Donnie Yen fights tooth and nail in order to save an innocent man in his latest directorial, The Prosecutor. We do get a demonstration of his skill as a legendary martial artist, but the movie is actually much more than that. The story is quite dense, with several layers and a bit of complication. Part courtroom drama, part action thriller, The Prosecutor pretty much hits all the right notes, resulting in a very entertaining experience for you if you’re into this kind of cinema. Let us head to the discussion.
Spoilers Ahead
What Happens In The Movie?
I don’t exactly see the point of not starting the movie with Yen’s Mr. Fok joining the Department of Justice (DOJ) and taking it from there. I mean, the first fifteen minutes don’t particularly add anything to the story, other than establishing what kind of a man Mr. Fok is. Of course, the opening action sequence, where Mr. Fok, still a police officer, and his team go after a bunch of criminals and apprehend them has some brilliant action choreography. One of his officers ends up arresting a man who claims to be innocent. At the court, the prosecution fails to prove the charges against that man, and he gets to walk free. During the incident, Mr. Fok also hurts his neck while trying to save the officer who arrested that man. After the matter is over—not in the manner Mr. Fok wanted, but nonetheless—our leading man takes a transfer to the DOJ. He makes an instant impression on his colleagues when he goes against everyone to prove his theory with logic for a hypothetical case.
Soon we see Mr. Fok handling his first case as prosecutor. The defendant is a young man named Ka Kit, who has been arrested on the charge of drug trafficking. Police officer King Wai caught him red-handed while receiving a package from Brazil that contained one kilogram of cocaine. Ka Kit has claimed to be innocent and told the police that it was this other guy, Chan, who was using his address. Considering Chan has a history of drug processing, the police have arrested him as well. Before the case goes to court, Chan’s lawyer, Au-Pak, along with Ka Kit’s lawyer, Lee, try to convince Ka Kit to plead guilty, as that would reduce his sentence. It’s clear from the start that Au-Pak and Lee are in bed together (in fact, literally, as revealed later; even though that’s hardly relevant), and their main goal is to get Chan out and put the blame on Ka Kit. And it turns out the young man is naive enough to fall for it, as he changes his earlier statement and ends up confessing to drug trafficking in court. Mr. Fok is not sold on it, but his colleague Bao Ming urges him to let it go and move on. Fok and Bao’s superior, Yeung, also seems to care more about wrapping up cases and moving on than actually trying to find the truth.
Fortunately for Ka Kit, his grandfather Ma realizes that the lawyers have duped his innocent grandson. Desperate to get Ka Kit out, Ma takes the initiative of putting in an application for a retrial, with the defendant reverting to his original claim of innocence. This puts the DOJ department under a lot of pressure, but all Mr. Fok seems to care about is discovering what actually happened and making sure an innocent man doesn’t get punished.
Is Ka Kit Really Guilty?
We know for a fact that Ka Kit is innocent. This is not the kind of movie that tries to deceive you or keep you guessing. Ka Kit really has nothing to do with the crime. In fact, with a little digging, King Wai finds out that Ka Kit has had a really hard life so far. Ironically, his own mother was a druggie who used to abuse him. It’s Grandfather Ma who saved the boy by forcefully taking him from the mother. Not that Ma’s living conditions were anything to write home about. But the old man still did his best, as he loved the boy. When Mr. Fok gets to know about all this, he gets further certain that Ka Kit is not the real criminal and there’s a huge conspiracy going on. It is not quite hard to understand both Au Pak and Lee are in it together. During the retrial, they are summoned to court, and they keep denying the allegation that they coerced Ka Kit into taking the guilty plea bargain. They try their best to establish they did nothing wrong and Ka Kit was just naive. That does help Mr. Fok to prove Au-Pak indeed had something to do with Ka Kit’s earlier confession (when he really shouldn’t have as he was not even his lawyer). It also comes out that, before the last trial, three letters were submitted in support of Ka Kit’s innocence by Lee and Au Pak. Those letters came from people who are reputed in society, and all three of them called Ka Kit a good person with strong moral values. The only problem was all of them were forged. This only means Lee and Au Pak deliberately ruined Ka Kit’s chances of getting away. Interestingly, all this argument at the court is done by Mr. Fok, who’s supposed to be advocating against Ka Kit. Mr. Fok even ends up frustratingly asking Ka Kit’s new counsel—who doesn’t seem to be a competent enough lawyer—to do his job right. It reaches the point where the judge gets mad at Mr. Fok and orders Bao Ming to keep his fellow prosecutor in check. He also decides to not take any of Mr. Fok’s arguments into consideration, as he is not officially from the side of the defendant. At the end of the trial, the jury finds Ka Kit guilty and Chan not guilty. The judge then gives Ka Kit a twenty-seven-year prison sentence. At a DOJ event after a while, we see the judge lecturing Mr. Fok about how he should just follow the procedure in order to do his job ‘right.’
Who Is Behind The Conspiracy?
