Film Review - The Prosecutor 誤判 (2024) - Hong Kong / China
Rating: 8/10
2025 Review Count - 46
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Reviewed by Andrew Chan (Film Critics Circle of Australia)
Tagline: "Justice Unleashed: An Epic Collision of Law and Action"
Donnie Yen’s “The Prosecutor” is a film that crackles with the urgency of a filmmaker who has waited decades to exorcise a story from his soul. Yen, both in front of and behind the camera, channels the kinetic precision of his action-hero legacy into a narrative that’s as much about legal labyrinths as it is about flying fists. The result is a thriller that feels like “A Guilty Conscience” colliding with “Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In” —a courtroom drama where gavels and roundhouse kicks carry equal weight.
At its heart, this is a tale of institutional rot and the Sisyphean grind of justice. Yen’s Fok Chi-ho, a cop turned prosecutor, is a man haunted by the ghosts of systemic failure, his arc a slow burn from disillusionment to defiance. The script, loosely tethered to a real 2016 drug case, avoids easy moralizing, instead painting a world where villains wear barrister wigs and heroes must dirty their hands to scrub the system clean. The MTR fight scene—a symphony of claustrophobic combat—isn’t just spectacle; it’s a metaphor for the film itself: relentless, inventive, and unafraid to throw elbows.
Yet the film’s secret weapon isn’t Yen’s balletic violence but Michael Hui, whose turn as a sardonic high court judge injects wit into the procedural grind. Every smirk and raised eyebrow from Hui feels like a quiet rebellion against the film’s heavier themes, a reminder that even in the shadow of corruption, humanity flickers. Julian Cheung’s law-educated drug lord, all silk ties and serpentine charm, and Francis Ng’s conflicted prosecutor add layers of moral ambiguity, turning what could be a blunt parable into a chess match with shifting allegiances.
Yen’s direction thrums with the confidence of a veteran who knows his audience expects both brain and brawn. The courtroom sequences lean into taut dialogue, while the action—particularly a breathless third-act brawl aboard a moving train—showcases his signature flair for spatial storytelling. If the plot occasionally buckles under its own complexity (too many syndicate players, too few emotional breathers), the sheer momentum of Yen’s vision papers over the cracks.
“The Prosecutor” isn’t just a comeback vehicle for Yen the Director and auteur; it’s a love letter to Hong Kong cinema itself, where legal briefs and bloodied knuckles coexist without apology. It stumbles in its hunger to juggle too many ideas, but like its protagonist, the film’s spirit—raw, earnest, and defiantly alive—demands respect. (Neo, 2025)
- #甄子丹
- #张智霖
- #許冠文
- #吳鎮宇
- #張振富
- #DonnieYen
- #JulianCheung
- #MichaelHui
- #FrancisNg
- #MCCheungTinfu