Movie Review: THE PROSECUTOR (NG POON)

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer

Posted: January 10th, 2025 / 05:30 PM

THE_PROSECUTOR movie poster | ©2025 Well Go USA Entertainment

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Donnie Yen, Julian Cheung Chi Lam, Michael Hui, Francis Ng Chun Yu, Shirley Chan, Cheung Tin Fu, Sisley Choi, Mandy Wong, Justin Cheung Kin Sing, Liza Wang, Cheng Jut Si, Lau Kong, Yu Kang, Adam Pak, Lui Leung Wai, Mark Cheng, Ho Yeung Fung
Writer: Edmond Wong
Director: Donnie Yen
Distributor: Well Go USA Entertainment
Release Date: January 10, 2025

THE PROSECUTOR (NG POON) opens with the words “based on true events.” It’s perfectly plausible that an officer went from the Rapid Action Unit – Hong Kong’s equivalent of the S.W.A.T. team – to become a prosecutor. It’s even possible that a prosecutor, moved by a sense of justice, was driven to look further into what seemed an open-and-shut case.

It’s just that whoever this person was probably carried out his prosecutorial duties without kicking, punching, and otherwise inflicting violence on as many bad guys as does our PROSECUTOR hero, Fok Zi Hou, as portrayed by Donnie Yen, who is also the film’s director.

Yen has directed and produced previous features, but he’s best known as a martial arts action movie star, whose credits include the IP MAN franchise and a supporting role in JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4.

In THE PROSECUTOR, we see Yen-as-Fok’s fighting skills on full display in the opening segment where he chases down criminals as the leader of the Rapid Action Team.

But Fok feels that he can be even more effective as part of the Hong Kong Department of Justice (DOJ), which runs their court system, so he leaves his beloved police colleagues under the supervision of his young protégé Lei Ging Wai (Cheung Tin Fu).

Fok then studies law – surprisingly, although everyone primarily speaks Cantonese, the law books and some legal terms are in English – and joins the prosecutor’s office. His first case concerns a very young man, Maa Gaa Git (Ho Yeung Fung).

What actually happened, as we see, is that Git agreed to let someone else use his address to receive a package from Brazil. The package contained cocaine, but Git didn’t know that. He’s mainly guilty of extreme naivete. However, Git is pleading guilty on the advice of his pro bono lawyers in exchange for a reduced sentence.

Fok genuinely can’t figure out why Git’s lawyers are so reluctant to ask the right questions, and why the prosecutor’s department is so stuck on procedure over truth. This immediately gets Fok into trouble with his departmental superiors.

But when Git’s attempt to appeal his ten-year sentence just results in an even longer sentence, and his elderly grandfather (Lau Kong) dissolves in grief in the courtroom, Fok becomes even more determined to figure out what exactly is going on here.

In a different kind of legal drama, Fok might be stalked by shadowy figures, but he wouldn’t repeatedly engage in these acrobatic moves. Here, it’s more or less expected. The screenplay by Edmond Wong is responsible for maintaining the intrigue (we can guess where it’s going, but that’s really not the point) and making sure we understand the social commentary of what seems to be the international problem of the courts going after unfortunate schmoes like Git rather than the real players, and then finding places where martial arts can fit.

As someone familiar with the form, Yen shoots the action so that we see footwork, handwork, and even spine work. He shows us that everyone involved, be they valorous or villainous, can deliver and take a spinning kick or a flying punch. It’s impressive and satisfying.

Fok is so morally upright that in another context he might be unbearable, but in THE PROSECUTOR, the character suits the narrative. Lau is effective as Git’s loving grandfather, and Cheng Jut Si (aka Kent Cheng) is drily droll as Fok’s prosecutorial immediate superior.

THE PROSECUTOR combines the earnestness of a LAW & ORDER episode with the serious agitprop of a PBS documentary, and lights it up with properly-framed Hong Kong action. If this is your thing, it’s all here.

In Cantonese, with subtitles.

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