The Prosecutor Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

The Prosecutor Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 15, 2025

The Prosecutor is one of those films which begins with a "based on a true story" imprimatur, which in this case means somewhere in Hong Kong there was a former policeman turned lawyer who dispatched an entire train full of bad guys and then turned up in court bloody and bruised to finally bring a wrongly convicted guy some measure of justice. Right. Well, "based" doesn't necessarily imply entirely based, so to speak, and evidently the addition of Donnie Yen to the cast of this feature may have slightly altered its evidently originally planned trajectory as a legal thriller involving corruption at the highest levels of the Hong Kong justice system. That element is still pretty much intact here, though it tends to get buried beneath Yen's stock in trade, namely action scenes where the still spry 61 year old smacks and kicks his way through all sorts of interchanges that are of course "based on a true story" of what your everyday Hong Kong attorney must experience in any given work week.

Kind of hilariously the opening offers Fok Chi-ho (Donnie Yen) in a neck brace and walking with the aid of a crutch, which at least suggests a bit of authenticity vis a vis a police type taking out a retinue of villains. One way or the other, the vignette probably unnecessarily "reveals" that the film's hero is a battle weary sort, and the first part of the story deals with Fok giving evidence in court after having attempted to bring a gang to justice, with middling results. Testimony reveals that Fok in his guise as a policeman helped to actually take down the gang, though Fok is distressed to find out there will be no conviction of the boss type, since there's no acceptable evidence. That leads Fok to reexamine why he's expending so much energy kicking down doors and shooting countless people, especially at his age, and the story then segues forward to find Fok in a new guise as a white wigged prosecutor in Hong Kong's sprawling (and supposedly unironically named) Department of Justice.

Fok's police enhanced "spidey sense" starts tingling when a case he's working on seems a little fishy in terms of the sole culpability of a young man named Ma Ka-kit (Mason Fung) in a drug running scheme. While Fok is "officially" out to convict Ma, he doesn't especially agree with the plea bargain being arranged, and he starts to act almost as a defense attorney during the proceedings, which eventually backfires, leading to Ma's conviction. In the meantime, Fok has also established a relationship with Ma's elderly grandfather, Uncle Ma (Lau Kong). Suffice it to say Fok has to peel back several layers of malfeasance which probably unsurprisingly involves participants on both the prosecutorial and defense teams, not to mention a well educated criminal mastermind who knows how to "game" the justice system. What's perhaps passingly comical about the villainy in this film is that it depicts cocaine use of a magnitude that even a certain Cuban refugee might envy.

Suffice it to say at least a decent if not overwhelming assortment of butt kicking scenes ensue, allowing Fok to dole out "justice" of his own with two fists (and feet). Yen also co-produced and directed this effort, and while it's patently ludicrous virtually the entire way, it's also an at least intermittently enjoyable if admittedly completely undemanding showcase for his furrowed brow acting chops and his chops of another variety. I'd absolutely love for the "real life" former policeman turned avenging prosecutor who supposedly inspired this effort to come forward and regale us all with tales of his martial arts prowess and ability to continue working through severe bodily injuries.

Note: My colleague Brian Orndorf was evidently considerably less impressed with the film than I was. You can read Brian's thoughts here.

The Prosecutor Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Prosecutor is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. Captured mostly with Arri Alexas, but with some other shots captured by DJI cameras I'm frankly not overly familiar with, this had a 2K DI according the IMDb, despite the fact that also according the IMDb the DJI cameras have source capture resolutions of over 8K. This is most definitely a digital capture that looks like it, meaning there has been no attempt to try to add digital grain or any sort of texturing that would suggest actual film. As such, this has an undeniably "video-esque" appearance, but that means pretty spectacular clarity virtually the entire time, even if the visuals may not have much actual depth. Detail levels continually impress, at least when Yen keeps his cameras relatively stationary. The palette is natural looking, through there are occasional dashes of grading, including some slight teal tones in some of the interior environments.

The Prosecutor Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Prosecutor features a Dolby Atmos track in Cantonese, with an additional DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 tracks in English. The Atmos track is a whirlwind of activity, at least interstitially, as in the early flashback where Fok details the attack on the gang which led to his injuries displayed in the court. Scenes like that can offer fantastic sonics, with gunfire erupting both around and over the listener, and with various adrenaline pumping effects as either fists or bullets meet flesh. There are at least a couple of other major set pieces in the film, including a spectacular group smackdown that pretty much just erupts out of nowhere, and then another epic "group effort" on a train that caps the film, and all of these offer superb surround activity. The problem is, then things subside, and a lot of the putative narrative material offers decent placement of ambient environmental effects, but with a definite perception that surround activity has receded, at least somewhat. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English and French subtitles are available.

The Prosecutor Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer (HD; 1:37)

Note: As tends to be the case with Well Go USA Blu-ray releases, the disc has been authored to automatically move on to trailers for other Well Go USA releases after the trailer for this film plays. Those trailers for other Well Go USA releases also play automatically at disc boot up.

Packaging features a slipcover. For those interested, Well Go USA's standalone The Prosecutor 4K (which does not include a 1080 disc) offers different cover art and slipcover art.

The Prosecutor Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Donnie Yen fans will probably enjoy this film while also quite understandably finding quite a bit of it to be on the silly side. Technical merits are solid for anyone considering making a purchase, though fans of Yen with 4K equipment may want to opt for that version.