Loosely based on a real-life 2016 drug-trafficking case, the story follows a police detective-turned-public prosecutor (Yen) who risks his life and career to help a wrongly accused defendant (Mason Fung) entangled with a crime syndicate led by a law-educated drug lord (Julian Cheung).

It secured three nominations in the 43rd Hong Kong Film Awards and received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised the action, innovative genre blend, and performances of the cast, particularly Donnie Yen and Michael Hui, but the screenplay and the lack of exploration of themes regarding justice in Hong Kong were subject to criticism.

After learning about the assassination attempt, Bao agrees to help Fok investigate, leading them to discover that Yeung has been the prosecutor in every case involving Au.

They learn that one brother solicits people to lend their addresses for drug smuggling, while the other pretends to offer pro bono legal assistance through Li and Au, who actually have them take the blame.

[9] Also appearing in the film are Max Cheung [zh] and Leung Chung Hang as Fok's fellow prosecutors;[10] and Philip Chan as a judge.

The Prosecutor is loosely based on a real-life case from 2016, involving a teenager Ma Ka-kin, who was accused of drug-trafficking and misled into pleading guilty by his defense lawyer and legal executive in exchange for absolving the second defendant Hung Chi-him from charges.

[11] Edmond Wong, the film's screenwriter, aimed to move away from the stereotypical courtroom dramas often depicted in television series, shifting the screenplay's focus towards crime investigation and creating the protagonist, Fok Chi-ho, a narcotics police detective who transitions to a public prosecutor to drive the story.

[11] In 2023, while in talks to produce a sequel to Flash Point (2007), Raymond Wong showed Donnie Yen the screenplay of The Prosecutor and invited him to star as the lead.

[16][17] Yen initially declined, feeling unfamiliar with the legal drama genre,[18] and hesitant to develop a film that echoed the commercially successful A Guilty Conscience (2023).

[16][19] However, after two months of continued invitations from Wong, Yen finally agreed to join on the condition that the story be rewritten in "a style he was familiar with".

[13][18] Yen signed a deal for a total of three films with Mandarin Motion Pictures, which also included Ip Man 5 and a spin-off for SPL: Sha Po Lang (2005).

[11][20] Among the earliest creative decisions Yen made was to invite veteran actors he admired to join the cast and transform combative dialogue into actual fight scenes, such as an argument between his character and that of Francis Ng.

[19] Lau was cast by Yen after watching an interview of him and discovering that his real-life experiences closely resembled those of the character Uncle Ma.

[11] He reached out to Hui, who agreed to star in the film in exchange for just a cup of coffee after listening to Wong describe the story for five minutes.

[11] In May 2023, Mandarin Motion Pictures announced the development of a legal thriller under the working title Misjudgement at the 76th Cannes Film Festival, with Donnie Yen attached as the lead actor and Raymond Wong as the producer.

[21] Due to language barriers, the crew initially struggled with the action choreography, requiring many scenes to be reshot, which delayed the filming schedule.

[11] While shooting a scene where Yen was thrown over the shoulder by another actor on the MTR set, he sustained a neck injury and was hospitalized, although no bones were fractured.

[11] The scene was ultimately shot at a private club on Westlands Road in Quarry Bay,[39] and used aerial drones for filming, featuring about 40 to 50 stunt actors performing real actions in a long take without any post-production special effects.

[40] The small sets included the lair of the drug-trafficking syndicate, filmed at the abandoned Tat Tak School in Ping Shan, and Uncle Ma's apartment, shot on the rooftop of a building opposite the flagship Sogo store in Causeway Bay, providing views of neon light signs.

[67] In China, early screenings generated over RMB$128 million, ranking second in the weekly box office while competing with another Hong Kong film, The Last Dance, which held the top position.

[76] Richard Kuipers of Variety characterized The Prosecutor as "a flashy combination of Hong Kong crime story and legal drama" with "top-notch fighting and action scenes" and "flamboyant and colorful exchanges" in the courtroom, but also noted that its focus on action led to a "[loss] of sharpness as a legal and human drama", lacking the gripping quality in recent successes like The Sparring Partner (2022) and A Guilty Conscience (2023), while its themes of justice appeared "simplistic" and "sometimes contradictory", suggesting that the film might be treading carefully to avoid provoking censors.

[6] Jeff Ewing of Collider rated The Prosecutor 7/10, highlighting its intriguing genre hybrid approach and the excellent performances of Donnie Yen, Julian Cheung, MC Cheung Tin-fu, and Kent Cheng, but noted that it fell short due to insufficient drama to qualify as a solid legal thriller, a lack of action to be considered a true martial arts film, and an inability to effectively balance characters from vastly different backgrounds, resulting in "missed opportunities".

[78] Edmund Lee of South China Morning Post gave The Prosecutor 3/5 stars, praising its action, particularly the "thrilling opening scene" in a first-person shooter style and the "action-packed climax", but lamenting the lackluster portrayal of the villain played by Julian Cheng, which led the film to "morph into a conventional thriller".

[80] Whang Yee Ling of The Straits Times also gave the film 3/5 stars, describing it as an "energetic but melodramatic blockbuster" that features "explosive action" from the Donnie Yen Stunt Team and a strong performance by Michael Hui, while critiquing its "dense yet simplistic" narrative and overly dramatic elements.

[3] David Ehrlich of IndieWire gave the film a B-, also lamenting that the legal case "struggles to match the same intensity" as the action sequences and fails to adequately explore the systemic corruption harming Hong Kong's lower class in a "hurried and ham-fisted" narrative, while also crediting Donnie Yen for venturing into a new genre despite his age and delivering a "charismatic" performance.

[82] James Marsh of Deadline Hollywood offered a negative review, criticizing the film as a "slickly polished slice of mainstream entertainment" with action sequences that felt like "late additions" forced in after Donnie Yen's involvement, which failed to meet the expectations of the action fanbase, while it also inadequately addressed the critical issues surrounding the Hong Kong national security laws and the challenges within the legal sector, making its exploration of justice seem "vaguely worded and far-reaching in application".

[4] Ho Siu-bun of am730 called the film a "high-quality Hong Kong action film", acknowledging both the upsides and downsides commonly seen in the genre, complimenting Takahito Ouchi's impressive action choreography and the humor in Michael Hui's performance, while noting that the dramatic elements feel laid-back, with character development being too slow and unclear, and the dialogues being "hilariously predictable".