It took ‘months’ to convince Donnie Yen to make The Prosecutor

A brand new Donnie Yen film is at all times a must-see occasion for motion followers. After wowing audiences in 2023 along with his function as Caine in John Wick: Chapter 4 and his wuxia epic Sakra (which he directed and starred in), in addition to his memorable semi-recent turns in Rogue One and the Ip Man collection, the Hong Kong legend is again with The Prosecutor, as soon as once more as each star and director.

Yen would be the first to let you know that this film is a departure from his traditional material — The Prosecutor is primarily a courtroom drama, though the star and director after all added his signature eye for motion and talent at display combating to the combination. Loosely based mostly on a real story, the film follows a former police officer who trades in his badge to start out a brand new profession as a prosecutor. However the justice-driven lawyer rapidly winds up at odds along with his new boss and colleagues when he believes the individual they’re prosecuting is harmless.

Whereas it might not totally ship on the thorny conflicts arrange by its intriguing premise, The Prosecutor is however a extremely competent and interesting style train, mixing grounded, high-octane motion sequences with the usual court-drama style. Polygon spoke with Yen on Zoom about how the mission got here collectively, how he was satisfied to take it on, and the way new expertise affords new alternatives for old-school methods of filming motion.

This interview has been edited for concision and readability.

Polygon: What you about The Prosecutor?

Donnie Yen: I used to be not in any respect. At first, when the corporate introduced it to me, I stated, “I do not know how to do that film. I do motion motion pictures. That’s my world. Why would you like me to do that?” They usually simply thought two issues. One, they actually felt how I dwell as an individual — they know me, it’s my mates — would make me good for that function.

Secondly, these are corporations I’ve labored with a number of instances prior to now, like on the Ip Man collection. They usually stated, “Oh, we have been prepping for the opposite motion pictures, Ip Man 5 in addition to Flash Level 2. We’re going to provide these movies, and the viewers needs to see these movies. However you’ve by no means finished a movie like [The Prosecutor]. Let’s give it a attempt.”

So it took two months for me to be satisfied. I stated, “I actually have to think about an angle to do that film. We watch tons of them, these sorts of subtle courtroom scenes. I’m going to do a movie combining the 2 components.” First, after all, is my core viewers. They need to see Donnie Yen motion. How do you mix them?

Two, I don’t need to create a world the place individuals get caught within the realism of the case itself, then rapidly you have got individuals flying round and kicking. I needed to make use of the case as extra of a driving drive of the movement. So when an individual’s within the motion, the viewers can really feel the emotion behind it. In the end, what I need to say is, the movie is about driving the viewers to synchronize their emotion with how I need them to react, in order that they get excited and emotionally hooked up to the story, fairly than the topic itself. We needed to put the motion scenes in diligently — we couldn’t simply throw in a bunch of motion scenes. The viewers must consider the characters have to go to these motion moments, in order that they have been very rigorously planted.

One thing that caught out to me about this movie and Sakra is the way you mix old-school martial arts movie strategies with new expertise — drones, POV motion sequences, and extra. What’s your philosophy on combining the 2, and what excites you about it?

I simply name it the strategy of telling a narrative via stylized digicam work. Within the old-school martial arts motion pictures, we didn’t have these sorts of selections. We had one digicam, a nonetheless digicam, and also you simply go about doing all of your combating. Again in these days, there have been no computer systems. I used to chop my movie with the old-school movie slicers. And now, after all, we’re coping with fashionable applied sciences — AI, telephones, and the whole lot.

I don’t prefer to rely on expertise until it’s actually mandatory. There was a scene within the center, in a nightclub with drone pictures, and it was all actual, not even one little bit of CGI to reinforce. I prepped the instructions, choreographed the actions. We spent a complete day capturing that and half of the evening going over it with the stuntman. After which the second half of the evening is having the drone cameraperson check the shot. And I obtained the shot. That’s what I needed, to return to fundamentals. So what I’m making an attempt to say is, in relation to filmmaking, I nonetheless consider in old-school actual emotion, whether or not it’s an [intellectual] expression of emotion or a bodily expression of emotion. They should be actual to be convincing, so the viewers may be engaged along with your storytelling.

You’re utilizing the brand new expertise that’s accessible to you, however you’re nonetheless targeted on wanting it in-camera, since you need it to really feel actual.

Completely. You must. Pictures come to me throughout the script course of. I’ll be going over a script with my writers or actors, and pictures are already being shaped in my head. It’s type of like a musician. Possibly as a result of I play piano or one thing. Some kind of musical rhythm that I’ve in my head brings these photos out.

The Prosecutor is now enjoying in theaters.