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‘The Prosecutor’ Review: Donnie Yen Directs and Stars in a Lively if Somewhat Melodramatic Action-Drama
Action star Donnie Yen still has what it takes in the action stakes and acquits himself well as a cop turned public prosecutor in the courtroom drama.
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. 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.
Or read this on Variety
