When it comes to Mak Siu-fai, I believe that many Hong Kong film fans are impressed, because the works of this Hong Kong film celebrity are too classic, such as the "Infernal Affairs" series, "Eavesdropping" series, "Head Text D"... It is no exaggeration to say that without Mak Siu-fai, there would be no final glory of Hong Kong films at the turn of the century.
It is precisely because of this that many fans are looking forward to Mak Zhaohui's new film "Prosecutor Storm", and hope that this film can provide new perspectives and ideas for the future creation of domestic main theme film and television works.
However, the bad reputation after the film's release and the unreasonable dramatic interpretation beyond reality make it really hard to believe that this film is a film work directed by a famous director in Hong Kong with the support of a certain high level.
Why did a movie with a brilliant creative team, cast and theme selection end up with a rave of bad reviews, what is the problem? Today, let's walk into the film "Prosecutor's Storm".
The story begins with a rape case in which a helpless female college student is raped by Chen Xin, the evil leader of Liucheng, in a nightclub because she cannot repay a high campus loan. Fortunately, the prosecutor Li Rui, who investigated the case here, appeared in time so that the female college student could be rescued in time, and Chen Xin was also taken away by the police.
But just when the audience thought that the case was a certainty, the female college student who was violated chose to withdraw the lawsuit because her family was threatened, and finally committed suicide.
The student was brutally violated, but the murderer was at large, and the university teacher wanted to ask for an explanation for his student, but Chen Xin's accidental death at home made the female teacher who came to the door to ask for an explanation suddenly become a suspect in the murder case, and a confrontation between good and evil in a case began.
From the plot twists and character portrayals from here to one after another, the complexity of the film's story is naturally there, but the plot has obvious fatal flaws at the level of reality and logic, and the existence of these flaws eventually led to "Procurator Fengyun", a film and television work that claims to be adapted from real cases and focuses on the dimension of reality, finally completely detached from reality and freed itself, more like a remake and interpretation of classic Hong Kong films in the 90s.
The first thing to say is that although the actor of the film, Li Rui, claims to be a prosecutor, from the opening scene of the film to investigate and collect evidence, to later questioning criminal suspects, finding someone to restore electronic data, and then to later appearing in court, it can be said that his professional ability is super strong, and even the work responsible for the public security department has been completed.
The second is the depiction of the courtroom scene in the film, although the trial in the mainland can basically be observed with the ID card now, but the large number of reporters with cameras in the trial is obviously somewhat surreal. In order to ensure judicial impartiality and independence, media reporters are not allowed to bring cameras into the courtroom to record video without the court's permission during the hearing.
Then there are a lot of plot settings in the film that violate the exclusion of illegal evidence. First, when looking for evidence left by Procurator Zhang, Li Rui's act of violently smashing open the locker to obtain evidence was itself illegal, and the evidence obtained therefrom could not be used as a relevant basis for conviction and sentencing. Second, the technical staff played by Yue Yunpeng is not the relevant case-handling personnel, and there are doubts as to whether the electronic data and audiovisual materials recovered by him have evidentiary effect.
In addition, Tong Yuchen, as a defense lawyer, and Li Rui, who is the prosecutor in this case, were once colleagues of the district procuratorate, so even if Tong Yuchen later resigned, he should recuse himself from the criminal case under the jurisdiction of the original unit. However, in this film, prosecutor Li Rui played by Huang Jingyu and lawyer Tong Yuchen, played by Bai Baihe, not only appeared at the scene of the trial at the same time, but also the two had unclear emotional entanglements outside the courtroom.
In addition, as a witness to the rape scene in the film, prosecutor Li Rui may appear in court as a witness, so how can he also act as a prosecutor? Xia Wei's husband, Hong Junshan, received a phone call from his wife after the intentional homicide case, and according to the relevant procedures of criminal proceedings, Hong Junshan should appear in court as a witness in this case, not in the gallery.
If you think further from the perspective that Tong Yuchen and Li Rui used to be colleagues of the district procuratorate, the intentional homicide case in this film may be sentenced to life imprisonment and the death penalty, and it should be tried by the intermediate people's court, and the municipal procuratorate is responsible for the review and prosecution of the case.
