Second, there's always one guy among the goons fighting the hero in these movies that makes you sit up and take notice, and in this case that would be Yu Kang. He's apparently been part of Donnie Yen's stunt team for a while - his credits are almost entirely in features starring Donnie - and has been doing a fair amount of direction and choreography of late. Not a bad living if it pays, I guess, although I wonder if he could be an action star on his own. At least in this movie, he's not movie-star handsome and there's not a whole lot of acting asked of him, so I'm not sure if he could break out of this niche.
It wasn't a bad crowd for a 6pm show. I used to think of as sort of a weird in-between time but maybe it's reasonable for a downtown theater today, since people are likely ordering their tickets and snacks in advance and taking the subway a couple stops rather than driving and thus finding parking, which I must imagine cuts out a lot of waiting in line time and lets you move everything up. Truth be told, it seemed to draw out the local fanbase of Boston's Own Donnie Yen better than when Chinese movies played at the Common near Chinatown. I'm also mildly curious what folks think of Yen these days, as he's had the reputation of being eager to make nice with the mainland even though he mostly still makes movies in Hong Kong, and when Big Brother came out, I remember reading that for Hong Kongers there was something insidious about it, like it gave surface-level praise to teaching critical thinking but implied a sort of systemic weakness, and you can kind of see something like that in The Prosecutor: It's full of heroic cops and prosecutors and the like who want to do the right thing in the way that a lot of Chinese movies are, but the (British-derived) legal system is full of loopholes and rules that work against justice. Which is probably not wrong - see every legal system on Earth - but knowing that previous context makes me wonder. Honestly, I kind of miss having the Hong Kong movie times app on my phone from back when I visited (it didn't carry over when I got new phones twice in the past 6 years), just to see if people are still review-bombing Yen's movies for this sort of thing.
Ng poon (The Prosecutor)
* * ½ (out of four)
Seen 10 January 2025 in AMC Boston Common #12 (first-run, laser DCP)
Where to stream it (when it leaves theaters)
There are five writers credited on The Prosecutor - "Writer" Edward Wong Chi-Mun in the main titles, "Scriptwriter" Cheung Chun-Ho in the end titles, and three assistant scriptwriters next to him - and yet, somehow, none of them managed to find a reason for director and star Donnie Yen to get into a fight while wearing his robes and wig. It would be silly, yes, but this is a movie that is at its best when played over the top and at its most cringe-inducing when played straight and earnest. Unfortunately, it aims for the latter far too often.
As the film opens, Fok Chi-Ho (Yen) is on his last major case as a police officer, a daring raid on a suspected drug dealer that ends with the perp getting off and Fok injuring himself rescuing a fellow officer (Sisley Choi Si-Pui). He retires from the force and goes to law school, and seven years later is starting as a prosecutor in the office of Yeung Dit-Lap (Francis Ng Chun Yu) under the mentorship of Bao Ding (Cheng Jut-Si). His first case is that of Ma Ka-Kit (Mason Fung Ho-Yeung), who was busted receiving a kilo of heroin but claims that he had just loaned his address to Chan Kwok-Wing (Locker Lam Ka-Hei); Kit is advised by pro bono attorneys Lee Sze-Man (Shirley Chan Yan-Yin) and Au Pak-man (Julian Cheung Chi-Lam) to plead guilty and recant some of his testimony for a reduced sentence. To a former detective like Fok, this stinks to high heaven, but the other prosecutors see their job as clearing the docket and winning cases. Nevertheless, Fok keeps digging with former partner Lee King-Wai (Cheung Tin-Fu), to the discomfort of both his co-workers in the prosecutor's office and the gangsters Au consorts with.
The film is, in many ways, a tale of two Donnie Yens. Yen is perhaps the last true action superstar produced by the Hong Kong film industry, and though the film openly acknowledges he's lost a step physically - Fok literally says "I got old" and complains about his knees, with his fight with fellow sexagenarian action star Francis Ng obligatory and ending in wheezing - he still seems engaged and excited about how to push Hong Kong action forward rather than sticking with formula. The opening gambit works hand-to-hand work into the gun-heavy mechanics of a police raid better than most before shifting to something out of a first-person shooter, and most of the big fights feature impressive use of space: One nests a delivery truck in a tight alleyway, another has folks taking vertical shortcuts in a parking garage, and the finale empties out a subway train and has Yen, action choreographer Ouchi Takahito, and featured stuntman Yu Kang incorporating the poles that keep riders from falling into their motions. It's impressive as heck and incorporates UFC-style ground-and-pound well without that always being terribly cinematical.
On the flip side, though, there's Donnie Yen the actor and more conventional filmmaker; he's become quite capable over the course of his career but is still at his best when his emoting is part of a fight rather than more conventional scenes and has often been more charismatic when doing comedy than drama. And for as much as he seemingly thrives on innovating and trying new things on the action side, he's got a tendency toward the earnestly conventional when it's time to justify that, playing as very bland, and on top of that he still looks just youthful enough that Fok's lecturing other characters, often more experienced prosecutors, comes off as unearned arrogance rather than earnest idealism or hard-won experience. It's a conservative sort of movie and character, the sort of conservatism that earnestly repeats slogans, trusts that the system is good and can make sure that people are treated fairly. Yen probably could play fiery and anti-establishment if he wanted, but that's not his game, and there's no hook to Fok beyond duty - his friends are co-workers, and his only family is a sundowning father whom he dutifully looks after.
It's weird, because it seems like there should be fun to be had here: He winks at the audience by showing a Lego Millennium Falcon in Fok's apartment (and is it too much to see the soccer balls as referencing Butterfly & Sword?), drops a couple of goofy courtroom one-liners in the big final fight, and, knowing he grew up in Boston, I laughed when he dug through a car's trunk to find hockey sticks to fight with. As mentioned, you can practically see him seem to come alive staging the fights, even if they do often have a "it's been fifteen minutes and things have slowed down, so let's try and murder a witness" vibe. He and Julian Cheung also perk up when it comes time to establish just how awful criminals are, and Cheung does a nice job of doing a flustered "why can't my criminal associates be friggin' professional rather than killing people unnecessarily?" thing without making the guy sympathetic.
Instead, it often seems like Yen, Wong, and company took what they felt was an important story (whether "based on true events" or not) with a good message and spent more time trying to tell it with the earnest respect it deserves rather than playing to their strengths. Doing martial arts with the wig on might have looked disrespectful, but it could also look like a symbol of the law fighting for victims; sadly, this movie isn't going to risk people getting the wrong idea.
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