The Masked Prosecutor (1999)

A mysterious supernatural law enforcer has hit the scene in Hong Kong - he's known as the Masked Prosecutor. Men let off for murder and maiming are finding themselves on the receiving of the Prosecutor's cane before being bound and thrown back to the police. When wrongdoer number 4 (Lai Yiu-cheung) is dumped thrashed, roped and marked at a police staion, FBI-trained officer Wah (Jordan Chan) is brought in to handle the case alongside a soon-to-retire senior policeman (Ko Shou-liang).

Wah is a Hindi-speaking devotee of Indian spirituality, and he's adept at noticing pernickety details. Using extraordinarily quick judgement skills, he sets about unmasking the Prosecutor and uncovering the reasons for his vigilantism. But it's no simple matter – Wah's partner knows more than he'll wittingly admit to...

Director Yau has based the Prosecutor on a mythological character with both otherworldly abilities and humanist ideals of righting shortcomings of the legal system. The peoples' justice theme is nothing new to the cinema screens, but this supernatural take heightens the appeal. Louis Koo plays the title role ably, but isn't offered enough development in the script. Some particular aspects of his role could have benefitted from some helpful explanation. The casting is solid, as is typical of Yau's productions, though it appears several cast members were only free for a single day. Though neither a cliffhanger of suspense nor a peak in Yau's often dependable oeuvre, The Masked Prosecutor was both offbeat and tight enough to keep my attention, start to finish.

DVD information: The Universe release offers good value for money for this worthy flick. The film picture quality plays out on the dark side but the delivery is adequate, as is the 5.1 synch sound Cantonese track too (Putongua is also available). As far as extras go, the main goodie is a 13-minute Making Of presentation. The short segment is unfortunately without English-language subtitles but still offers interviews with director Yau, his crew and all his stars. The focus of the feature is behind-the-scenes coverage of the car and fire stunts (watch for Yau personally torching a car) and this makes for some interesting post-movie viewing. Other features are biographies on Louis Koo and Jordan Chan, and big white subtitles in English, Chinese traditional and simplified and Bahasa Malaysia. Trailers for The Masked Prosecutor, A Man Called Hero and triad flick Century of the Dragon are also included.

Below are the souvenir postcards for The Masked Prosecutor, handed to ticket buyers at the Astor Classics cinema. The cards are sponsored by Tiny Computors -- good on them for supporting Hong Kong movies!

Credits:

Directed by Herman Yau
Starring Louis Koo Tin-lok, Blackie Ko Shou-liang, Jordan Chan, Grace Yip, Jessica Hester Hsuan (Suen Huen), Ng Chi-hung and Wayne Lai Yiu-cheung