In addition, the film is also unsatisfactory in some details, such as the opening scene of the film where the college student was sexually assaulted and taken to the detention center, and then received a threatening call from underworld elements on the spot, and it is understandable that the insulted female college student chose to withdraw the prosecution when her family was threatened, but the operation of the police is difficult to understand. First of all, rape cases are not private prosecution cases, and the right to withdraw the case is in the hands of the public security organs. Under the premise that there are obvious doubts in this case and that the parties receive threatening phone calls in the detention center, the public security organs' withdrawal of the case is completely unrealistic.
Moreover, the male protagonist Li Rui, who is shrouded in the aura of the protagonist from beginning to end in this film, still cares about the plot setting of the case after being suspended, violating the relevant responsibility regulations of the procuratorate on public officials.
With so many setting flaws, it's really hard to imagine that this is actually a film work that is advertised as based on a real case, filmed with the support of a certain high level, and the prosecutor participated in the creation as a screenwriter. To put it bluntly, if "Procurator Fengyun" is a Hong Kong action suspense genre movie, this film can still get a passing score, but if this film is regarded as a popular law propaganda film and television work adapted from real cases, "Procuratorial Fengyun" is still far from a passing score.
Reading this, I believe many viewers will ask, why is the film so imaginative, unbounded about the prosecutor's handling of the case so dramatically? I think a big reason lies in the director and the main creative team themselves, as a famous Hong Kong director who has directed works such as "Infernal Affairs" and "Eavesdropping", although the film directed by Mak Siu-fai is called "Procuratorial Storm", the main creative team of the film does not want to have an in-depth understanding and exploration of the real prosecutor's work and life, but only wants to copy the creation mode of Hong Kong police and bandit films, and shape the sacred and serious prosecutor in reality into an omnipotent and capable "heroic policeman" in the film Persona.
In fact, if the prosecutor's career setting in this film is changed to a police officer, and the background of the story is changed to Hong Kong, I think many of the slots in this film seem reasonable. For example, prosecutor Zhang, played by Wang Qianyuan, was followed by underworld forces during the investigation of the case, and then launched a fist and foot kung fu showdown.
For example, because Mayor Yan, played by Rong Guang, actually brazenly handed Feng Shaofeng a gun and instructed him to shoot his brother. Not to mention whether this plot setting is reasonable under the character setting of the film, even if corrupt officials in reality are greedy for money, they rarely appear directly to instruct their subordinates to take people's lives without saying a word.
And under today's anti-gang crime and evil eradication storm, like Mayor Yan in the film, all the way to the promotion is a small person who relies on buying and selling cultural relics, and it is difficult not to fall for his behavior of buying and selling cultural relics and bribing officials, how dare to commit crimes against the wind and instruct others to deliberately kill? But if the identity of Mayor Yan is replaced by a certain reclusive and high-ranking Hong Kong magnate, and the story of this film takes place in Hong Kong, I think many audiences will not feel abrupt.
Finally, the character combination of the three tomb robbers in the movie is really like the kind of jianghu brothers who came together because of an unexpected event in Hong Kong films in the 90s and did big things together.
The three brothers suffered from poverty and powerlessness when they were young, and seized the ill-gotten gains obtained from robbing the tomb to embark on the "road to success" to make a fortune, but many years later, the East Window incident and the love and hatred between the three made their seemingly unpunished and soaring criminal lives finally ushered in a tragic end for them without escaping.
There is an impressive plot in the movie, after the car accidentally fell off the cliff, Feng Shaofeng picked up a pistol and pointed it at his brother, but finally chose to shoot at the sky because he couldn't bear to shoot his brother. Director Mai obviously paid tribute to the police and bandit theme Hong Kong films of the 80s and 90s in this plot setting, but did not consider that under the current security environment in China, similar plots are basically impossible to occur in reality.
It is not that it is not advisable to learn from the ideas of Hong Kong films, after all, many classic Hong Kong films with police and bandit themes still make it difficult for many similar works to match the depth of human nature and hearty action scenes. However, the biggest problem of "Prosecutor Storm" is that this film does not "take its essence and remove its waste", but completely copy the Hong Kong film assembly line production and routine expression without thinking.
Such a film work is obviously difficult to meet the increasing viewing taste of mainland audiences, and even makes the future creation of the main theme film and television works face greater pressure and challenges.