The Procurator
检察风云
China, 2023, colour/b&w, 2.35:1, 112 mins.
Director: Mai Zhaohui 麦兆辉 [Alan Mak].
Rating: 6/10.
Part courtroom drama, part crime procedural, this ends up being not especially involving on either count, though a strong cast makes it watchable.
STORY
Liucheng city, somewhere in China, 2020. Xia Wei (Wang Likun), a history professor at the city’s university, is on trial for the murder of nightclub owner Chen Xin (Bao Bei’er). As the trial opens at 09:30 she refuses to speak, and her defence counsel, Tong Yuchen (Bai Baihe), defends her right to do so against the procurator (public prosecutor) Li Rui (Hong Jingyu). (Three months earlier one of Xia Wei’s students, Ye Xiaohuan [Liang Songqing], had been visiting Chen Xin about money she owed him at the same time as Li Rui was working undercover at the nightclub. After raping the tearful Ye Xiaohuan, Chen Xin had gone downstairs to meet his two business partners, Hong Junshan [Feng Shaofeng] and his elder brother Hong Qiming [Su Ke], to demand money to meet a shortfall of RMB2 million last month. The Hong brothers had refused. Meanwhile, Li Rui had found Ye Xiaohuan and Chen Xin had been arrested for rape. However, at the police station Ye Xiaohuan had got a call from her parents that they were being threatened by thugs, so she had withdrawn the rape accusation and Chen Xin had walked free. Next day, in Xia Wei’s class, Ye Xiaohuan had committed suicide, texting a full description of the previous night to Li Rui’s mobile phone. As her body was carried away, Xia Wei had heard Li Rui discussing with his colleague Zhang Youcheng [Wang Qianyuan] and police detective Zhao Liping [Zhang Yi] how to take down Chen Xin. When Li Rui and Zhang Youcheng had secretly outlined their plans to their boss, Zhao Mingcheng [Shi Zhaoqi], during a toilet break at a conference, they had been overheard by someone else in the washroom. That evening, without telling her husband Hong Junshan, Xia Wei had visited Chen Xin and demanded justice for what he had done to her student. Chen Xin had laughed it off, offering money for the girl’s parents, which Xia Wei had angrily rejected. Later, Xia Wei had gone back to her office, in a confused state and with blood on her. The police had arrested her, and next day Li Rui had been appointed public prosecutor on the case.) On the first day of the trial, at 10:30, it’s revealed that Chen Xin was killed by a piece of a stone “mourning book” (āicè 哀册) from the entrance to the tomb of a Tang dynasty empress. Xia Wei’s DNA is on it. She still stays silent. (When Tong Yuchen had been hired by Hong Junshan to defend Xia Wei, he had told her that his wife had called him at home that night, in a confused state, and said “Chen Xin is a tomb robber”. He had claimed he didn’t understand her. At the crime scene, Li Rui had been told by detective Zhao Liping that Xia Wei had said she remembered nothing after Chen Xin had laughed at her and then tried to fondle her. Li Rui had noticed that the stone relic must have come from the aquarium in Chen Xin’s flat that had been smashed by an ashtray on his desk. But why had Xia Wei not just killed Chen Xin with the ashtray? Li Rui had then found a small voice recorder that belonged to Xia Wei. But why were there two used wine glasses on Chen Xin’s desk if Xia Wei had not been in the mood to drink with him? The investigators had realised that a third person had been at the scene of the crime that evening. And then Zhang Youcheng had arrived with the news that Xia Wei’s defence counsel was Tong Yuchen, Li Rui’s erstwhile girlfriend when they were both trainees at the prosecutor’s office.)
REVIEW
Somewhere between a courtroom drama and a crime procedural, The Procurator 检察风云 ends up being not especially involving on either count, thanks to a curious structure that undercuts any developing tension and also gets in the way of the characters. A watchable time-passer, thanks to the strong cast and smooth packaging, it’s a notch above the last feature by Hong Kong director Mai Zhaohui 麦兆辉 [Alan Mak], the ICAC procedural Integrity 廉政风云 烟幕 (2019), which built methodically but then completely lost its nerve in the third act. Mainland box office this spring was a meh RMB62 million.
Mai, 58, is still best known for the Infernal Affairs 无间道 (2002-03) and Overheard 窃听风云 (2009-14) trilogies that he co-wrote with fellow Hong Konger Zhuang Wenqiang 庄文强 [Felix Chong] and co-directed with Liu Weiqiang 刘伟强 [Andrew Lau] and Zhuang, though his China-set drugs drama Extraordinary Mission 非凡任务 (2017), co-directed with d.p. Pan Yaoming 潘耀明 [Anthony Pun], gripped on a pulpy level. Shot three years ago, The Procurator is 100% Mainland-funded but all key crew are Hong Kongers, from versatile d.p. Xie Zhongdao 谢忠道 [Kenny Tse], through regular editor Peng Zhengxi 彭正熙 [Curran Pang] and longtime action director Li Zhongzhi 李忠志 [Nicky Li], to veteran stylist Wen Nianzhong 文念中 [Man Lim-chung], all of whom contribute to a slick package. Last summer Mai shot Under Current 内幕, another police-cum-legal procedural with a heavyweight Hong Kong lineup of Guo Fucheng 郭富城 [Aaron Kwok], Ren Dahua 任达华 [Simon Yam] and Wu Zhenyu 吴镇宇 [Francis Ng], that’s due out later this year.
