subordinate in the police dept Li Jing Wei (Singer MC Cheung Tin Fu), Fok found that it was a much bigger case and he had to literally fight for justice.

So how would the story conclude? You could find out in this movie.

End of Brief Story Line

Wow that was just amazing! It has been quite a while since I was very satisfied watching Donnie Yen's movie cause in recent years, his films were either only good in action but not the story, or got decent plot but not enough action. This one though was really great in term of action with plenty of them and the story was pretty well told. I think it was helped by the fact the film was based on true story (as mentioned in the beginning) and the writing was done by experienced screenwriter Edmond Wong (Ip Man 4: The Finale, The Breakout Brothers trilogy etc). 

With such title, people would think that the movie would be mostly done in the courtroom. Now what I liked was the fact that although it is an action thriller, the courtroom drama scenes were not just background. They were shown quite frequently and provided more insight of the legal system in Hong Kong which was influenced by English law (as it was a long time British colony). But aside from the courtroom drama, the action sequence was awesome. There was a little bit of over the top scenes in the beginning using special effects that was so so, but the rest were just fantastic. Don't know how many times we were strapped to our seats during some fight scenes where both of us truly felt the intensity. Basically the action and drama was pretty well combined.

This film was directed by Donnie Yen who also served as producer together with Raymond Wong producer of > 100 films such as The Bride with White Hair, Dragon Tiger Gate etc. I personally think Donnie Yen has stepped up a bit compared to the last movie he directed Sakra. The film itself has a large ensemble cast combining several new stars and veteran Hong Kong actors. Among them were Michael Hui (Rob-B-Hood, The Cannonball Run etc) as the Judge, Ray Lui (Dynasty Warriors, To Be Number One TV series etc) and Mark Cheng (Raped by an Angel, Gunmen etc) as crime bosses Sang and Sung, Lau Kong (The Emissary TV series etc) as Ma's grandfather and the ones that I mentioned above. The new guy that caught my wife's attention was MC Cheung who looked convincing in the fight scenes.

This movie was released in Hong Kong on December 21 which was pretty recent. I think Donnie Yen' star power in Indonesia is still strong as proven by all major cinema chains also played this movie. In term of box office performance, I am not an expert and cannot predict how it would fare. But considering its hefty budget for Hong Kong movie industry (HKD 310 million), it would need to have high attendance to ensure profitability. I think the production cost was high due to some special effects used and large cast and stunts team. I noticed during closing credits there were many stunt persons involved. Btw there was no mid or post end credit scenes here.

Overall this was a really entertaining action thriller movie for me and my wife. It was able to blend the high octane action with some drama and showed us a bit on the rather complex legal system. There was a little bit of humor and the performance of the lead cast of Donnie Yen, Kent Cheng, Francis Ng and Julian Cheung were good. The story might felt a bit complex at first but the bigger picture of unfairness on people without legal knowledge was successfully delivered. My wife was even moved with the story and we were satisfied with the ending as well. Of course the best of them all was the wonderful fight scenes (my most favorite would be that climax fight). So if you are fans of Donnie Yen, I am very sure you would enjoy this one. 

Mike's movie moments rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

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