Donnie Yen Hand Selected Actors for “The Prosecutor”

In action thriller The Prosecutor <誤判>, Donnie Yen (甄子丹) wears three hats as actor, director, and producer. Donnie also hand selected all the actors for their roles. The movie also features Chilam Cheung (張智霖), Michael Hui (許冠文), Francis Ng (吳鎮宇), and MC Cheung Tin-fu (張天賦) in main roles, while Sisley Choi (蔡思貝), Mandy Wong (黃智雯), Liza Wang (汪明荃), Kent Cheng (鄭則士) and Lau Kong (劉江) appear in guest roles.

On his casting strategy, Donnie shared, “I was very lucky each cast member performed well. The first person I cast was Lau Kong. There was a video interview of him from before where he talks about his life, and he said it with such pride. It made him perfect for his role.

“As for Sisley, she rarely portrays law enforcement officers. The role suits her well. In addition to her action scenes, she also has a scene where she and I meet on the metro. We filmed two versions of this scene–it was reshot three times because I wanted to see which would produce a better effect. She was cooperative every time and the scenes came out well.”

Casting Mandy in the role of a lawyer, Donnie expressed, “I needed to find an actress to portray a lawyer who doesn’t look threatening, but is actually a quick-witted good lawyer. This actress has to have a softer look, but also emit a strong inner character. Mandy’s look fit the role well.”

A film would not be a Donnie Yen film without stunning action choreography and exciting fight scenes. Sharing the team did not use any CGI, all action scenes were filmed in real-time, including the large-scale fighting scenes. As opponents in the film, Donnie decided to add in a one-on-one fight scene against Francis. Since Francis was not an action film star, Donnie was initially concerned whether Francis would feel comfortable with the suggested scene. After proposing the idea to Francis, the veteran actor happily agreed. Donnie expressed full confidence in Francis. “He has been acting for so many years, I was confident in his abilities. He is an experienced actor, so he would analyze and decide whether it is suitable to film, In the end, he accepted it happily and the results were great.”

The Prosecutor will be released on December 21, 2024.