Lead writer is the Mainland’s Zhao Peng 赵鹏, who’s already co-written the TVDs Court Battle 决胜法庭 (2020) and Hello Procurator 你好检察官 (2021), so clearly knows something about the setting. This time he’s attempted a quirky structure that starts with the opening day of a murder trial – introducing the defendant, who chooses to remain silent, and the prosecuting and defence counsels – and then goes into a long flashback three months earlier showing the lead-up to and aftermath of the murder. Thereafter the film yoyos between the continuing trial and more flashbacks leading up to it.
The story is a potentially fascinating one: the defendant is a university history lecturer whose super-wealthy husband (and his elder brother) was in business with the victim, a sleazy nightclub owner, while the prosecuting and defence counsels used to be wannabe lovers when trainees. Unfortunately none of this really gets the time it deserves inbetween all the procedural stuff centred on solving the crime. The putative re-romance between the feuding counsels relies on corny flashbacks rather than present-day verbal sparring, and when the plot starts broadening out into a larger story going back 22 years, with an archaeological dig and conflicted student emotions, it almost feels like another movie has been tacked on. More seriously, it further detracts from the main story, which was already having trouble maintaining any sense of tension. Amid some late-on action, the over-complex plot scrambles to resolve itself in the final moments.
Notable as the arrogant challenger in Pegasus 飞驰人生 (2019) and petty crook-cum-chancer in Wild Grass 荞麦疯长 (2020), Huang Jingyu 黄景瑜, 27 at the time of shooting, cuts a commanding presence as the young procurator who’s been thrown a big career bone, while actress Bai Baihe 白百何 – more often, alas, seen in TVDs nowadays – is convincing as a cool, calm and collected lawyer but is hampered by an underwritten role. Another of the film’s basic problems is that neither Huang’s nor Bai’s character really drives the plot in a proactive way, so there’s no way for the viewer to get involved. It’s not the characters but the whole procedure of the increasingly multi-layered case that drives the movie – to its emotional deficit.
Some colourful supporting roles help to jog things along on a character level. As the young procurator’s colleague, lantern-jawed Wang Qianyuan 王千源 is good light relief throughout, underlining, like guest star Yue Yunpeng 岳云鹏 as a garrulous librarian and Hong Kong veteran Tian Qiwen 田启文 (also creative producer 监制) as his Cantonese-accented boss, the film’s strong strain of humour. Onetime action star Yu Rongguang 于荣光 pops up memorably as the city’s mayor and Bao Bei’er 包贝尔 steals all the early going in a scenery-chewing performance as the sleazy murder victim. In a darker role than usual, Feng Shaofeng 冯绍峰 mostly just looks sinister as the defendant’s super-rich husband.
In China, a public procurator is an officer of state who not only investigates a crime (along with the police) but also prosecutes it personally in court. The film was shot in Dongguan, Guangdong province, and Pingtan, Fujian province, from Jul to Sep 2020. The Chinese title simply means “Procuratorial Storm(s)”. Several of Mai’s films have the word “storm(s)” 风云 in their titles.
CREDITS
Presented by Centre for Film & TV of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (CN), Fujian Pingtan Jiajiajiu Cultural Media (CN), Cultural Investment Holdings (CN), Huawen Picture (Beijing) Group (CN), Huaxia Jude Film & TV Media (Beijing) (CN), Beijing Wenyun Huaxia Film & TV Investment (CN), Changchun Film Group (CN).
Script: Zhao Peng, Mai Zhaohui [Alan Mak]. Photography: Xie Zhongdao [Kenny Tse]. Editing: Peng Zhengxi [Curran Pang]. Music: Chu Zhendong [Anthony Chue]. Art direction: Zhang Yinghua. Styling: Wen Nianzhong [Man Lim-chung]. Sound: Lin Siyu, Yu Wuchao. Action: Li Zhongzhi [Nicky Li].
Cast: Huang Jingyu (Li Rui), Bai Baihe (Tong Yuchen), Wang Likun (Xia Wei), Wang Qianyuan (Zhang Youcheng), Bao Bei’er (Chen Xin), Feng Shaofeng (Hong Junshan), Su Ke (Hong Qiming)), Zhang Yi (Zhao Liping), Liang Songqing (Ye Xiaohuan), Shi Zhaoqi (Zhao Mingcheng, procuratorate head), Yu Rongguang (Yan Zhitian, mayor), Kou Zhenhai (head judge), Tian Qiwen (head librarian), Yue Yunpeng (Peng Shao, librarian), Liu Yiwei (Tulong/Earth Dragon), Hao Ping (deputy police chief), Liang Chao (nightclub manager), Zhang Jixuan (Hong Qiming’s lawyer), Zong Fengyan (Lu Yongqiang, archaeology professor), Yu Peiyao (Tong Yuchen’s assistant), Zhang Yaqi (young Hong Junshan), Wang Weishen (young Hong Qiming), Jin Bo (young Chen Xin), Li Yutong (young Xia Wei), Bai Shaowei (young Yan Zhitian).
Release: China, 29 Apr 2023.