The Prosecutor
review by Bobby Blakey
Martial arts icon Donnie Yen has been kicking major ass for years on the big screen with films like Flash Point, the Ip Man franchise, Star Wars: Rogue One and more recently John Wick Chapter 4. Along with bringing his badass martial arts skills to the action genre, he has also directed numerous films and serving double duty once again with his latest film The Prosecutor co-starring Cheung Chi Lam Julian, Michael Hui, Francis Ng Chun Yu, Cheung Tin Fu and Locker Lam. Does this latest film bring the drama and action fans expect or will it get held in contempt?
The Prosecutor follows the story of a man who falsely pleads guilty to drug trafficking after being framed. Despite the confession, the veteran policeman-turned-prosecutor handling the case is convinced of the man’s innocence and pursues his own investigation, risking both his career and his life to bring the real perpetrator to justice.
One of the things I love about Yen outside of the obvious martial arts badassery is that he takes on a variety of types of roles. As a martial arts fan I prefer to see him kick ass, but he is great at bringing the drama, comedy and everything in between on the acting side as a well-rounded actor. This latest project is an even matchup as a part crime thriller and part court room drama infused with a full-on action film that is well balanced to deliver them all successfully.
The story is simple enough to kick off with a well-handled action sequence that serves to set up who Yen’s character is and why he decides to pursue being a prosecutor over being a cop. There is a montage time jump to make it more believable that he can get to that point in the career change and allows for a simple story element to make sense why he is also able to hold his own in the action sequences.
There are some great court moments here with Yen killing it all around along with his supporting cast. The story is compelling and instead of just setting up each action sequence lends itself to keeping you interested and guessing throughout. There aren’t a ton of action and fight sequences, but the ones that are here are unsurprisingly excellent. They grow more and more aggressive throughout with the final sequence in a subway train being a chaotic fight of perfection like fans hope for from Yen. I love that his character isn’t the usual unstoppable fight machine, and he must work for the victories giving it a more real approach in all the over-the-top action.
I loved this flick and think Yen killed it both in front of and behind the camera in ever aspect. This subject matter lends itself perfectly to a franchise as well and would love to see more films like this in Yen’s catalog, but either way it works to perfection all on its own and worth checking out.
Decide for yourself and check out The Prosecutor when it hits theaters on January 10th from Well Go USA.