As you’d expect, Mr. Fok is not going to let this go until he gets to the bottom of the whole thing. From Grandfather Ma, he gets to know about the restaurant Ka Kit used to work at, and its owner, Lau. It was Lau who suggested Lee as Ka Kit’s legal counsel in the first place. And since it was coming free of cost, Ma and Ka Kit couldn’t say no as they didn’t even have money to afford other lawyers. Now, here’s what’s interesting—Chan, the guy who used Ka Kit’s address, just happens to be the half-brother of Lau. However, Lau and his half-brother are not the only ones involved; our man Au Pak is in it as well. We already know that Au Pak is crooked, but as it turns out, the man has been in and out of the prison in the past. What’s even more surprising is that it is in prison that he learned the nitty-gritties of law and went on to become a lawyer. He also met two people in jail, Sang and Tung, who are practically running the whole show. Obviously they can’t get caught importing drugs, so they had to use someone like Ka Kit as a cover. Needless to say, there are several others like Ka Kit who are being used by these criminals. To make matters even worse, we find out Mr. Yeung, aka Mr. Fok’s boss from the DOJ, is also in cahoots with the criminal, although it seems like he is kind of forced into it, as it is impossible to stand up against the Triad (that’s what the Chinese society of crime is popularly known as) as one individual.
During Grandfather Ma and Mr. Fok’s first meeting in a parking lot, someone also tries to run over Ma. Thanks to Mr. Fok being there, Ma is saved. The assassin’s car crashes, and he takes flight on foot. Mr. Fok chases the man, and we get a good look at him—a bald, strong-looking man who’s wearing thick, black-framed spectacles. Despite trying to catch the man, Mr. Fok fails to do so. At Ma’s house, Mr. Fok sees Ka Kit’s artwork, which further makes him realize that the young man is a victim of a corrupted system, and he must keep fighting. Later, while having a meal at a restaurant, Mr. Fok leaves Grandfather Ma for one moment. Upon his return, he finds out Ma has been killed violently, with his body lying in a pool of blood. This makes things abundantly clear: whoever framed Ka Kit doesn’t want people to stir the case further. Grandfather Ma’s death is quite heartbreaking if you think about the fact that he doesn’t get to see his grandson walk out of prison. When Mr. Fok delivers the news to Ka Kit, the young man breaks down and says he is ready to spend his entire life in prison if they let him out to attend his grandfather’s funeral for one day. This is another indication of how genuine Ka Kit really is, and he is definitely worth fighting for.
Is Mr. Fok able to find justice for Ka Kit?
With Bao on his side, Mr. Fok decides to visit Lau’s restaurant in order to find any kind of evidence that can help Ka Kit. Upon reaching there, Bao finds out Lau and Chan are fighting over something. He starts video recording it (as Lau and Chan being seen together is a big deal), but unfortunately he gets spotted, and Lau’s goons start attacking him. Fortunately, Mr. Fok comes to Bao’s rescue, and this is where we get the full display of Yen’s martial arts skills, and it’s quite glorious to watch. However, Mr. Fok can’t handle all the attackers as there are too many of them. Thankfully, police officer King Wai reaches in time to help handle the matter. Lau and Chan both escape, though; however, Lau is soon killed by Tung as the Triad clearly doesn’t want him to be found by the police. With Lau gone, Chan realizes that his best course of action has to be surrendering to the police and testifying against the criminals—Sang, Tung, Au Pak, and company. He also happens to have damning evidence against all of them, which Lau was guarding for a long time. I suppose this is a thing in criminal organizations, where you always need to have a contingency plan in order to survive or get out.
In The Prosecutor’s ending Chan comes into the fold and decides to do the right thing. On their way to the courthouse, the party is hit by a truck, but everyone still survives. It is evident that the bad guys are behind this. Mr. Fok then decides to take it upon himself to make sure Chan reaches the court safely, as a lot is depending on that. Obviously it can’t happen that easily, so they are attacked on the subway by a group of thugs led by our bespectacled bald man—who’s called Kim Hung. We can be pretty certain of this guy being responsible for Grandfather Ma’s death as well. This is where Yen gets to have his hero moment, which he completely deserves. The entire action sequence here is nothing short of spectacular, by the way.
Anyway, all this is Sang’s doing, who’s trying to kill Chan in order to save his own skin along with Au Pak and the rest. Thanks to Mr. Fok, that doesn’t happen as he finally takes Chan to court. What also helps here is Mr. Yeung managing to extend the time in court, using his personal connection with the judge (it’s the same person from before). And yes, Mr. Yeung is also redeemed here, by finally doing the right thing. After Chan’s testimony, the judge has no reason to keep Ka Kit in prison. Not only does he let the innocent man go, but he also apologizes for making a mistake. Au Pak, Lee, Sang, Chan, and the rest are all punished. The Prosecutor closes things off with Mr. Fok taking over the charge of the DOJ from Mr. Yeung.
